1-1 Learner Development

The candidate understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning
and development vary individually within and across the cognitive linguistic, social, emotional,
and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate, relevant, and
rigorous learning experiences.

Learners develop in a variety of ways and rates, which is supported and facilitated by
educators. Through different instructional methods teachers are better able to reach all learners no
matter their stage of development. It is crucial for the teacher to understand and recognize where
learners are, so that they can continue in supporting development.
In both the elementary and secondary music classrooms, teachers are able to recognize where
students are at in their development, both as a musician and individual. Elementary classrooms
have been a great example of how best to instruct learners in varied developmental stages. In my
teaching, repetition has been vital in the development of the students as musicians. In all of the
classrooms, each class begins with a welcoming song. Each grade’s song addresses concepts that
they are learning in class. For example, the second grade welcome song at the beginning of the
year was a call and response song using the pitches “sol” and “mi”. The teacher would say “Hello
Second Graders”, and the students would respond “Hello Ms. N”. These pitches are concepts that
were being presented at the beginning of the year. Each grade level’s welcome song contains
concepts, built upon through something as simple as a call and response song at the beginning of
each day. While some students may grasp the song or recognize the concept after only a few
repetitions, other learners may take quite a few repetitions to get a hang of the song or movements.
In supporting the students’ musical development, it is important to present information in various
ways, so that all learners may be able to better understand the concepts.
The personal development, including social, linguistic, physical and emotional
development, plays a major role in the music learning. Providing new opportunities and experience
new things allows for exploratory learning that can be connected with the music learning.
Personal development of a learner has to be supported alongside the musical development to help
the students grow as individuals and musicians.