MODULE1

THEBASIC CONCEPT OF ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION
Assessment of learning, achievement is the process of collecting, examining and using information
about what students know and can do, is the basis of effective teaching and learning.

The relationship between assessment, teaching and learning is dynamic and interactive. The act of
gathering, analyzing and using assessment information is integral to the teaching and learning
process – without worthwhile assessment information, you as future teachers can only be certain
that they have taught. They cannot be certain that their students have learned what they set out
to teach, or that the teaching is relevant to the students’ learning needs and interests.

When teachers have rich information about what their students know, can do and need to do next,
they are able to involve students as active participants in their learning and assessment of their
own learning. They are also in a position to consult parents and the school’s communities about
students’ progress.

IT’S ABOUT TIME TO READ THIS !

Assessment in Learning is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the
knowledge, skill, attitudes, and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. [2]

Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement
of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning.
[3]

Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. [4] Assessment can
focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group
of learners), a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole
(also known as granularity). The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after
the Second World War.[5]

As a continuous process, assessment establishes measurable and clear student learning outcomes
for learning, provisioning a sufficient amount of learning opportunities to achieve these outcomes,
implementing a systematic way of gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine
how well student learning matches expectations, and using the collected information to inform
improvement in student learning.[6]

The final purpose of assessment practices in education depends on the theoretical framework of
the practitioners and researchers, their assumptions and beliefs about the nature of human mind,
the origin of knowledge, and the process of learning.
The Real Purpose of Assessments in Education

Assessment is a key part of today’s educational system. Assessment serves as an individual

evaluation system, and as a way to compare performance across a spectrum and across
populations. However, with so many different kinds of assessments for so many different
organizations available (and often required) these days, it can sometimes be hard to keep the real
purpose of assessing in view. So, what’s really at the heart of all these assessments?

The purpose of assessment is to gather relevant information about student performance or

progress, or to determine student interests to make judgments about their learning process. After
receiving this information, teachers can reflect on each student’s level of achievement, as well as
on specific inclinations of the group, to customize their teaching plans.

Continuous assessment provides day-to-day feedback about the learning and teaching process.
Assessment can reinforce the efficacy of teaching and learning. It also encourages the
understanding of teaching as a formative process that evolves over time with feedback and input
from students. This creates good classroom rapport.

Student assessments are necessary because:

 Throughout a lesson or unit, the teacher might want to check for understanding by using a
formative assessment.
 Students who are experiencing difficulties in learning may benefit from the administration
of a diagnostic test, which will be able to detect learning issues such as reading
comprehension problems, an inability to remember written or spoken words, hearing or
speech difficulties, and problems with hand–eye coordination.
 Students generally complete a summative assessment after completing the study of a topic.
The teacher can determine their level of achievement and provide them with feedback on
their strengths and weaknesses. For students who didn’t master the topic or skill, teachers
can use data from the assessment to create a plan for remediation.
 Teachers may also want to use informal assessment techniques. Using self-assessment,
students express what they think about their learning process and what they should work
on. Using peer assessment, students get information from their classmates about what
areas they should revise and what areas they’re good at.

Assessment processes

Assessment information is collected to determine students’ achievement and their learning needs.
It provides a basis for the analysis of progress and achievement of students over time and assists
the diagnosis of individual learning needs.

Various terms are used to describe assessment processes and their particular purposes. The
purposes of assessment activities can be described as assessment of,assessment for,
and assessment in learning.

Assessment in learning refers to assessment processes that summarize and report students’

achievements at a given point in time. Usually known as summative assessment, assessment of
learning summarizes a student’s learning. This information should give teachers, school managers,
parents and students a dependable and sound summary of students’ progress and
accomplishments.
Assessment in learning, sometimes referred to as formative assessment, has been defined as “all
those activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students in assessing themselves, which
provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which
they are engaged.” [1] This assessment involves a close relationship between the teacher, the
student and the teaching and learning programme.

Assessment as learning describes the process of students monitoring their own learning and

progress. It occurs when students understand how they are learning and what they need to do to
improve. They can interpret their assessment information from different sources and use it to
make decisions about their own learning.

Each of these purposes of assessment is necessary at different times in students’ learning, or for
management of teaching and learning processes. Some assessment activities may be used for
more than one purpose at a time.

