Mar 28, 2024  
Mansfield University 2021-2022 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
Mansfield University 2021-2022 Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]

Music Education, Bachelor of Music


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Offered by the Department of Music


The Mansfield University Department of Music provides an environment that promotes academic, musical and personal growth as well as intellectual, ethical and aesthetic values. The department serves the regional, national and international communities by developing human and material resources. The Department of Music is committed to stimulating a continuous pursuit of knowledge, understanding and skills by students and faculty.

The Music Department offers the following degree programs: The Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with a major in music, the Bachelor of Music (BM) degree with a major in Music Education, and the Bachelor of Music (BM) degree with three concentrations. Music Performance, Music Business, and Music Technology. Please refer to the department website (Http://music.mansfield.edu) for audition information and other entrance requirements.

The Bachelor of Music Education program is designed to meet the certification requirements set by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Completion of the music education degree prepares students to teach both vocal and instrumental music at the pre-K through high school levels.  Students have opportunities observe, participate, and teach in school settings prior to student teaching to give them more experience in the classroom while at Mansfield University.  The degree concludes with a term of student teaching that includes a professional seminar focusing on resume and cover letter writing, mock interviews, and certification procedures.

The Music Department is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), 11250 Roger Bacon Drive, Suite 21, Reston, VA 20190-5248, (703) 437-0700, (nasm.arts-accredit.org/).

Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission: The Faculty of the Mansfield University Music Department are dedicated to the development of musical excellence in all aspects of our programs.  It is the primary mission of the music teacher education program (within the teacher education unit at Mansfield University) to prepare educators to serve the region, the Commonwealth, and the nation. Our graduates will be able to make reflective decisions that are grounded in accepted theory, research, and practice. These decisions will enable the teacher to adapt instruction to individual student differences and to changing conditions within schools and society. (Revised May 15, 2014)

Vision: The music teacher education program at Mansfield University prepares graduates with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be reflective teachers who believe all students can learn and help them to do so. These reflective and highly effective education professionals seek to contribute positively to their schools, districts, and communities.  They utilize the activities of listening to, respond to, creating, and performing music to teach musical knowledge and skills, aesthetic awareness, and appreciation of diversity across cultures. (Revised May 15, 2014)

Values: Teacher education programs at Mansfield University advance the theme, Teacher as Reflective Decision-Maker. The undergraduate programs derive from a knowledge base and conceptual framework based on Danielson’s Four Domains of Effective Teaching - Planning and Preparation, The Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities. Candidates are prepared to teach in accordance with the professional standards of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and of national teacher education societies.  In addition to this, the music teacher education program place an emphasis on the following:

1.           We will promote character.  Our faculty and students will exemplify the highest standards of ethical behavior, incorporating respect for self, others and our surroundings. We will devote ourselves to the holistic development of individuals, fostering personal accountability, honesty and advocacy through character education. Courage, integrity, and honor exemplify our core values.  As the art of music demands honesty and integrity, so too will we expect our department to promote and encourage these values in all we do.

2.            We will foster scholarship.   We will model a life of intellectual curiosity, celebrating the creation and dissemination of new ideas in music.  We will embrace the use of rigorous, responsible and critical inquiry to understand, acquire and share knowledge.  We apply what we learn by recognizing that each of us is both student and teacher engaged in the continuous pursuit of learning.  We will therefore maintain a faculty dedicated to the highest standards in teaching, musical performance and scholarship.

3.            We will enhance culture.  We will serve and lead the region and beyond in promoting diversity and cultural awareness through music.  We will accomplish this mission by vigorously engaging with one another, capitalizing on the gifts bestowed on our community through the arts, and celebrating our similarities and differences. Through open discourse and performance, we will create meaningful experiences that compel us towards understanding and compassion for all humanity.

