Stagione 1
Essential Question How can music teacher preparation programs help future educators design performances that invite audiences into meaningful musical experiences?
Flow theory, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi beginning in the mid-1970s, describes a state of complete absorption in an activity that is intrinsically rewarding and pursued for its own sake (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, 1990). Individuals in flow report merged action and awareness, a clear sense of what needs to be done, loss of self-consciousness, a distorted sense of time, and enjoyment so strong that people will engage in the activity even at considerable cost simply for the experience itself. Because flow arises when perceived challenge and perceived skill are both high and closely matched, it has become a productive framework for understanding motivation, engagement, and optimal performance across a wide range of domains, including sport, work, and creative production.
Essential Question How can music teacher preparation programs help future educators understand performance as an act of musical communication rather than primarily as a demonstration of technical achievement?
Essential Question How can music teacher preparation programs help future educators develop the confidence, judgment, and practical experience needed to create music and facilitate the creative work of others?
Essential Question How should music teacher preparation programs develop future educators who can learn and teach music by ear as confidently as they use notation?
Essential Question What kind of musician should music teacher preparation programs develop for the profession of music education?
This first class meeting will prepare you to begin your Internship II field experience. We will review course expectations, placements, professional communication, GoReact evidence assignments, lesson planning, and Anthology hour requirements. You will also participate in a hands-on ukulele teaching activity focused on basic instructional delivery, including giving clear directions, modeling, checking for understanding, providing feedback, and adjusting instruction. No previous ukulele experience is necessary.
The Mobile Rock Concert Project is a community-based initiative that brings professional-quality sound, lighting, and trained UNI student production crews to local schools and community events. Through affordable service fees and business underwriting, the project creates neighborhood concert experiences, provides students with paid hands-on training, and strengthens connections among UNI, schools, families, and community partners. Revenue is reinvested into student employment, equipment maintenance, and future concerts, creating a sustainable model for expanding access to live music.
Sports has created experiences people actively want to participate in, watch, and belong to. Rather than resenting its cultural success, music educators might learn from it. This post explores what sports understands about audience, identity, community, lifelong participation, and multiple entry points, and asks how music education could create that same sense of connection.
Being part of a team can be energizing when people share ideas, challenge one another thoughtfully, and work together toward something better. It can also be deeply frustrating when you see possibilities for the team or department, develop proposals to move those possibilities forward, and repeatedly encounter resistance from the person designated to lead the group.