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

Teaching requires assessment, i.e., the evaluation of student understanding in light of the goals of
a lesson or a course. This is a broad definition, and indeed, there are many forms of assessment,
and all of them involve student work. That work can be graded or ungraded. It can take a few
minutes (as with the one-minute paper) or it can take weeks (as with the group project). It can ask
students to demonstrate understanding or skills acquisition through writing, the creation of a
product or presentation, or the ability to successfully accomplish some task. It can ask students to
demonstrate their understanding as individuals or as members of a group.

Student learning outcomes articulate what a student should know or can do after completing a
course or program. The assessment of student learning outcomes provides information that puts
student learning at the forefront of academic planning processes. At the University of Maryland,

the Provost’s Commission on Learning Outcomes Assessment provides the leadership and
organizational procedures for our engagement in such assessment.

No matter their form, assessments should reflect—and be determined by—the learning goals of a
lesson or a course. But linking goals to assessment can be tricky. If your goal is for students to
understand a concept, do you mean that they should be able to recall facts? Summarize
information? Apply information or predict consequences? Analyze or compare phenomena?
Generate models? Evaluate and justify arguments? Perhaps you want your students to be able to
demonstrate their understanding by doing a combination of these things. You should ask yourself
whether or not your assessments are related to the goals of the lesson or the course, e.g., are the
assessments measuring whether students have met the learning goals?

You might think of assessment as a multi-step process in which you:

1. Formulate a clear and succinct learning goal (or goals) for your students.
2. Articulate those learning goals to your students.
3. Decide what your students should be able to do if they have met those learning goals.
4. Develop an assessment instrument (a test, essay, project, etc.) and a scoring rubric.
5. Administer the assessment instrument to your students.
6. Evaluate your students’ performance on the assessment instrument.
 7. Assess your students’ mastery of the learning goals given their performance on the
assessment instrument.
8. Reflect on why students did or did not master the learning goals, and develop strategies
to help them be as or more successful in the future.

Assessments can be powerful contexts for student learning. They can help students in:

 understanding of a topic
 thinking about their own learning
 knowing or have learned in your class or in previous courses

The collection of assessment information

Assessment includes information gathered from a wide range of sources and at different points in
time. These sources can include:

 knowledge gained from parents about their child;

 teachers’ knowledge drawn from their day-to-day interactions with students;
 results from teacher-designed classroom and school-wide tests;
 assessment at school entry or transition points;
 results from national standardized assessment tools such as PATs (Progressive Achievement
Tests), asTTle (assessment tools for teaching and learning) or the national exemplars;
 examination results; and
 national qualification results such as those from NEAT.

The use of assessment information

Assessment information in schools is only beneficial to teaching and learning if it is analyzed and
used. Student achievement is likely to be enhanced if assessment information is used by teachers
and school leaders to:

 build students’ confidence and motivate them to make further progress;

 develop learning programmes that match students’ prior achievement and learning;
 identify the next learning steps for students;
 diagnose causes of learning difficulties to plan targeted teaching programmes;
 inform individual students and their parents about the progress or standard achieved;
 inform curriculum review and decisions about policy and resources and teachers’
professional development;
 provide information at transition points in students’ education (for example, between
primary and intermediate schools or as students move between schools of the same type);
 report to the local community; and
 report to and consult with the Māori community.

MODULE 2
The Role of Assessment in Instruction

Assessment in Instruction is most effective with an aligned system of standards,

curriculum, instruction, and strategy. When assessment is aligned with instruction, both students
and teachers benefit. Teachers are also able to focus, making the best use oftheir time. Learning
standardsdescribe educational objectives -what students should know and be able to do by the
end of a course or grade level -but they do not describe any particular teaching practice,
curriculum, or assessment.

Without instructional standards, districts and schools don’t have goals to shoot for. By
matching what is taught in the classroom to the standards in each subject area, students (and their
parents and teachers) will know what teachers should be teaching, what students should be
learning and what they will be tested on.

Curriculumprovides a "map" for how students will master the standards. Decisions about
what that map looks like are made by districts, schools, and teachers. This map includes the
materials (e.g. lesson plans, assignments, tests, resources) that will make instruction a success as
always. Assessmentsare the tools and methods educators use to what students know and are
able to do.

Assessment inspires us to ask these hard questions: "Are we teaching what we think we are
teaching?""Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?""Is there a way to teach
the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?"

