Music in the School

by Janet Mills

Overview

How do some schools get music so right while others get it so wrong? Janet Mills, a former HMI and teacher, draws on work in more than 800 schools and published research as she seeks to help schools improve their practice - no matter how good it is already. Successful teaching, she argues, is creative, uplifting, enabling, and, above all, rooted in music. The aim of this book is to 'Put the music back into music'.Thought-provoking, challenging, and empowering, this book is an essential read for all those interested in music in schools, including class teachers, instrumental teachers, and researchers. Using informative and entertaining examples and anecdotes, Janet Mills criticizes notions such as 'musical children' and 'musical schools', and comments on the roles of instrumental teachers and so-called 'non-specialists'. She explores how music in school can, and must, interact with music out of school, and considers how to measure progress in music - and how not to. Music in the
School is not a step-by-step guide to better teaching, but rather a springboard for consideration, reflection, and action. Anyone who cares about music at school will find this book a powerful tool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780193223035
Publisher:	Oxford University Press Music
Publication date:	10/13/2005
Series:	Oxford Music Education
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	9.15(w) x 6.34(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Dr Janet Mills began her career teaching music (and mathematics) in a comprehensive school in West Yorkshire. Subsequently, she was a teacher educator at Westminster College in Oxford and the University of Exeter. Her work as an HM Inspector of Schools included observation of more than 1000 instrumental lessons and the development and implementation - with instrumental teachers - of the first national system for inspecting Local Authority Instrumental Music Services. Along the way, she learnt violin and singing, and taught herself to play several other instruments. Janet Mills was a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music in London and in 2004 won a National Teaching Fellowship. She wrote Music in the School (2005), Music in the Primary School (1991), and many articles in books, magazines, and research journals.

Table of Contents

IntroductionAll change? Teaching music musicallyCreating, interpreting, and responding to musicMaking musicTeaching instruments musicallyHow not to teach music musicallyThe musical studentThe musical schoolWhat music? Making progress in musicThe other eighteen hoursWhy is music so boring? Learning from research