Meeting Students' Needs through Multimodal Pedagogy

To better meet student needs, teachers should include varying modes of instruction (e.g., aural, visual, and kinesthetic). Planning to incorporate various learning modalities may allow students to construct their own understanding pertaining to musical concepts. It is very important to engage my students in a learning experience that encompasses all learning modalities.The purpose of this book was to examine general music teachers' practices and attitudes regarding the use of multimodal pedagogy in music instruction. A survey design was used to explore the extent to which general music teachers, in a delimited geographical area in southeastern Pennsylvania, use multimodal pedagogy and their attitudes towards it. Data were gathered by contacting 600 potential participants via email and inviting them to take part. Of the 600 contacted, 170 respondents participated in the study (28% response rate). In total, 127 completed the survey and were considered by the researcher to be appropriate for analysis. The results have implications for music educators that include developing professional development programs designed to assist in the use of multiple modalities.