Assessment is the systematic process of

collecting and interpreting information to make decisions about students. Classroom assessment is
a formal process that involves a deliberate effort to gain information about a student’s status in
relation to course content and objectives. This process includes a wide range of procedures and
has the ultimate goal of obtaining valid and reliable information on which to base educational
decisions.

While assessment is integral to instruction and learning, classroom assessment and grading
are generally acknowledged as the weak links in modern education. Despite the widespread use of
classroom achievement tests and the important role they play in the instructional process.

A comprehensive assessment plan involves several interacting processes. To maintain the

plan’s integrity, a methodical procedure, which is based on the principles of assessment, must be
designed and adhered to. In fact, having a defined methodology not only ensures that all steps are
followed; it also ensures that objectivity is maintained throughout the assessment process.

The Various Instrumentsused in Assessment

When planning assessment strategies,it is important that you choose the assessment
technique appropriate for the particular behavior being assessed.
Brookhart (1999) describes the following four categories of assessment instruments:
1.Paper-and-pencil (or computer-administered)
2.Performance assessments
3.Oral presentations
4.Portfolio assessment - A multidimensional approach is essential to assess all aspects of a
behavior.

Paper and Pencil:Paper-and-pencil instruments refer to a general group of assessment tools in

which candidates read questions and respond in writing. This includes tests, such as knowledge
and ability tests, and inventories, such as personality and interest inventories. Paper-and-pencil
tests can be used to assess job-related knowledge and ability or skill qualifications. The possible
range of qualifications which can be assessed using paper-and-pencil tests is quite broad. For
example, such tests can assess anything from knowledge of office procedures to knowledge of
federal legislation, and from the ability to follow directions to the ability to solve numerical
problems.

Performance Assessment:This assessment measures how well students apply their knowledge,
skills, and abilities to authentic problems. The key feature is that it requires the student to produce
something, such as a report, experiment, or performance, which is scored against specific criteria.A
good performance assessment can use simulations, as long as they are faithful to real-world
situations. (An example: In science class, technology can simulate plant growth or land erosion,
processes that take too long for a hands-on experiment.)

Oral Presentation: is a short talk on a set topic given to a tutorial or seminar group. In an oral
presentation one (or more) students give a talk to a tutorial group and present views on a topic
based on their readings or research. The rest of the group then joins in a discussion of the topic.

Depending on your course, giving an oral presentation can involve:

 reading background material

• preparing and delivering a talk
• leading a group discussion
• preparing handouts and visual aids
• preparing relevant and thought-provoking questions
• submitting a written assignment based on the presentation topic.

Presentation topics are usually scheduled early in the semester. You may be able to choose
your topic or one may be allocated to you. If you are able to choose a topic, select the one that you
have some questions about and that interests you the most. Your presentation may be given as an
individual or as part of a group.In some courses the oral presentation may be the basis for a
written assignment. Check with your tutor for details. There may be specific requirements you may
need to meet and these are usually detailed in your course outline or study guide.

Portfolio: This assessment consists of a body of student work collected over an extended period,
from a few weeks to a year or more. This work can be produced in response to a test prompt or
assignment but is often simply drawn from everyday classroom tasks. Frequently, portfolios also
contain an element of student reflection.

Portfolio is partly based on the Latin folium, meaning "leaf, sheet". A portfolio usually represents a
portable showcase of your talents. Today actual portfolios are used less than they used to be by
artists, since most commercial artists have a Web site dedicated to showing off their art. But
portfolio in its other common meaning is extremely common. In making your portfolio file
management is so important. Organize your file logically and make use of a simple Microsoft word
or try the very entertaining Powerpoint. All you have to do is to be creative and artistic in adding
colorful evidences like photos, images as well as videos.

Classroom Assessment Best Practices and Applications

 In its simplest form, classroom assessment is about collecting data, looking for mastery of
content, and guiding instruction. These things are more complex than they sound. Teachers will tell
you that they are time- consuming, often monotonous, and seemingly neverending.

All teachers are required to assess their students, but the good teachers understand that it
is more than just assigning grades for a report card. True classroom assessment shapes the ebb
and flows within a classroom. It drives daily instruction becoming the engine for not only what is
taught, but how it should be taught.

All teachers should be data-driven decision makers. Every individual assessment provides
critical data that can potentially provide us with another piece of the puzzle to maximize a single
student’s learning potential. Any time spent unwrapping this data will be a worthy investment to
see a dramatic increase in student learning.