4.            We will advocate service.   Knowledge invests us with the power to improve our world and the responsibility to act.  We will be engaged in our community.  Our students, faculty and staff will partake in volunteerism and service activities as a natural outgrowth of the University Mission in order to impact lives now and in the future.   We encourage and actively promote on our campus and surrounding community an awareness of the importance of the role of music in the enrichment of the human spirit. (Revised May 15, 2014)

Department Goals 

  • To prepare competent musicians, who are able to function in the career area of their choice, in an environment that promotes academic and personal growth as well as intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic values.
  • To offer music courses, ensembles, applied music instruction and concerts to the university community.
  • To maintain a diversified faculty with expertise appropriate to curricular needs.
  • To develop music awareness in the community.

Program Outcomes for all Music Degree Programs

  1. Students will perform effectively and musically in their primary performance area.  This will include proficiency in skills requisite for artistic self-expression, an overview understanding of the relevant repertoire and demonstrated ability to perform from a cross-section of that repertory.
  2. Students will be fluent in reading music notation, not only as pertains to their primary performance area, but also from full scores, the clefs and transpositions those scores utilize, and contemporary notational techniques.
  3. Students will utilize analytic techniques to effectively describe the large and small-scale structures of music in such a way as to reveal relevant and important information about the score.
  4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the development of western music and listen critically to a varied repertoire of music-effectively describing the use of musical elements and expressive devices using advanced technical vocabulary.  These descriptions will include identification of historical periods, genres, and interdisciplinary connections within a historical context.
  5. Students will perform in ensembles and be effective, musical and constructive members of musical groups.  Successful participation in musical ensembles includes leading small and large groups and working with others to create musically coherent performances.
  6. Students will compose effective musical works that demonstrate an understanding of basic musical elements, including notation, form and harmonic coherence.
  7. Students will accurately sight-sing and take aural dictation.  Students will improvise on instruments and voice melodies, variations and accompaniments.
  8. Students will communicate effectively in written form.
  9. Students will demonstrate their proficiency on the piano/keyboard.  This includes the ability to prepare works, sight-read, and improvise harmonizations at the keyboard.
  10. Students will be able to produce a properly documented research paper as a result of their ability to identify, find, understand and evaluate sources.

Program Outcomes for the Music Education Degree Program

  • Mansfield University Music Education students will pass and compare favorably to students from other institutions on standardized music tests, graduate and secure professional positions.
  • MU students who have completed their student teaching will be perceived as prepared for teaching and an asset to the profession by their cooperating teachers.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate basic conducting skills in a variety of classroom and ensemble settings.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to sing and play a variety of classroom instruments and also to demonstrate proper playing techniques on varied band and orchestral instruments.
  • Students will be able to plan and prepare effective music instruction leading to student learning.
  • Students will be able to deliver effective and appropriate music instruction leading to student learning. 

Policies and Procedures

Students must successfully complete a live audition for admission to this program. Audition information may be found on the Music Department website at http://music.mansfield.edu/auditions/.  Students in all music degree programs are required to complete a core of essential courses in music theory, music history and literature, applied music and piano, and must participate in music ensembles. All music students are required to pass a piano proficiency. During the fourth semester of study, all students will complete a sophomore review which will consist of performance on primary instrument, piano, singing and sightreading, rhythmic reading and conducting, written career goals and grade point average. The review must be passed to continue into upper division music courses.  Students must also abide by the Academic Requirements for Progression in the Music Department.  Details concerning this and the Sophomore Review may be found in the Student Handbook available online at http://music.mansfield.edu/student-resources/.  Prior to the completion of the program students are required to perform a solo recital on their primary instrument or voice. In keeping with the Pennsylvania Department of Education requirements, all students must take 6 credits of mathematics, 3 credits of English composition and 3 credits of English literature in their first 48 hours at Mansfield University.  They must also pass the PECT Pre-service Academic Performance Assessment (PAPA) exam and maintain a 3.0 QPA.  Candidates for teaching certification in Pennsylvania must meet state requirements described in Chapter 354 regulations.  A description of these requirements, policies, and procedures for teacher certification can be found in the catalog section entitled “University Policies.”

Program Requirements: Music Education (B.M.): 125 s.h.


Total Credit Hours: 98


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