| The opportunity for a new perspective in music education for the 1990's has emerged from the recommendations of education reform. Music educators are challenged to consider the discipline of music as a comprehensive, humanistic enterprise which incorporates training in criticism for aesthetic judgment.;The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical based and a construct for discipline based music education (DBME). The humanistic elements advocated for music education in the recommendations of leading reformists of the 1980's identified. The humanistic aspects of criticism, history, aesthetics, and production were identified as a basis for discipline based art education (DBAE), and in the construct of all discipline based instruction. The distinctive humanistic nature of music criticism, music history, music aesthetics, and music performance was identified and set forth in a construct model of DBME.;The DBME construct was defined in terms of the interrelationships of human knowledge about music. The study clarified the humanistic scope of DBME, and identified its construct in structures of thought used throughout schooling. Arts-critical principles and canons which interrelate the disciplines of criticism, history, aesthetics, and performance were incorporated into a functional model of explorative criticism, set forth with the DBME construct model.;The prescriptive construct of DBME fosters systematic teaching and learning, and compatibility with curricula designed for sequenced, accumulative, and comprehensive music education.;Particular consideration was given in the study to the formulation of the DBME guidelines in the context of general education. Because DBME addresses a core of curriculum, the construct and guidelines of prescriptive coherence, completeness, and appropriateness are aligned in ways which general education instruction is prepared and delivered. The rationale for developing the guidelines for DBME emerged from the disciplines for understanding, engaging, and appreciating. The purpose of the guidelines was to serve as a map for teachers to use to create a DBME approach to the music curriculum. |
