"Demystifying the Adolescent Music Student" by Bridget Sweet

Watch the full-length video course for FREE! 

This course is available for Graduate Credit -- learn more in our Graduate Credit section or by clicking HERE.

COURSE OUTLINE

This session with world-renowned educator, researcher, and author Dr. Bridget Sweet will address many considerations of adolescent music students, including physical development, identity development, cognitive and brain development, emotional aspects, empathy, and humor.

Adolescence will be approached as a glass-half-full time of life, during which music classes can make a powerful, meaningful, and lasting difference for middle and high school students!

MEET THE INSTRUCTOR

Bridget Sweet is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. After completing her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education at Western Michigan University, Dr. Sweet enjoyed a successful tenure as a middle school choir teacher for nearly ten years. Her interest in adolescent music education intensified during her Masters and Doctoral programs in Music Education at Michigan State University, which contributed to her research focused on characteristics of effective and exemplary music teachers. Prior to her work at the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet was an Assistant Professor of Music at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, where she taught music education courses and coordinated the music student teaching program. At the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet teaches music education pedagogy, including choral methods and literature, middle-level general music methods, graduate courses in music education, as well as a course focused on the development of healthy practices for all musicians.

Dr. Sweet has worked extensively with adolescent singers as a teacher, clinician, and adjudicator. She wrote the books "Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond"(2016, Oxford University Press) and "Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education" (2019, Oxford University Press). Dr. Sweet’s research interests include middle-level choral music education, female and male adolescent voice change, empowering music educators, health and wellness, and intersections of diversity and the music classroom. Her research has appeared in publications of Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Choral Journal, International Journal of Music Education: Research, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. She was invited to author the chapter “Qualitative Choral Music Research” in The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education (2014). Dr. Sweet is an Advisory Board member of the Bulletin of the Council of Research in Music Education and a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Journal of Research in Choral Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Qualitative Research in Music Education.

GRADUATE CREDIT

Did you know this course is also available for accredited Graduate Credit?

Learn more HERE

"Demystifying the Adolescent Music Student" with Dr. Bridget Sweet

EDUX 9129

Explore Dr. Sweet's Publications

While no additional material is required for this video course, you may be inspired to take a more in-depth look into demystifying the adolescent music student by exploring Dr. Sweet's publications:

Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond
focuses on teaching adolescents within the context of a music classroom, regardless of the content area (orchestra, band, choir, or general music). It provides a look at the importance of music courses in the lives of adolescents as they navigate the path between being a child and an adult. As every music student is completely unique, there is no one-size-fits-all prescriptive way of working with this age group.

Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education
The changing adolescent voice counts among the most awkward of topics voice teachers and choir directors face. Adolescent voice students already find themselves at a volatile developmental time in their lives, and the stresses and possible embarrassments of unpredictable vocal capabilities make participation in voice-based music an especially fraught event. In this practical teaching guide, author Bridget Sweet encourages a holistic approach to female and male adolescent voice change.