This book explores the narratives of a group of four-year-old children in a composition project in an Australian early learning centre. The participants, centre staff and a composer, Stephen Leek, contributed a number of music sessions for the children, including five original songs. The book showcases young children’s communicative ability and sensitivity to wider issues. The staff in the centre have a strongly voiced philosophy that is enacted through arts-based pedagogy and incorporates...

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools.This book promotes the idea of children’s competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in mu...

This book focuses on the importance and role of adults in promoting music in the early years. Designed to promote the idea of the value of music in the early childhood years, the research discussed in this book explores the experiences of a number of adults working with children from birth to age 8.The initiatives discussed in this work all focus on adults who have encouraged the development of musical identities ranging from music in the home, to musical play in the preschool year...

In schools where young English language learners speak a variety of home languages, welcoming them into the classroom can be very challenging for the teacher and her English-speaking pupils. This long awaited book, written by teachers well experienced in addressing the needs of this young and vulnerable group, will come as a boon to new teachers presented with a multilingual classroom for the first time.

This book explores the relationship with time in early childhood by arguing for the valuing of slow pedagogies and slow knowledge. Alison Clark points to alternative practices in Early Childhood Education and Care that enable a different pace and rhythm, against the backdrop of the acceleration in early childhood and the proliferation of testing and measurement. Diverse approaches are explored to enable an ‘unhurried child’ and less hurried adults.Slow Knowledge and the Unhurri...

Education has become a political, economic and social priority for Australia, with the success of schools (and teachers) being an integral part of the economic and social future of the country. As a result, quality assurance for learning and teaching has become increasingly debated among policy-makers and the broader public, with a call for more evidence, data and standards to ensure that schools and teachers are held accountable for students’ learning outcomes.In response, this bo...

Music Learning and Teaching in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence is one of five paperback books derived from the foundational two-volume Oxford Handbook of Music Education. Designed for music teachers, students, and scholars of music education, as well as educational administrators and policy makers, the second book in this set explores a broad array of key issues, concepts, and debates related to music learning and teaching in three phases of a child's development. The first se...

Through using spoken language, people are able to think creatively and productively together. This ability to ‘interthink’ is an important product of our evolutionary history that is just as important for our survival today. Many kinds of work activity depend on the success of groups or teams finding joint solutions to problems. Creative achievement is rarely the product of solitary endeavour, but of people working within a collective enterprise.Written in an accessible and jargon-...

`Laurie Makin′s and Marian Whitehead′s book on How to Develop Children′s Literacy stands out from the usual guides on child development and learning. The language is accessible and engaging. The text is empowering rather than condescending in tone and in content.Teacher trainees and people working with children, including parents, who are wanting a good depth of information quickly about children′s early literacy development will find this book provides it′ -

Thinking Through the Arts draws together a number of different approaches to teaching young children that combine the experience of thinking with the act of expression through art.Developed as an inclusive, broad-ranging and user-friendly text, Thinking Through the Arts presents the unique insight of teachers as researchers, and counters the view that art is emotionally-based and therefore irrelevant to thinking and learning. The areas covered include drama, dance,...

Music is a tremendously powerful channel through which people develop their personal and social identities. Music is used to communicate emotions, thoughts, political statements, social relationships, and physical expressions. But, just as language can mediate the construction and negotiation of developing identities, so music can also be a means of communication through which aspects of people's identities are constructed. Music can have a profound influence on our developing sense of ide...

General music is informed by a variety of teaching approaches and methods. These pedagogical frameworks guide teachers in planning and implementing instruction. Established approaches to teaching general music must be understood, critically examined, and possibly re-imagined for their potential in school and community music education programs. Teaching General Music brings together the top scholars and practitioners in general music education to create a panoramic view of general ...