Teaching General Music with AI: Insights from Developmental Psychology and Social Constructivism

Abstract

This chapter discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on general music education through the lenses of developmental psychology and social constructivism. On the one hand, general music teachers can utilize AI to create teaching materials and support their instructional approaches. On the other hand, teachers need to guide students in engaging with musical activities that involve AI to deepen their musical experiences. AI can be meaningfully integrated into general music education to reflect enactive, iconic, and symbolic learning modes aligned with students’ developmental stages from early childhood through elementary to secondary levels. Social constructivism offers additional insight into how students’ roles evolve alongside the engagement with generative AI, conceptualizing learners as observers, participants, and agents in general music classrooms. While this progression often begins in a linear manner, as students first observe, then participate, and eventually take agency in their music-making, it gradually becomes more reciprocal and dynamic. As students gain fluency and confidence, their roles as observers, participants, and agents begin to interact fluidly, with each role reinforcing and enriching the others.