A paper written by Dan Isbell focuses on different physiological practices and how they relate to music education. Isbell explores behaviouralism, cognitivism, constructivism, the discovery method, and humanism, further looking into reflective practices and sensitivity to diverse learning environments. The paper expressed that there was no correct method to use all of the time but just positives and negatives to each practice. A good point brought up was that teachers need to be able to adapt to new information being presented. I liked the quote about how “When music educators become aware of their own learning styles, strengths, weaknesses, and areas of expertise, they can become more capable of enhancing the educational opportunities and options they provide in their classroom”(Isbell, 2011, p. 22 ). This showed me, that as a music educator I have to be aware of the changing education field. It showed me that I should not keep myself in a box of my ideas, but seek different learning experiences from others in the field, formally or informally. I was surprised by how many different ways there are to look at learning. The humanism style surprised me since the idea is that teachers go through and discuss class examples instead of a typical hand in and grade style of learning. This changed my assumption of how I could lead a classroom in terms of evaluation. For example, when having a composition assignment, my class could all together go through students' assignments and share things we liked and things to improve as a way to learn and receive feedback. I like how this form allows students to learn from each other. By sharing their ideas that can be an inspiration for other students. In my classroom I would probably assign the initial assignment, have the first due date the as a time to share with the class - their finished product (playing test, composition, or activity), and then a second due date to hand in a revised copy for a grade. Some challenges of this type of evaluation might be that students do not use the feedback that is given to them to improve their work. In this case I would have to adapt to the student I have in my classroom and find a way that helps my students learn. References
Isbell, D. (2011). Learning Theories: Insights for Music Educators. National Association for Music Education. 25(2) 19–23.