Classroom assessment is not one of the glamorous aspects of being a teacher, but it may be
the most important. To put it simply, it is hard to know how to get somewhere you have never
been if you do not have a map or directions. Authentic classroom assessment can provide that
roadmap, allowing every student to be successful.

Utilize Standard Based Benchmark Assessments

Every teacher is required to teach specific standards or content based on subjects taught
and grade level. In the past, these standards have been developed by each state individually.
However, with the development of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation
Science Standards, many states will have shared standards for English Language Arts, Mathematics,
and Science.

Standards serve as a checklist for what is supposed to be taught throughout the school year.
They do not dictate the order in which they are taught or how they are taught. Those are left up to
the individual teacher.

Utilizing a benchmark assessment based on standards provides teachers with a baseline for
where students are individually as well as where the class is as a whole at selected checkpoints
throughout the year. These checkpoints are typically at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.
The assessments themselves should include at least two questions per standard. Teachers can
build a solid benchmark assessment by looking at previously released test items, searching online,
or creating aligned items themselves.

Focus on Diagnostic Data

There are lots of diagnostic programs available to assess individual student strengths and
weaknesses quickly and accurately. Too often, teachers get caught up in the big picture that these
assessments provide. Programs such as S.T.A.R Reading and S.T.A.R. Math provide grade-level
equivalency for students. Many times teachers see that a student is at/above grade level or below
grade level and stop there.

Diagnostic assessments provide so much more data than grade level equivalency. They provide
valuable data that allows teachers to quickly decipher individual student strengths and
weaknesses. Teachers who only look at grade level miss the fact that two seventh grade students
who test at the seventh-grade level may have holes in differing critical areas. The teacher may miss
the opportunity to fill these gaps before they become a hindrance down the road.

Provide Regular In-depth Feedback to Students

Individualized learning starts by providing continuous feedback. This communication should occur
daily in both written and verbal form. Students should be helped to understand their strengths and
weaknesses.

Teachers should utilize small group or individual meetings to work with students who are
struggling with specific concepts. Small group instruction should occur every day and individual
meetings should occur at least one time per week. Some type of feedback other than just a grade
should be provided for every daily assignment, homework, quiz, and test. Simply grading a paper
without reinforcing or re-teaching the incorrect concepts is a missed opportunity.

Goal setting is another essential part of the teacher-student collaboration. Students should
understand how the goals are tied to academic performance. Goals should be high, but attainable.
The goals and progress towards them should be discussed regularly, and reevaluated and adjusted
if necessary.

Understand that Every Assessment is Valuable

Every assessment provides a story. Teachers have to interpret that story and decide what they are
going to do with the information that it provides. An assessment must drive instruction. Individual
problems and/or whole assignments in which a majority of the class scores poorly should be re-
taught. It is okay to throw out an assignment, re-teach the concepts, and give the assignment
again.

Every assignment should be scored because of every assignment matters. If it does not matter, do
not waste the time to have your students do it. 

Standardized testing is another notable assessment that can provide valuable feedback year over
year. This is more beneficial to you as a teacher than it will be to your students because there is a
chance you will not have the same group of students two years in a row. Standardized test results
are tied to the standards. Evaluating how your students did on each standard allows you to make
adjustments in your classroom. 

Build On-Going Portfolios

Portfolios are tremendous assessment tools. They provide teachers, students, and parents with an
in-depth look into student progression over the course of an entire year. Portfolios naturally take
time to build but can be relatively easy if a teacher makes it a regular part of the classroom and
uses students to help keep up with them.

A portfolio should be kept in a three-ring binder. Teachers can create a checklist and place them in
front of each portfolio. The first part of each portfolio should include all diagnostic and benchmark
assessments taken over the course of the year.

The remainder of the portfolio should be made up of standard related assignments, quizzes, and
exams. The portfolio should include at least two daily assignments and one exam/quiz for each
standard. The portfolio would become an even more valuable assessment tool if students were
required to write a quick reflection/summary for each associated standard. Portfolios are the
purest form of assessment because they encompass pieces that add up to a whole.

Assessment in Practice

Although assessments are currently used for many purposes in the educational system, a
premise of this report is that their effectiveness and utility must ultimately be judged by the extent
to which they promote student learning. The aim of assessment should be “to educate and
improve student performance, not merely to audit it” (Wiggins, 1998, p.7).

