Music education professor to develop early learning curricula for Primrose Schools

Dr. Jennifer McDonel, Assistant Professor and Director of Music Education for the Department of Music, has been awarded a contract to develop a proprietary early childhood music education curriculum for Primrose Schools. The curriculum will consist of developing a series of educational units with learning audiences between two audience ranges; ages six weeks to 36 months and three to five years of age. Primrose Schools are nationally accredited private early education and care schools throughout the United States.

The project is an ideal fit for McDonel, who has focused a majority of her career on early childhood music education. Her interest in the subject started just before starting her own family. According to McDonel, “I took a course in early childhood music during my master’s degree program. Later, when I started taking my infant daughter to Kindermusik classes, the instructors discovered that I was a music teacher and asked me to get credentials to teach those kinds of courses for them.” McDonel would go on to write her doctoral dissertation about potential learning connections between music and mathematics in early childhood.

McDonel’s contract with Primrose Schools will set her and a small team of developers building music curricula to support early music learning, as well as creating online training resources to help educators implement lessons. In order to handle the scope of the project, McDonel enlisted the help of long-time friend and fellow music educator, Heather Kirby, along with Heather’s husband, Bob Kirby, himself a seasoned studio musician. The lesson materials they create will be proprietary to Primrose, and McDonel and her team plan to pilot test the materials as they are developed.

“The education team at Primrose wanted a developmentally appropriate, research-based approach for early music learning,” said McDonel. “They have a balanced curriculum, in which curiosity, confidence, creativity, compassion are nurtured and inspire children to think in new ways. This music and movement curriculum will take into account how children learn and grow, both musically and in connection with other areas of development, from six weeks to five years old.”

McDonel and her team will begin work on the curricula in November 2018 and anticipate completing the project in the summer of 2020.