Jackie Wiggins

Professor of Music Education, Chair, Department of Music, Theatre and Dance

B.A. and an M.S. in Music Education from Queens College in New York , Ed.D. in Music Education from the University of Illinois

Department of Music, Theatre and Dance, Oakland University

BIOGRAPHY

Jackie Wiggins is Professor of Music Education and Chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Oakland University where she teaches research methods, psychology of music learning, curriculum and assessment, and general music methods. Her research interests include children’s musical thinking, creative process, and the role of the music teacher in the development of these processes. Known for her constructivist vision of music learning and teaching and for her work in children’s musical creative process, she has been an active presenter and author in local, national, and international settings. Wiggins is author of Teaching for Musical Understanding (2001, McGraw-Hill), Composition in the Classroom (1990, MENC), Synthesizers in the Elementary Music Classroom (1991, MENC) and numerous articles and book chapters. She serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Education and the Arts, the Bulletin of the Council for Research of Music Education, the Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education, and Research and Issues in Music Education. Before working in higher education, Wiggins taught elementary general music for more than 20 years. Her most recent work is a chapter on “Compositional Process in Music” for a new Handbook of Research in Arts Education, edited by Liora Bresler (Kluwer/Springer).