To this end, people should gain important and useful information from every assessment
situation. In education, as in other professions, good decision making depends on access to
relevant, accurate, and timely information. Furthermore, the information gained should be put to
good use by informing decisions about curriculum and instruction and ultimately improving
student learning (Falk, 2000; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1995).

Assessments do not function in isolation; an assessment’s effectiveness in improving learning

depends on its relationships to curriculum and instruction. Ideally, instruction is faithful and
effective in relation to curriculum, and assessment reflects curriculum in such a way that it
reinforces the best practices in instruction.

In actuality, however, the relationships among assessment, curriculum, and instruction are not
always ideal. Often assessment taps only a subset of curriculum and without regard to instruction,
and can narrow and distort instruction in unintended ways (Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, and
Stecher, 2000; Koretz and Barron, 1998; Linn, 2000; National Research Council [NRC], 1999b).

Deciding What to Assess

Effective assessment practices begin with you as a teacher describing what learning looks like in
your course. Imagine your students upon completion of the course and complete the following
sentence: "By the end of the course, I want my students to be able to …" When defining what
learning looks like in your course, try to be as specific as possible. Concrete verbs such as define,
argue, solve, and create are more helpful for course planning than vague verbs such as know or
understand, or passive verbs such as be exposed to.

The questions below are good starting points for describing what learning looks like in your course
and for deciding how to assess this type of learning.

Guiding questions to determine which elements of learning to assess:

1. What kinds of content knowledge am I expecting students to demonstrate and at what

level?
2. What aspects of thinking do I want students to develop in my course and demonstrate
through course assessments?
3. Are there professional skills or attitudes that I expect students to develop in my course?

Keep in mind that a test or an assignment is a valid measurement only if it will elicit from your
students the kind of learning you want to measure. Figure 1 shows some examples of various kinds
of learning that can be assessed in university courses.
Various Assessment Strategies and Tips for Teachers

1. An open-ended question that gets them writing/talking

Avoid yes/no questions and phrases like “Does this make sense?” In response to these questions,
students usually answer ‘yes.’ So, of course, it’s surprising when several students later admit that
they’re lost.

To help students grasp ideas in class, ask open-ended questions that require students that get
students writing/talking. They will undoubtedly reveal more than you would’ve thought to ask
directly.

2. Ask students to reflect

During the last five minutes of class ask students to reflect on the lesson and write down what
they’ve learned. Then, ask them to consider how they would apply this concept or skill in a
practical setting.

3. Use quizzes

Give a short quiz at the end of class to check for comprehension.

4. Ask students to summarize

Have students summarize or paraphrase important concepts and lessons. This can be done orally,
visually, or otherwise.

5. Hand signals

Hand signals can be used to rate or indicate students’ understanding of content. Students can
show anywhere from five fingers to signal maximum understanding to one finger to signal minimal
understanding. This strategy requires engagement by all students and allows the teacher to check
for understanding within a large group.

6. Response cards

Index cards, signs, whiteboards, magnetic boards, or other items are simultaneously held up by all
students in class to indicate their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher.
Using response devices, the teacher can easily note the responses of individual students while
teaching the whole group.

7. Four corners

A quick and easy snapshot of student understanding, Four Corners provides an opportunity for
student movement while permitting the teacher to monitor and assess understanding.

The teacher poses a question or makes a statement. Students then move to the appropriate corner
of the classroom to indicate their response to the prompt. For example, the corner choices might
include “I strongly agree,” “I strongly disagree,” “I agree somewhat,” and “I’m not sure.”

8. Think-pair-share
Students take a few minutes to think about the question or prompt. Next, they pair with a
designated partner to compare thoughts before sharing with the whole class.

9. Choral reading

Students mark text to identify a particular concept and chime in, reading the marked text aloud in
unison with the teacher. This strategy helps students develop fluency; differentiate between the
reading of statements and questions; and practice phrasing, pacing, and reading dialogue.

10. One question quiz

Ask a single focused question with a specific goal that can be answered within a minute or two.
You can quickly scan the written responses to assess student understanding.

11. Socratic seminar

Students ask questions of one another about an essential question, topic, or selected text. The
questions initiate a conversation that continues with a series of responses and additional
questions. Students learn to formulate questions that address issues to facilitate their own
discussion and arrive at a new understanding.

12. 3-2-1

Students consider what they have learned by responding to the following prompt at the end of the
lesson: 3) things they learned from your lesson; 2) things they want to know more about; and 1)
questions they have. The prompt stimulates student reflection on the lesson and helps to process
the learning.

