Summer 2018 - EDUC 869 G001

Music Education as Thinking in Sound (5)

Class Number: 4670

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 7 – Aug 3, 2018: Wed, 4:30–9:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course presents the theory and practice of music education based on theories of auditory perception, musical theory, and various cross-cultural perspectives on musical behavior.

COURSE DETAILS:

From a certain perspective, we might think of music as being nested within a series of parabolic arcs or spheres: the personal, the socio-cultural, the historical, the neuro-biological, the evolutionary, and, importantly, at the centre of these arcs, as an embodied, sensory and cognitive experience. This course aims to provide an opportunity for each of us to explore and to play with music, and with ideas about music, within these various spheres, toward the ends of deepening our understandings of both music, and music education. POSSIBLE THEMES/TOPICS: On art, aesthetics, and culture, with a focus on music; On the neurobiology and evolutionary significance of music; On the social, historical, and cultural contexts of music; On music and identity; On notions of classical and popular, ‘high’ and ‘low’; On soundscapes and sound education; On creativity and learning, liminality and absorption; On applications and implications for learning, teaching, and education.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This course aims to provide an opportunity for each of us to explore and to play with music, and with ideas about music, within these various spheres/arcs, toward the ends of deepening our understandings of both music, and music education. As well, the course is an opportunity for you to explore some ideas that are of particular significance and importance to you, and toward that end, there will be space for you to identify and define a focus of your own choosing. A key end-goal of the course is for each of us to develop our own informed and layered perspective on music itself, with an eye toward considering how this perspective might contribute to the ongoing human conversation about music and the practice of music education, arts education, and education in general.

Grading

  • An autobiography in 3 songs 20%
  • Inquiry into a musical form, expression, technique, or approach 20%
  • Following a musical wiki-trail 10%
  • Group Composition 20%
  • Reflective Summative Commentary 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

There are no formal texts to buy for this course, though we will consider the possibility of a ‘book club’ activity (to be discussed at our first class). Any other texts will be drawn from materials we can access online through the SFU Online Library service, or through other open sources.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS