Multiple Constituent Mentoring: A Policy for Capitalizing on Authentic Learning Contexts in University Curricula

The Status of Music Education Conducting Curricula, Practices, and Values

“…Conducting courses, when successfully coordinated with the larger music education curriculum, could be a powerful venue for practicing and synergizing essential knowledge and skills in authentic teaching/learning environments (Berg, 2014). Authentic context learning (ACL) opportunities in conducting should be a natural extension of the conducting coursework for music education majors (Abrahams, 2011; Fant, 1996; Haston & Russell, 2012a). Such experiences should give students multiple opportunities to think, feel, and act both like teachers and conductors, putting PCK into practice (Ballantyne & Packer, 2004; Haston & Russell, 2012b; Varvarigou & Durrant, 2011).…”

“…Such experiences should give students multiple opportunities to think, feel, and act both like teachers and conductors, putting PCK into practice (Ballantyne & Packer, 2004;Haston & Russell, 2012b;Varvarigou & Durrant, 2011). Possible authentic conducting and rehearsing experiences could include conducting elementary or secondary school groups in collaboration with methods course-based student internships (Abrahams, 2011;Fant, 1996;Haston & Russell, 2012a), String Project teaching (Goldie, 2013) or other forms of outreach ensembles, or student teaching placements. Forrester (2018) suggested that professional training should promote the integrated form of teacher-conductor knowledge that develops in professional practice.…”