Underserved youth are at risk for numerous threats to their physical and psychological well-being. To navigate the challenges they face, they need a variety of positive life skills. This study systematically explored the implementation and short-term outcomes of a responsibility-based physical activity program that was integrated into an intact high school physical education class. Qualitative methods, drawing on multiple data sources, were used to evaluate a 20-lesson teaching personal and social responsibility (TPSR) program. Participants were 23 African American students in an urban high school. Five themes characterized the program: (a) establishing a relevant curriculum, (b) navigating barriers, (c) practicing life skills, (d) seeing the potential for transfer, and (e) creating a valued program. Findings extend the empirical literature related to TPSR and, more generally, physical activity programs designed to promote life skills. Implications for practitioners are discussed.

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Service-learning initiatives have become prevalent on the campuses of higher education. In teacher education, preservice teachers involved in educational partnerships that are service-learning based respond to the needs of a community partner, apply pedagogical knowledge and skills they have acquired in their coursework to real-world problems, and engage in critical reflection. Service-learning offers preservice teachers increased opportunities to develop their teaching practice and teacher identities and provides a backdrop for preservice teachers to develop personally and become socially integrated into the field of teacher education. In this article, we provide descriptions of four service-learning contexts for music teacher preparation. We discuss the role of service-learning in transforming preservice music teachers, their music teaching practice, and the community partners they served. Finally we present challenges to engaging in service learning in music teacher preparation, characteristics of meaningful service learning work, and discuss the transformative potential of service-learning in music teacher preparation.

Strong school-university partnerships yield effective music teachers. However, music teacher preparation curriculum has undergone little reform over the years, resulting in a homogeneous P-12 curriculum. Encouraging preservice music teachers to consider cultural and pedagogical differences holds promise for changing music teacher preparation and preservice music teachers' views regarding content and contextually relevant practice. In this article, an international collaborative course is presented as one model to help preservice teachers confront previously held attitudes regarding music education, develop flexible cultural competency, and become more open to curricular innovation. Recommendations for policy that would enact an international partnership agenda for music teacher preparation to meet these aims are provided.

Music-based technology is frequently included in early childhood classrooms as an attempt to incorporate music education in the curriculum. However, there is a lack of research that addresses the educational benefits of music-based tablet applications (apps) for young children. Researchers in this study explored the preferences of 4-year-old children (N = 16) for music-based apps in a preschool setting. They found that children preferred those apps that had a high frequency of visual stimulation, were easy to navigate, and/or had familiar music. Although children in the study engaged in social interaction, there was a lack of outward musical behavior. It is anticipated that a knowledge of children's preferences for music apps will assist with the provision of developmentally appropriate and interactive music-based technology for young children. Additionally, understanding the qualities of music apps that are most likely to promote musical responses (such as singing, rhythmically chanting, moving, or combinations thereof) may help developers create music-based technology that will provide the maximum educational benefits for young children.