Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T09:23:11.044Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learner agency: To understand and to be understood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Deborah V. Blair
Deborah V. Blair*
Affiliation:
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What began as an exploration of student learning while listening to music evolved into a study of learner agency in a music classroom. Whilst students used and developed strategies that enabled their own success while listening to, performing and creating music, it became evident that they were proactively seeking musical understanding and growth in their own musicianship. Their intense desire to share their musical ideas and to be valued for their role in the music learning community within the classroom illustrated the learners’ agency for affirmation and valuing of self and others. These qualities are closely connected to the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) and perezhivanie (Mahn & John-Steiner, 2000, 2002; Mahn, 2003). As educators may seek to enable students to grow in conceptual understanding (competence) and self-efficacy (confidence), a reflexive relationship occurs as students, too, seek to grow in musicianship (competence) and to be valued for who they are (confidence).

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , July 2009 , pp. 173 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AKUNO, E. A. (2006) African traditional music in modern education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels: Lessons from Kenya. Paper presented at the 15th MISTEC Seminar, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
BAMBERGER, J. (1991) The Mind Behind the Musical Ear. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
BAMBERGER, J. (1999) ‘Learning from the children we teach’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 142, 48–74.Google Scholar
BANDURA, A. (1977) ‘Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change’, Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARRETT, M. (1997) Invented notations: a view of young children's musical thinking. Research Studies in Music Education, 8, 1–10. Retrieved 20 July 1997 from www.arts.uwa.edu.au/circme/rsme/research.htmCrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARRETT, M. (2001) ‘Constructing a view of children's meaning-making as notators: a case-study of a five-year-old's descriptions and explanations of invented notations’, Research Studies in Music Education, 16, 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARRETT, M. (2002) ‘Invented notations and mediated memory: a case study of two children's use of invented notations’, Bulletin for the Council for Research in Music Education, 153 (4), 55–62.Google Scholar
BARRETT, M. (2004) ‘Thinking about the representation of music: a case study of invented notation’, Bulletin for the Council for Research in Music Education, 161/162, 19–28.Google Scholar
BELENKY, M., CLINCHY, B., GOLDBERGER, N. & TARULE, J. (1986/1997) Women's Ways of Knowing. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
BLAIR, D. V. (2006) Look at what I heard! Music listening and student-created musical maps. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.Google Scholar
BLAIR, D. V. (2007) ‘Musical maps as narrative inquiry’, International Journal of Education and the Arts, 8 (15). http://www.ijea.org/v8n15/.Google Scholar
BLAIR, D. V. (2008) ‘Do you hear what I hear? Musical maps and felt pathways of musical understanding’, Visions of Research in Music Education (11). http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme/.Google Scholar
BRUNER, J. (1966) Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
BRUNER, J. (1996) The Culture of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CAMERON, L., WIGGINS, R., WIGGINS, J. & BARTEL, L. (2002) Implications of generalist teachers’ self-efficacy related to music. Paper presented at the 13th International MISTEC Seminar, Malmo, Sweden.Google Scholar
COHEN, V. W. (1980) The emergence of musical gestures in kindergarten children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
COHEN, V. W. (1997) ‘Explorations of kinaesthetic analogues for musical schemes’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 131, 1–13.Google Scholar
COHEN, V. W. (2001) Entry into the musical experience: can it be facilitated? The kinaesthetic roots of musical thinking and their role in intuitive reflection in music teaching and learning. Unpublished manuscript, Jerusalem Academy, Israel.Google Scholar
CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
DAVIDSON, L. & SCRIPP, L. (1988) ‘Young children's musical representations: windows on cognition’, in Sloboda, J. A. (Ed.), Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology or Performance, Improvisation, and Composition (pp. 195–230). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
DAVIS, S. G. (2005) ‘‘That thing you do!’ Compositional processes of a rock band’, International Journal of Education and the Arts, 6 (16). Retrieved 10 December 2005 from http://ijea.asu.edu/v6n16/.Google Scholar
DECI, E. & RYAN, R. (2000) ‘The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits’, Psychology Inquiry, 11, 227–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DETURK, M. (1989) ‘Critical and creative musical thinking’, in Boardman, E. (Ed.), Dimensions of Musical Thinking (pp. 21–32). Reston, VA: MENC.Google Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1902) The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1916) Democracy and Education. New York: McMillan.Google Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1938/1998) Experience and Education. West Lafayette, IN: Kappa Delta Pi.Google Scholar