13. Ticket out the door

Students write in response to a specific prompt for a short period of time. Teachers collect their
responses as a “ticket out the door” to check for students’ understanding of a concept taught. This
exercise quickly generates multiple ideas that could be turned into longer pieces of writing at a
later time.

14. Journal reflections

Students write their reflections on a lesson, such as what they learned, what caused them
difficulty, strategies they found helpful, or other lesson-related topics. Students can reflect on and
process lessons. By reading student work–especially —types of learning journals that help students
think–teachers can identify class and individual misconceptions and successes. (See also

15. Formative pencil–paper assessment

Students respond individually to short, pencil–paper formative assessments of skills and

knowledge taught in the lesson. Teachers may elect to have students self-correct. The teacher
collects assessment results to monitor individual student progress and to inform future instruction.

Both student and teacher can quickly assess whether the student acquired the intended
knowledge and skills. This is a formative assessment, so a grade is not the intended purpose.
16. Misconception check

Present students with common or predictable misconceptions about a concept you’re covering.
Ask them whether they agree or disagree and to explain why.

17. Analogy prompt

Teaching with analogies can be powerful. Periodically, present students with an analogy prompt:
“the concept being covered is like ____ because ____.”

18. Practice frequency

MODULE 2

A Philosophy of Music Education refers to the value of music, the value of teaching music, and how
to practically utilize those values in the music classroom. It is the study of fundamental questions
about the nature and value of music and our experience of it Music is invaluable to human culture.
It is a part of people's daily lives around the world. It allows people to connect with each other and
with themselves to discover a deeper meaning of human emotions and interactions. Music
Education is a necessary means by which all students can express themselves and discover their
own emotions. Music classes give students opportunities to grow emotionally, mentally, and
physically while also providing a support system of peers. Music Education provides necessary life
skills such as self-discipline, self-expression, responsibility, patience, and teamwork. Music
Education is a way to instill a love of music that will carry on for the rest of students’ lives.

Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches
on all learning domains, including the psychomotor domain (the development of skills), the
cognitive domain (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular and significant ways, the
affective domain (the learner's willingness to receive, internalize, and share what is learned),
including music appreciation and sensitivity. Music training from preschool through post-secondary
education is common in most nations because involvement with music is considered a
fundamental component of human culture and behavior. Music, like language, is an
accomplishment that distinguishes humans as a species.

Music education is a field of practice, in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or
secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. As well, music
education is a research area in which scholars do original research on ways of teaching and
learning music. Music education scholars publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, and
teach undergraduate and graduate education students at university education or music schools,
who are training to become music teachers.

Music education touches on all learning domains, including the psychomotor domain (the
development of skills), the cognitive domain (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular and
the affective domain (the learner's willingness to receive, internalize, and share what is learned),
including music appreciation and sensitivity. Many music education curriculums incorporate the
usage of mathematical skills as well fluid usage and understanding of a secondary language or
culture. The consistency of practicing these skills has been shown to benefit students in a
multitude of other academic areas as well as improving performance on standardized tests such as
the ACT and SAT. Music training from preschool through post-secondary education is common
because involvement with music is considered a fundamental component of human culture and
behavior. Cultures from around the world have different approaches to music education, largely
due to the varying histories and politics. Studies show that teaching music from other cultures can
help students perceive unfamiliar sounds more comfortably, and they also show that musical
preference is related to the language spoken by the listener and the other sounds they are
exposed to within their own culture. Major international music education methods

Dalcroze Method The method is divided into three fundamental concepts − the use of solfège,
improvisation, and eurhythmics. Sometimes referred to as "rhythmic gymnastics," eurhythmics
teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the
concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical
awareness and experience of music through training that engages all of the senses, particularly
kinesthetic. According to the Dalcroze method, music is the fundamental language of the human
brain and therefore deeply connected to who we are. American proponents of the Dalcroze
method include Ruth Alperson, Ann Farber, Herb Henke, Virginia Mead, Lisa Parker, Martha
Sanchez, and Julia Schnebly-Black. Many active teachers of Dalcroze method were trained by Dr.
Hilda Schuster who was one of the students of Dalcroze.

