I really enjoyed the ukulele workshop. I have a little bit of experience with playing, but I’d never tried to teach someone, and it was never taught in my school. I came away from this with a greater appreciation for the instrument’s accessibility and potential for creative development. It was also really cool to hear from teachers that had implemented a ukulele program in their schools. If I end up teaching in a school, it’s nice to have these educational tools to rely on.
Based on what I learned from Dr. Kruse, a good way to introduce the ukulele to a class would follow these general steps:
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When reading through the article, there were a couple of concepts and moments that stood out to me.
I’m not familiar with the concept of “practitioner research” (Rose & Countryman, 2013, p. 53), but it’s a concept that I can fully get behind. I can see how this wouldn’t work in every field, but it makes perfect sense that the person conducting the research also be fully immersed and have experience in that field. Like in the article, some of the research points end up being anecdotal, but that just makes it easier to read, in my opinion. Their re-framing of the elements in their students’ terms sparked a sense of connection for me- the “quirky smiles, wide-eyed surprise, and spontaneous laughter” (Rose & Countryman, 2013, p. 57) were all things I had noticed not only in myself when I listened to music, but in others as well. I’d never given those gestures in-depth thought before, and it’s eye-opening to see them in an educational light. I felt another moment of connection when I read ““But just teach us how to teach music!” some teacher candidates implore us…” (Rose & Countryman, 2013, p. 52) because that’s certainly the mindset I had coming into university. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that that’s not how it’s done. Being encouraged to ask questions and think critically about the educational systems we take part in is not what I expected from either this class or this reading, but as society continues to evolve, the importance of doing so grows. Some of the language they used to describe the existing system were off-putting to me. For example, their description of the elements as “a framework of dominance, denying diversity, access, and individual agency” (Rose & Countryman, 2013, p. 45) caught me off guard. The words felt a little too harsh for the situation. But as I continued reading, their harshness made more and more sense to me. It’s obvious that Rose and Countryman are not the first ones to bring up this concept. So then why is the old system still in place? I’ve always placed great value in listening to and learning from those more experienced than I. I would love to learn more from these authors and hear more of their classroom experiences. Moving forward, I will try my best to continue to think critically about the educational systems in place and will ask myself what I can do to enact positive change. Bibliography Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning ‘the elements’: How students talk about music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 12(3), 45– 64. |
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