ABSTRACT
Activating learners to fully engage with their music learning, while giving voice and choice in their process and product, is key to a learner-centered music education. While this can be created in any ensemble, it is easily attainable with an instrument that is known to create community, such as the steel pan. In this chapter, I share the process of teaching to engage all learners, the use of the steel-pan ensembles to build community through embedded character dispositions for musical, ensemble, and personal growth, and how to intentionally create deep, contextualized music learning experiences for all students. Through the steel-pan ensemble, students construct their learning through contextualized and authentic experiences, while taking a lead in the co-creation of their ensemble and musical and personal growth. As an activator or catalyst to the learner-centered music class, I have the opportunity to create a learning environment for students to create their learning and have a relationship with the process and outcomes of their authentic musical learning. I create opportunities for all learners to grow both as a musician and human through the ensemble, while developing and maintaining a classroom culture and climate that invites the learner to have both voice and choice in all aspects of the ensemble as they seek answers, reflect and assess, and connect with their knowledge and one another.
