Music Resources

National Association for Music Education (NAfME) - national professional organization for music teachers:  www.nafme.org 

National Assocation for Music Educators (MENC)

Oregon Music Education Association (OMEA) - state professional organization for music teachers: www.oregonmusic.org 

Music Matters: How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve and Succeed

American Orff-Schulwerk Association


Learning Through Music...
If a musical note can propel and reorient millions of neurons, the arts experiences described in this Compendium clearly impact the cognitive structures of the children and students involved. To begin, learning in the arts alone should be seen as evidence of cognitive restructuring—the increased expertise of a watercolorist or dancer manifests in neural reorganization. In turn, if altered neurofunction is a consequence of learning in the arts, it is reasonable to think that such neural conditioning could enhance performance in related skills, either through improved related cognitive functioning or through positive affective developments such as achievement motivation.

Thus we establish a neuro-function argument supporting learning through the arts—the cultivation of capabilities and understandings that occur as “byproducts” or “co-developments” of the changes in cognitive and affective structures brought about by experiences in the arts. More directly, the argument suggests that experiences in the arts create capabilities or motivations that show up in non-arts capabilities.  This comes from research shared in Critical Links and the Appendix information provided by Dr. James Catterall.  Please look at Critical Links, and  at pages 152-153 for Arts learning: Cognitive Capacities and Motivations to Learn.

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