ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú

Elizabeth Hoover

My Approach to Teaching and Learning

My teaching and research is informed directly by musicology: the interdisciplinary study of music as a cultural artifact, including the processes and contexts in which it was, and is, created, performed, and consumed. My teaching and research is also informed by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): the systematic inquiry of student learning.

In the courses I teach, students think and act like music historians by critically examining music materials from the concert hall to the media we engage daily online. This includes: audio and audiovisual recordings, manuscripts, editions, and annotations of scores; musical instruments, poetry, libretti, and other artistic texts; interviews, letters, and correspondence; autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs; concert and media programs; and, reviews of premieres and other performances. Students drive their study of these sources by applying methods and frameworks musicologists use to understand meaning in music and to reflect on the real-world impact and consequences of the formation of music historical narratives across time and place.

I make this inquiry-based approach transparent to students so that their innovative work and perceptions of learning serve as evidence in SoTL research projects that I lead in collaboration with students as Undergraduate Associates interested in learning processes, reflection, critical thinking, and research in music history pedagogy. Through this mentorship ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú students become emergent scholars on effective teaching strategies and evidence-based practices from SoTL to co-present at regional and national conferences.

My Teacher-Scholar Journey

Teaching and Clinical Professors and Lecturers (TCPL) at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University play an integral role in the Teacher-Scholar model: not only through our primary assignments of teaching undergraduate and graduate curricula, but also through the pedagogical research that grounds our innovative teaching and instruction. As a Teaching Professor in Musicology, my current research merges my disciplinary expertise in musicology – the interdisciplinary study of music as a cultural artifact, including the processes and contexts in which it was, and is, created, performed, and consumed – with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This happens by positioning students as research subjects: to innovate the design of music history pedagogy and assessment across the Department of Music curriculum. 

Central to my innovative teaching is making visible the SoTL frameworks and methods I employ to guide and facilitate learning in my courses. This engages students directly in the collaboration, reflection, critical thinking, leadership, and research of music history pedagogy. I am committed to sharing this approach with colleagues committed to initiatives by university offices for faculty development. Thus, even though I embody Teacher-Scholar in my individual research on teaching and learning, I also embody the Teacher-Scholar model in encouraging other faculty to professionally develop as they research questions about student learning in their courses and degree programs. At the same time, I support faculty in conducting systematic inquiry to answer them in order to share findings with public audiences.

Knowledge is Power

"In the courses I teach, students think and act like music historians by critically examining music materials from the concert hall to the media we engage daily online. My instruction and course design represent scholarly teaching by engaging students directly in musicological inquiry instead of simply having them ‘learn about’ music history."

Education

Ph.D. Musicology University of Pittsburgh
M.A. Musicology University of Pittsburgh
B.A. Music ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University

More About Me

As a teacher-scholar at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú, I am a musicologist who specializes in how to design and assess the instruction of music history pedagogy and curriculum.