Student-Led Music Curriculum: Achieving Self-Regulated Learning through Project-Based and Inquiry-Based Pedagogies

Abstract

The music curriculum contains multiple disciplines, all intertwined through standards, objectives, and goals. The 21st-century learning practices emphasize music pedagogy’s applied purposes from performative and academic perspectives while outweighing the exam-driven nature to generate motivation and appreciation for music. This research defines curricular innovations that allow for a student-led music program with a particular emphasis on performative components of music education that – along with project-based and inquiry-based pedagogies – align students on a path to self-regulated learning. The paper discusses and analyzes the structures evoked by educators to allow students to produce a dynamic student-led curriculum. Furthermore, the article outlines the motivational advantages that the revised curriculum engraves within its four-step music performance framework in the context of McClelland's motivators.