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Oct 9, 2023 · The use of music therapy techniques has recently extended into the educational realm to help overcome learning difficulties, support emotional management, and assist students to develop necessary social skills. This is known as educational music therapy (EMT).
- Abstract
- The Music For Classroom Wellbeing Professional Learning Program
- Practice Principles
- Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the immense pressures faced by teaching professionals. Understanding the experiences teachers face is important for music therapists working in school settings who wish to implement music therapy programs with outcomes that are sustained without the music therapist present. Within this article, any pr...
First author Meg offered The Music for Classroom Wellbeing Professional Learning program to teachers at a culturally diverse primary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Meg’s introduction to the school community had taken place the year before through her role as a participatory observer in a research project exploring school arts programs...
Focus on the Teacher
The first principle that guided the practice of supporting teachers was to “focus on the teacher.” As discussed previously, music therapist teacher support programs have tended to foreground student needs rather than the needs of the teachers involved. Traditionally, music therapy teacher support programs commence by identifying the needs of students and subsequently addressing student needs through musical strategies. In contrast, this approach suggests that focusing directly on teachers can...
Focus on Teachers to Enrich Musicality
Teachers were supported to enrich their musicality throughout the program by developing confidence in playing and leveraging the affordances of music with their students. Consciously attempting to promote the enrichment of teachers’ musicality rather than training teachers to develop music skills was a new approach used in this program. While a subtle distinction, this shift is worthy of note as it marks a departure from the focus on training teachers to replicate musical activities or techni...
Focus on Teachers to Develop Inclusive Teaching Practices
Other teachers, typically those early in their career as educators, were supported to develop their inclusive teaching practices. Supporting teachers according to teacher practice standards is yet to be described in the music therapy literature base. This intention thus marks a change from previous music therapist teacher support programs in that the development of teacher pedagogical abilities was perceived by teachers as a valuable sustained outcome from the program, even if they did not re...
Music for Classroom Wellbeing Professional Learning was a teacher-focused process that enabled sharing of music, knowledge, and the personal across school communities. Actively focusing on teachers supported them to enrich musicality; develop inclusive, engaging, and reflexive teaching practices; and foster self-care. While it is not suggested that...
• Music therapy interventions utilized to foster positive attitudes about school. • How music therapy can improve individuals’ quality-of-life and how different strategies can maintain life-long learning.
- Elizabeth Berry
- Auditory Development and Language Skills. Music in the classroom offers significant benefits for auditory development and language skills, impacting students in ways that extend far beyond the music itself.
- Long-Term Brain Development and Health. Music education in the classroom has been shown to offer long-term benefits for brain development and health, a fact supported by various studies
- Improved Academic Performance. Music training in the classroom has been linked to enhanced academic performance and positive health outcomes, contributing significantly to the overall development of students
- Emotional and Behavioral Growth. Music in the classroom plays a pivotal role in improving emotional and behavioral growth in children, as evidenced by various studies
- Music speeds up learning. The 1960’s was the moment when scholars began to examine the possibility of increasing memory abilities with music. A series of creative experiments performed by Dr. Georgi Lozanov and Evelyna Gateva and their findings revolutionized teaching methodology.
- Music helps students to memorize learning material. To put it simply, when accompanied by music new information becomes easier to remember. Students can connect particular data to a rhythm, and then use their memory of musical elements to recall the information following their association.
- Music enriches learning experiences. Many teachers use music to serve as a soundtrack for various activities because it increases the interest of students in the learning material.
- Music motivates students to focus. Another great function of music in the classroom is that it impacts human emotions and mental states. It can set a rhythm to help students achieve a greater state of concentration.
Bringing the focus back to the classroom, the main place to find music therapy in the education setting is as a related service provided to students with a documented disability per IDEA. Like other therapies, music therapy is tailored to meet individual needs and provide appropriate supports.
People also ask
How can music therapy benefit students?
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Can music therapy be used in general education?
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The power of music to evoke an emotional response is used by advertising companies, film directors, and mothers singing their babies to sleep (Levitin 2006). Early education teachers are familiar with using music and rhythm as tools for learning language and building memory.
