Music Education And Social Emotional Learning, The Art Of Teaching Muisc In Your Classroom, Scott N. Edgar and Robert Morrison, Quadrant Research

Scott N. Edgar and Robert Morrison Quadrant Research bob@artsedresearch.org

It’s Monday morning, and your students come into your room—some excited, some tired, some anxious, some relieved. Their faces tell the stories of everything that has happened to them before they see you. There is Tom who is worried about where the next meal will come from; Sara, who is worried about the fight her parents had last night; Alex who is struggling with body image; and, Kara, who is concerned about how she will get into the college her parents expect. These challenges are real, and for your students are all they can think about as we try to teach them music. We, as music educators, can help provide skills for students to confront these challenges.

Challenges exist in ALL socioeconomic settings, at all ages, and for all people, they may be different (i.e., finding that next meal vs. getting into Juilliard), but they are all detrimental for students’ success. We have been frequently asked whether the challenges facing this generation are worse than previous ones. There are certain elements that I believe may lead to this assumption; however, it really does not matter. The challenges facing today’s students are real and derailing them—THEY NEED OUR HELP!

These situations are a reality and will resonate with many teachers. Addressing these situations sounds like it belongs on the desk of the school counselor or mental health professional. The truth is your students rarely trust them—they trust YOU because you are their music teacher. You have likely taught them for multiple years in their favorite subject. While we should never go beyond the role of teacher into a counselor or therapist, THERE IS SOMETHING WE CAN DO TO HELP!

We do not teach music; we teach children music. Because they trust us, we are in the perfect position to help them not only encounter the accidentals in music but to confront the accidentals in their lives with strength and skill.

SEL is a construct being implemented across the globe intended to provide students with the SKILLS to confront their challenges by being self-aware, socially-aware, and to make responsible decisions. Broad instruction often takes the form of reflection, discussion, and lecture. Students can view this as forced, formulaic, and scripted. For SEL to be most effective, it needs to be embedded in the curriculum. For us, the music teacher can do this in a much more authentic way—through music.

SEL should not feel like one more thing; it is THE thing. We teach music; we teach self-discipline; we teach collaboration. SEL is in our classrooms already; our job is to make it explicit, consistent, and structured.

In New Jersey, a task force of arts educators and SEL experts have gathered to develop resources to help you in your process to embed SEL into your instruction. Formed in partnership between Arts Ed NJ and SEL4NJ this task force is combining the soon to be released New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) in the Visual and Performing Arts and the Social and Emotional Learning Competencies adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education in 2017.

The new NJSLS in the arts are based on the National Core Arts Standards, that is organized around the Artistic Processes, which are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are

realized. Inspired by the 1997 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Arts Education Assessment Framework, the National Core Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of: • Creating; • Performing/Producing/Presenting; • Responding; and Connecting.

Each of the arts disciplines incorporates these processes in some manner. These processes define and organize the link between the art and the learner.

The taskforce worked to connect the artistic processes to the SEL Competencies of: • Self: Self-Awareness and Self-Management • Social: Social Awareness and Relationship Skills • Responsible Decision-Making

Understanding how the artistic processes intersect with the SEL competencies will enable music educators to intentionally activate and maximize these connections for the benefit of students.

A recent report from the University of Chicago and Ingenuity entitled Arts Education and Social-Emotional Learning Outcomes Among K-12 Students noted that much of this could be understood by considering the framework of how students learn. This document quoted from the report, Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework, high-lighting the following two ways that students learn: 1) That the way children and youth develop competencies, beliefs, and behaviors are through developmental experiences, opportunities to act in the world and reflect on their experiences; and 2) experiences are most influential in shaping the course of development when they take place within the context of strong, supportive, and sustained developmental relationships with significant adults and peers.

Developmental relationships and developmental experiences form the bedrock of SEL for our students. The key is whether or not these experiences are positive ones!

The report further notes the developmental experiences that played a key role in education: Researchers identified ten developmental experiences that were particularly powerful contributors to youth learning and development, including the development of social-emotional competencies.

These ten developmental experiences include five action experiences (encountering, tinkering, choosing, practicing, and contributing) and five reflection experiences (describing, evaluating, connecting, envisioning, and integrating). Evidence from a range of disciplines suggests that the more students who have the opportunities to engage in these types of experiences, the more developmentally healthy and successful they will be.

As music educators, can you think of how you create these five action experiences and five reflection experiences? If you are like most music educators, you can relate to every one of them. If you know these are important experiences to the developmental process, what can you do to make these experiences more meaningful? Taking an intentional approach to maximizing these educational experiences music educators will increase the educational impact these interactions have with students.

