With the new academic year comes renewed thinking and reflection on my practice; how my ideas and actions are embraced by my philosophies and ideals, and how I might seek to challenge my current ‘ways’ in considering new contexts and the influence of others. Such reflection has long characterised my approach to teaching and learning;…
Category: Pedagogy
The window and the mirror: Reflection on creative practice
And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to you yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of. William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar, Act 1 Scene 2 In this scene from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius suggests to Brutus that he knows things…
The music classroom is no ‘island’: BJME collective blogging project
There is some great discussion surrounding music education on Twitter emanating from the UK that I often engage with. It has been a constant source of reflection and I have gained many ideas and approaches that have found a home in my classroom in Australia. Recently, I noticed that the Music Teachers Association (MTA) have…
The ‘architecture’ of learning
What follows are some brief reflections on ‘cognitive load theory’ and learning more generally. I am really interested in others’ viewpoints on how CLT ‘fits’ within music education. Hopefully, this generates some discussion… What is learning? As we explore our individual responses to this question there are sure to be common threads that emerge. For…
Reframing cognitive processes in music ‘analysis’
Year 11 Music teachers in Queensland are now a few weeks into the new Music 2019 General Senior Syllabus. As those involved know, there is a significant shift in assessment practice in this syllabus, along with mandated subject matter, which together, will likely influence our considerations surrounding pedagogical approach. Though the syllabus brings with it…
Mr Tim Pani talks music analysis and evaluation…
In my last post I identified a ‘refined’ approach to thinking about analysing and evaluating music after a Year 12 lesson where things weren’t really working as planned. In the following lesson I implemented the new plan, and things seemingly went well. At the end of the lesson, I asked the students if they felt…
Musicology – starting where the music speaks to us…
I think about teaching the Musicology objective[i]a lot… and just when I think I’ve worked out the best way forward, I hit a stumbling block. You may have seen some evidence of this thinking (and the stumbling!) through previous posts (here, and here). I do not see them as failed attempts, but more so the…
The ‘art and science’ you will never master…
I am not talking about Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching… This is conveniently packaged ‘science’. This is not a criticism of his work – there are some well-tested, reliable strategies housed within his book (though I caution against the ‘effect sizes’ claims made from meta-analyses – but that’s another post!) – but it…
Working musically between making and responding
The Music 2019 General Senior Syllabus[i] will be implemented in the new year in Queensland, Australia, though many teachers have long begun preparation for the transition into this new document (and indeed system). There are some big systemic changes to the organisation of curriculum and assessment in every Year 11 and 12 subject, though we…
Two ‘Naughty’ ‘m’-words…
There are two ‘naughty’ words that I have encountered in conversation with teachers about teaching – one a little nostalgic, one more recent – and there is close association between them. The first – the nostalgic one – is ‘mongrel’. There, I said it. I started my teaching career at a ‘tough’ (but much beloved)…
Dr Cade Bonar 