DUNN, R. E. (1997) ‘Creative thinking and music listening’, Research Studies in Music Education, 8, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DUNN, R. E. (2004) Listening to music intuitively: A lifelong endeavor. Paper presented at MENC: Music Educators National Conference, Minneapolis, MN.Google Scholar
DUNN, R. E. (2005) ‘Lifelong listening: Enhancing the intuitive ways we listen to music’, International Journal of Community Music, 2. Retrieved 10 June 2005, from http://education.nyu.edu/music/meducation/ijcm/articles/dunn.html.Google Scholar
ESPELAND, M. (1987) ‘Music in use: Responsive music listening in the primary school’, British Journal of Music Education, 4, 283–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EVELEIN, F. (2006) ‘Pop and world music in Dutch music education’, International Journal of Music Education, 24, 178–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIPPS, C. (2002) ‘Sociocultural perspectives on assessment’, in Wells, G. & Claxton, G. (Eds), Learning for Life in the 21st Century: Social Perspectives on the Future of Education (pp. 73–83). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GLASSER, W. (1998) Choice Theory. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2002) How Popular Musicians Learn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2006) ‘Popular music education in and for itself, and for ‘other’ music’, International Journal of Music Education, 24, 101–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GREENE, M. (1995) Releasing the Imagination. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.Google Scholar
KERCHNER, J. L. (1996) Perceptual and affective components of the music listening experience made manifest through children's verbal, visual, and kinesthetic responses. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
KERCHNER, J. L. (2000) ‘Children's verbal, visual, and kinesthetic responses: insight into their music listening experience’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 146, 31–50.Google Scholar
KERCHNER, J. L. (2004) A world of sound to know and feel: Exploring children's verbal, visual, and kinesthetic responses to music. Paper presented at the 14th International MISTEC Seminar, Granada, Spain.Google Scholar
KIM, J.-H. (2006) ‘For whom the school bell tolls’, International Journal of Education and the Arts, 7. Retrieved 20 August 2006 from http://ijea.asu.edu/v7n6/.Google Scholar
KINDER, K. & HARLAND, J. (2004) ‘The arts and social inclusion’, National Foundation for Education Research: Support for Learning, 19 (2), 52–6.Google Scholar
KOHN, A. (1999) Punished by Rewards. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
LINCOLN, Y. S. & GUBA, E. G. (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MAHN, H. (2003) ‘Periods in child development: Vygotsky's perspective’, in Kozulin, A., Gindis, B., Ageyev, V. & Miller, S. (Eds), Vygotsky's Educational Theory in Cultural Context (pp. 119–37). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MAHN, H. & JOHN-STEINER, V. (2000) Developing the affective ZPD. Paper presented at III Conference for Sociocultural Research, San Paulo, Brazil. Retrieved 3 December 2007. http://wwwfae.unicamp.br/br2000/indit.htmGoogle Scholar
MAHN, H. & JOHN-STEINER, V. (2002) ‘The gift of confidence: A Vygotskian view of emotions’, in Wells, G. & Claxton, G. (Eds), Learning for Life in the 21st Century (pp. 46–58). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MASLOW, A. (1943) ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, 50, 370–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOLL, L. C. (1990) Vygotsky and Education. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MORRISON, M., BURTON, B. & O'TOOLE, J. (2006) ‘Reengagement through peer teaching drama’, in Burnard, P. & Hennessy, S. (Eds), Reflective Practices in Arts Education (pp. 139–48). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
REIMER, B. (2003) A Philosophy of Music Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
ROGOFF, B. (1990) Apprenticeship in Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROGOFF, B. & WERTSCH, J. (Eds) (1984) Children's Learning in the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
SEIFRIED, S. (2006) ‘Exploring outcomes of rock and popular music instruction in high school guitar class’, International Journal of Music Education, 24, 168–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STANTON, A. (1996) ‘Reconfiguring teaching and knowing in the college classroom’, in Goldberger, N., Tarule, J., Clinchy, B. & Belenky, M. (Eds), (Knowledge, Difference, and Power (pp. 1–56). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
SWANWICK, K. (1999) Teaching Music Musically. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UPITIS, R. (1987) ‘A child's development of music notation through composition: A case study’, Arts and Learning Research, 5, 102–19.Google Scholar
UPITIS, R. (1990) ‘Children's invented notations of familiar and unfamiliar melodies’, Psychomusicology, 9, 89–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UPITIS, R. (1992) Can I Play you my Song? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
VYGOTSKY, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
WIGGINS, J., BLAIR, D., RUTHMANN, A. & SHIVELY, J. (2006) ‘A heart to heart about music education practice’, Mountain Lake Reader, 4, 82–91.Google Scholar