Kodály Method

his teachings reside within a fun, educational framework built on a solid grasp of basic music
theory and music notation in various verbal and written forms. Kodály's primary goal was to instill
a lifelong love of music in his students and felt that it was the duty of the child's school to provide
this vital element of education. Some of Kodály's trademark teaching methods include the use of
solfège hand signs, musical shorthand notation (stick notation), and rhythm solmization
(verbalization). Most countries have used their own folk music traditions to construct their own
instruction sequence, but the United States primarily uses the Hungarian sequence. The work of
Denise Bacon, Katinka S. Daniel, John Feierabend, Jean Sinor, Jill Trinka, and others brought
Kodaly's ideas to the forefront of music education in the United States.

Orff Schulwerk Orff considers the whole body a percussive instrument and students are led to
develop their music abilities in a way that parallels the development of western music. The
approach fosters student self-discovery, encourages improvisation, and discourages adult
pressures and mechanical drill. Carl Orff developed a special group of instruments, including
modifications of the glockenspiel, xylophone, metallophone, drum, and other percussion
instruments to accommodate the requirements of the Schulwerk courses. Experts in shaping an
American-style Orff approach include Jane Frazee, Arvida Steen, and Judith Thomas

Suzuki method

The movement rests on the double premise that "all children can be well educated" in music, and
that learning to play music at a high level also involves learning certain character traits or virtues
which make a person's soul more beautiful. The primary method for achieving this is centered
around creating the same environment for learning music that a person has for learning their
native language. This 'ideal' environment includes love, high-quality examples, praise, rote training
and repetition, and a time-table set by the student's developmental readiness for learning a
particular technique. While the Suzuki Method is quite popular internationally, within Japan its
influence is less significant than the Yamaha Method, founded by Genichi Kawakami in association
with the Yamaha Music Foundation.

Other Notable Methods

Gordon's music learning theory

It provides music teachers with a comprehensive framework for teaching musicianship through
audiation, Gordon's term for hearing music in the mind with understanding and comprehension
when the sound is not physically present. The sequence of instructions is discrimination learning
and inference learning. Discrimination Learning, the ability to determine whether two elements
are the same or not the same using aural/oral, verbal association, partial synthesis, symbolic
association, and composite synthesis. With inference learning, students take an active role in their
own education and learn to identify, create, and improvise unfamiliar patterns. The skills and
content sequences within the audiation theory help music teachers establish sequential curricular
objectives in accord with their own teaching styles and beliefs. There also is a learning theory for
newborns and young children in which the types and stages of preparatory audiation are outlined.

Carabo-Cone method

This early-childhood approach, sometimes referred to as the sensory-motor approach to music,

was developed by the violinist Madeleine Carabo-Cone. This approach involves using props,
costumes, and toys for children to learn basic musical concepts of staff, note duration, and the
piano keyboard. The concrete environment of the specially planned classroom allows the child to
learn the fundamentals of music by exploring through touch.

6 Philosophers of Music Education

1. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (6 July 1865 – 1 July 1950) was a Swiss composer, musician, and music
educator who developed Dalcroze eurhythmics, an approach to learning and experiencing music
through movement. Dalcroze eurhythmics influenced Carl Orff's pedagogy, used in music
education throughout the United States.[ Dalcroze's method teaches musical concepts, often
through movement. The variety of movement analogues used for musical concepts develop an
integrated and natural musical expression in the student. Turning the body into a well-tuned
musical instrument—Dalcroze felt—was the best path for generating a solid, vibrant musical
foundation. The Dalcroze method consists of three equally important elements: eurhythmics,
solfège, and improvisation.[1] Together, according to Dalcroze, they comprise the essential training
of a complete musician. In an ideal approach, elements from each subject coalesce, resulting in an
approach to teaching rooted in creativity and movement. Dalcroze began his career as a
pedagogue at the Geneva Conservatory in 1892, where he taught harmony and solfège. It was in
his solfège courses that he began testing many of his influential and revolutionary pedagogical
ideas. Between 1903 and 1910, Dalcroze had begun giving public presentations of his method.[2]
In 1910, with the help of German industrialist Wolf Dohrn, Dalcroze founded a school at Hellerau,
outside Dresden, dedicated to the teaching of his method. Many musicians flocked to Hellerau,
among them Prince Serge Wolkonsky, Vera Alvang (Griner), Valeria Cratina, Jelle Troelstra (son of
Pieter Jelles Troelstra), Inga and Ragna Jacobi, Albert Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's brother), Jeanne de
Salzmann, Mariam Ramberg, Anita Berber, and Placido de Montelio. With the outbreak of World
War I in 1914, the school was abandoned. After the Second World War, his ideas were taken up as
"music and movement" in British school

