VDM Verlag Constructivism in Music Education Technology: Creating an Environment for Choral Composition in the Upper Elementary School Grades

This book examines the inner transformation of the teacher throughout a sixteen-week composition project using computer technology with fourth and fifth-grade music students. Approached from a phenomenological perspective, this research engages constructivist philosophy through an action research method aimed at examining the critically reflective music educator. The main open questions this research addresses surround how the integration of music education computer software applications like Morton Subotnick?s Making Music, Creating Music, Music Ace I and Music Ace II can be used in the creation of teaching environments designed to develop critically reflective music makers who engage synthesis, evaluation and critical reflection in their cognitive processes. This research explores how the implementation of such representative computer applications can assist in the development of teaching strategies designed to lead students to compose a text- based choral composition, an essential element of a general/choral curriculum. About the Author David Bower earned his PhD from New York University in 2008. He presents regularly at academic conferences, including the International Society for Music Education, and has published articles in such venues as Visions of Research in Music Education. He serves as Director of Music and Organist at St. Ann?s in Raritan, New Jersey.