Do you want to learn how to unlock your full potential but feel like traditional music professional development doesn’t fully meet your needs?
We want to help.
Our professional development programs are designed to address your unique learning needs and aspirations. Whether you’re a new music educator or have been teaching for decades, our expert instructors will help you expand your skill set and reach new heights in your career.
Virtual
Enjoy our free, self-paced professional development courses year-round. Receive free personalized feedback and access free one-on-one office hours during our two-week summer symposium. Earn a certificate of completion for your clock hours.
In-Person
Invest in a premium custom mentorship program with our master mentors, including in-class support, one-on-one sessions, and post-mentorship collaboration. Benefit from personalized resources, real-time feedback, monthly virtual follow-ups, and a network of like-minded educators for ongoing learning at no extra cost.
Research-Based
Experience professional development founded on the most recent neurological and educational research, such as cognitive load theory, increased salience theory, and brain-based learning theory – enhanced through cognitive feedback and an assessment of learning.
A source for music professional development that meets your needs.
A source for music professional development that meets your needs.
Practicing Musician provides professional development
How personalized professional development works.
Summary of Foundational Learning Theories
The following is a summary of learning and teaching practice founded on the most recent neurological and educational research and applied in the Practicing Musician curriculum, micro tutoring model, and professional development offerings.
- Cognitive Load Theory: Tasks are designed to consider the extent of cognitive processing involved for learning and the relationship of new learning to prior understandings.
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- The Myth of Multi-tasking: Each micro-lesson is designed to focus on one concept or skill at a time and develop it across multiple micro-lessons and experiences within each lesson to accelerate the conversion of short-term memory to long-term memory.
- Increased Saliency Theory: Curricular content and micro tutoring sessions are intentionally designed to be obvious for students as to what is to be learned and why it is important to learn it.
- Brain-based learning theory: Lessons are designed to recycle learning that occurs in multiple ways while increasing difficulty, complexity, and contextual application.
- Spaced practice: is designed for thorough incremental lessons of study and restudy over time.
- Retrieval practice: Curricular content and micro tutoring sessions are designed in a spiral format, intentionally revisiting concepts and skills across learning development to guide students toward developmental milestones as they implement continual improvement.
- Interleaving: Memory reconstruction is strengthened through knowledge, concepts, and skills being retaught in various ways and in multiple contexts creating a web of interconnected memory traces.
- Elaboration: Each video lesson has intentionally designed ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions guiding the retention of knowledge, exploration of meaning, and development of conceptual connections.
- Dual coding theory: is accomplished in the technology through video modeling, verbal description, and printed notation, and in the micro tutoring sessions through verbal and typed feedback and aural assessment of performance.
- Retrieval practice: is built into the curriculum by applying former lessons directly into the enhanced complexity of the following lessons through the increased difficulty of musical pieces and opportunities to apply what has been learned.
- Cognitive feedback: Expert music teachers provide feedback at each micro tutoring session to guide students to set goals, take action to achieve their goals, and self-analyze their actions within the context of each goal.
For a more detailed description of the learning theories Practicing Musician is built upon, including citations, click here.
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Valerie Coolidge
“I love Practicing Musician’s method. It’s saving me so much time. Today I used it to assign what will be a semester’s worth of work for my HS students, and it only took a half hour. Oh, thank you!!”
Stanislaw Hoholuk
“I highly recommend Practicing Musician. It is professional, user-friendly, accessible, and versatile. I was also very impressed by the IT support to resolve questions and issues. And it’s free – you can’t ask for a better price!”
Mary Ellen Hodges
“Thanks to Practicing Musician, my students are leaps and bounds ahead of where they normally are at this time in the year!”
Caitlin Brock
“Having access to Practicing Musician has been one of the best things for my program.”
Reese Burgan
“I highly recommend Practicing Musician for anyone who is looking for passionate and effective musicians and teachers.”
Catherine Stadulis
“My students are always asking, “when can we use Practicing Musician again?!” because they just have such a great time with the program.”
Dr. Bret Smith
“I can’t think of a project that is more relevant to our current challenges, with as much potential impact.”
Shannon Waldo
“My students were bummed when I told them we wouldn’t use Practicing Musician on Tuesday but celebrated when they learned we’d be at it again on Thursday!“