By connecting the new arts standards to the SEL Competencies, along with examples of effective strategies, New Jersey music educators will have a road map they may use to aid in the SEL integration process.

We can help our students develop SEL skills by: • encouraging students to set their own musical goals • devising solutions for individual or group errors (instead of us always giving the answers) • navigating performance anxiety • understanding the power of music for social change

We advocate for the benefits of music education, such as leadership, self-expression, and creativity. If we truly believe this, then this can be accomplished by teaching students to be the self- and socially-aware musicians they have the potential to be. When the awareness improves, so does the music and the community. SEL should not be viewed as something taking time from musical instruction; it can be done THROUGH musical instruction.

Simple, embedded techniques such as:

mance—“Fist to five”—tell me how you did on that last performance, run, measure, etc. (Fist= terrible, Five fingers=perfect) helps students develop accurate self-assessment of their abilities.

Emotional vocabulary building—Helping students understand the emotion of music so they can articulate their own feelings beyond “fine” helps students develop their ability to accurately articulate their own emotions while finding examples in musical performance and repertoire. A poster of emotions with pictures of facial expressions would be a good addition to every classroom.

Exit slips with a SEL-based prompt—Asking students questions such as: What is one musical goal you have for this week? What are your musical strengths/challenges? How do you respond to constructive criticism?, helps students reflect, individually, their motivation and self-awareness.

Music education helps our students learn how to be dedicated, to persevere, and to work together. It is our job to help students see that these skills are not isolated to the music classroom. These are the skills they need to be successful outside of music and to confront their challenges with strength and skill. Music can be the preventative mental health our students need so they have the skills to confront the life challenges ahead of them.

Edgar, S.N. (2017). Music education and social emotional learning: The heart of teaching music. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications,

Inc. Edgar, S.N. (2018). Music education and social emotional learning: The heart of teaching music—Student workbook. Chicago, IL:

GIA Publications, Inc. Farrington, C. A., Maurer, J., McBride, M. R. A., Nagaoka, J., Puller, J. S., Shewfelt, S., Weiss, E.M., & Wright, L. (2019).

Arts education and social-emotional learning outcomes among K–12 students: Developing a theory of action. Chicago, IL:

Ingenuity and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. Nagaoka, J., Farrington, C. A., Ehrlich, S. B., Heath, R. D., Johnson, D. W., Dickson, S., . . . Hayes, K. (2015).

Foundations for young adult success: A developmental framework. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research. New Jersey State Board of Education (2017) New Jersey Social and Emotional Learning. Competencies and Sub-

Competencies, Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Department of Education. State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. (2014). National Core Arts Standards. Dover, DE: State

Education Agency Directors of Arts Education.

Dr. Scott N. Edgar is in his eighth year as Associate Professor of Music, Music Education Chair, and Director of Bands at Lake Forest College. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of Michigan, his Masters degree in Education from the University of Dayton, and his Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from Bowling Green State University. Prior to his work in higher education he taught K-12 instrumental music in Ohio and Michigan. Dr. Edgar is the author of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music and is an internationally sought-after clinician on the topic. In addition to clinics, he also teaches graduate courses on Musical Social-Emotional Learning at VanderCook College of Music. Dr. Edgar is a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician and VH1 Save the Music Foundation Educational Consultant. Dr. Edgar is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the American Educational Research Association, the College Music Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music fraternity and Kappa Kappa Psi Band fraternity. He lives in Lake Villa with his wife Steph, their son Nathan, and their cats Elsa and Wolfie.

Robert B. Morrison is a nationally recognized leader arts education. He serves as the director of Arts Ed NJ, the statewide arts education advocacy organization responsible for the advancement of arts education for all New Jersey students. He is also the founder and CEO of Quadrant Research, one of the nation’s leading arts education research organizations where he has created a deep body of research and policy work. Mr. Morrison is recognized as a pioneer in the field of statewide arts education status and condition reporting on public school programs. He is the leader of the national Arts Education Data Project in partnership with the State Education Agencies Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE). He is also the founded nationally recognized Music for All where he remains chairman emeritus and was the first CEO of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. Mr. Morrison’s advocacy work has earned him both a Prime-time EMMY and a Peabody Award, the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Arts Education and an honorary doctorate degree from the State University of New York.

This article is adapted from a blog originally appearing on the National Association for Music Education website and is reprinted with permission from National Association for Music Education (NAfME). The original article published on September 16, 2019 can be found at: https://nafme.org/music-education-social-emotional-learning/