2. CarlOrff German: [ˈɔɐ̯ f]; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982)[1] was a German composer and music
educator best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937).[3] The concepts of his Schulwerk
were influential for children's music education. Orff is best known for Carmina Burana (1936), a
"scenic cantata". It is the first part of a trilogy that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di
Afrodite. Carmina Burana reflected his interest in medieval German poetry. The trilogy as a whole
is called Trionfi, or "Triumphs". The composer described it as the celebration of the triumph of the
human spirit through sexual and holistic balance. The work was based on thirteenth-century
poetry found in a manuscript dubbed the Codex latinus monacensis found in the Benedictine
monastery of Benediktbeuern in 1803 and written by the Goliards; this collection is also known as
Carmina Burana. While "modern" in some of his compositional techniques, Orff was able to
capture the spirit of the medieval period in this trilogy, with infectious rhythms and simple
harmonies. The medieval poems, written in Latin and an early form of German, are often racy, but
without descending into smut. "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi", commonly known as "O Fortuna",
from Carmina Burana, is often used to denote primal forces, for example in the Oliver Stone film
The Doors.[24] The work's association with fascism also led Pier Paolo Pasolini to use the
movement "Veris leta facies" to accompany the concluding scenes of torture and murder in his
final film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom With the success of Carmina Burana, Orff disowned all of
his previous works except for Catulli Carmina and the Entrata (an orchestration of "The Bells" by
William Byrd (1539–1623)), which he rewrote.[ Later on, however, many of these earlier works
were released (some even with Orff's approval). Carmina Burana was so popular that Orff received
a commission in Frankfurt to compose incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which
was supposed to replace the banned music by Mendelssohn. After several performances of this
music, he claimed not to be satisfied with it, and reworked it into the final version that was first
performed in 1964.

3.Zoltán Kodály (/ˈkoʊdaɪ/; Hungarian: Kodály Zoltán, pronounced [ˈkodaːj ˈzoltaːn]; 16

December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue,
linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.
Throughout his adult life, Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music
education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods as well as composing
plenty of music intended for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague Jenő Ádám
(14 years his junior), he embarked on a long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's
lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books.
The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for what is
called the "Kodály Method". While Kodály himself did not write down a comprehensive method, he
did establish a set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely
taken up by pedagogues (above all in Hungary, but also in many other countries) after World War
II. See also: Kodály Hand Signs..

4. Bennett Reimer (June 19, 1932 – November 18, 2013) was an American music educator. He held
the John W. Beattie Endowed Chair in Music at Northwestern University from 1978 until
retirement in 1997, where he was Chair of the Music Education Department, Director of the Ph.D.
program in Music Education, and founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Education
and the Musical Experience, a research group of Ph.D. students and faculty. A native of New York
City where he was born in 1932 he was on the faculties of Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio (1965–1978) where he held the Kulas Endowed Chair in Music and was Chair of
the Music Education Department; the University of Illinois, Urbana (1960–1965); Madison College,
Harrisonburg, Virginia (1958–1960); and the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of
William and Mary, (1955–1957).

5. Shinichi Suzuki

(鈴木 鎮一, Suzuki Shin'ichi, 17 October 1898 – 26 January 1998) was a Japanese musician,
philosopher, and educator and the founder of the international Suzuki method of music education
and developed a philosophy for educating people of all ages and abilities. Considered an influential
pedagogue in music education of children, he often spoke of the ability of all children to learn
things well, especially in the right environment, and of developing the heart and building the
character of music students through their music education. Before his time, it was rare for children
to be formally taught classical instruments from an early age and even more rare for children to be
accepted by a music teacher without an audition or entrance examination. Not only did he
endeavor to teach children the violin from early childhood and then infancy, his school in
Matsumoto did not screen applicants for their ability upon entrance Suzuki was also responsible
for the early training of some of the earliest Japanese violinists to be successfully appointed to
prominent western classical music organizations.

6. Edwin Gordon

Edwin Gordon music learning theory is a model for music education based on Edwin Gordon's
research on musical aptitude and achievement in the greater field of music learning theory. The
theory is an explanation of music learning, based on and students' individual musical differences.
The theory uses the concepts of discrimination and inference learning to explain tonal, rhythmic,
and harmonic patterns