Knowing the Children We Teach: Essays on Music Learning - Hardcover

by Danette Littleton (Author), Meryl Sole (Author)

Knowing The Children We Teach places children at the center of music learning and teaching. What we understand about children determines how we teach them: the music learning environments we provide and decisions we make about music content and skills. Unexpressed, but no less meaningful, is the interdependent relationship between music teacher and children. Recent trends in music education emphasize what children should know about music more than what music educators need to know about children. This book offers insight into the innate traits of children such as goodness, kindness, needs, spirituality, playfulness and wonder. Each essay is supported through research and features data from music teacher-participants. When we engage children musically, we have opportunities to nurture children's hearts, minds and spirits as well as our own.

Author Biography

Danette Littleton is a retired professor of music education and a former music teacher in elementary and preschools. She lectures and writes on children's musical development, specifically the relationship between music learning and play. Her first book When Music Goes to School: Perspectives on Learning and Teaching is available through Rowman and Littlefield.

Meryl Sole teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education at New York University and Teachers College, Columbia University. She is an active researcher who focuses on the musical lives of toddlers, musical parenting and popular music education.