Promoting Metacognitive Reflection in Music Theory Instruction

Abstract

Since 1976 when John Flavell coined the term metacognition, a significant body of literature has emerged in psychology and education research documenting the importance of it to the process of learning and advocating its development through reflection to promote deeper, more thoughtful, and self-regulated learning. In the domain of music, discussions of reflection and/or metacognition appear particularly in literature on teacher training, music teaching at primary and secondary levels, and performance, but these topics are hardly addressed in research on music theory pedagogy. This article begins to redress this situation. It presents a theoretical overview of metacognition and reflection, describes a strategy that incorporates metacognitive reflection into a music theory core course, evaluates its pedagogical value through a content analysis of student reflections on learning, and discusses implications for music theory pedagogy.