Music Teachers’ Definitions and Examples of “Student Engagement”

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Issues in Music Education (Table 12)

Abstract

Previous research suggests that engagement is categorized as behavioral affective, and cognitive (Fredricks et al., 2004; Groccia, 2018). However, the term remains undefined for music education practitioners and within music education literature. Through a qualitative focus-group study, we aimed to understand how practicing music teachers define “student engagement” and what they consider the characteristics of engaged and disengaged students. The participants tended to frame “engagement” in behavioral terms but not in affective or cognitive terms. Practicing music educators, music teacher educators, researchers might benefit from better defining and expanding “engagement” and harness music education’s unique qualities to engage students.

Authors

• Joseph Michael Abramo, University of Connecticut

• Cara Bernard, University of Connecticut