Fertile Ground in Middle Level General Music

Collaborative Reflection-on-Action as a Catalyst for Change in Middle-Level General Music

“…In the framework, these pedagogical adjectives surround a core emphasis on developing a classroom community centered on the multiple and varied needs and identities of young adolescents (see Figure 1). While these ideas may seem obvious to many music educators, Cronenberg (2019Cronenberg ( , 2022 has found in her research that many music teachers struggle to achieve this kind of learning environment in middle-level general music despite successfully achieving similar Source: First published in Cronenberg, 2022. classroom environments in elementary general music or in middle-level ensemble classroom settings. Thus, the Fertile Ground Framework is designed to make practicing music teachers aware of what they already do well in other contexts to apply these curricular and pedagogical skills to the middle-level general music context.…”

“…As scholars, we wonder if these adjectives are implicit or, alternatively, if they require more time to enact. Perhaps these adjectives cannot be embodied until teachers first address issues with engagement, motivation, and active learning (see Cronenberg, 2022). However, despite the COVID-19 shutdown, each teacher's shift back to focusing on young adolescent needs suggests that the center of the framework is critical to successful student engagement in middle-level general music.…”

“…While these musical activities may be common in many elementary and middle-level general music classrooms, for these music teachers some of these activities were either new or had never been considered for use with fifth-to eighth-grade students. The first author specifically selected both new and familiar activities, suggested by music teachers in another study (see Cronenberg, 2022) for the purpose of critique and conversation. 4.…”