Music Education at Penn State
Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education - Ph.D.
Introduction
The completion of a Ph.D. is a major undertaking. The route to the degree is individualized and complex. Therefore, any attempt to describe a complete program is, at best, superficial. The attempt here is to provide an overview of the components of the Ph.D. program and the typical sequence for completion.
Handbook
for Ph.D. students in music education 
This document should be considered an unofficial statement of policy. Official policy is stated in the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin and the School of Music Graduate Handbook. These later documents supersede this handbook in all instances. Students are ultimately responsible for becoming informed about and fulfilling all program requirements. They are urged to familiarize themselves with all three documents and to confer frequently with their assigned advisor to assure that all expectations of the program are met and that the appropriate sequence is followed.
Program and Admisson Information
Current Candidates and their Research Interests:
Nancy Beitler has Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Masters in Music Education from West Chester State University. She has taught music in the PA public school system for 25 years. She teaches at Southern Lehigh Middle School, Center Valley, PA where she is responsible for the 6th through 8th band and orchestra programs. Mrs. Beitler believes in educating the whole musician. Consequently, integrating instruction of music history, analysis, composition and improvisation is a high priority in all of her instrumental music lessons and rehearsals.
Mrs. Beitler has examined the reflective practices of instrumental music teachers and their students. “Students as informants: Extending music educator’s reflective practice techniques” co-authored with Dr. Alison Reynolds of Temple University, was presented at the PMEA and MENC Eastern Division Conferences. Her research interests also include the application of improvisation and composition in the instrumental music classroom.
Debra Campbell, ABD, joined the faculty as an instructor in 2003. She now teaches undergraduate courses in music education at SUNY Potsdam State College in New York state. Her professional affiliations include the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA), College Music Society (CMS), and International Committee for Musical Perception and Cognition (ICMPC). She has received degrees from West Chester University and The Pennsylvania State University. Her public school teaching experience includes general and choral music, grades K-12, as well as, 25 years as director of music and organist at several churches in Pennsylvania.
Research activity includes local, state, national, and international presentations focusing on adolescent motivation to engage in music and music perception and cognition.
R. Kenneth Docker is a full-time Ph.D. Candidate in the Music Education department, with a focus on strings/orchestral teaching, and a cognate in Sociology. He teaches String Techniques at Penn State. He hold Bachelors a Masters degrees in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and taught string orchestra in Title 1 public schools for ten years, first in Hanover County Virginia and then in Guilford County North Carolina. He was on the music education faculty at UNC Greensboro School of Music during the 2004-2005, where he taught string methods courses, and supervised student teachers. Mr. Docker has studied cello with Stephan Ballou, Elizabeth Anderson, and is presently studying with Kim Cook. He has performed with the Lynchburg Symphony orchestra, The Broach Theatre Company, and several chamber groups, and is presently the principal cellist of the Altoona Symphony.
His present research interests include the incorporation of chamber music into the overall orchestra curriculum, and Music program support and funding in Title 1 schools since the passage of No Child Left Behind legislation.
Beth Gibbs is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Music Education with a cognate of courses in Educational Psychology. She has a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Penn State and a Master of Music Education from the Hartt School, University of Hartford in Connecticut. Beth taught general and choral music at the Red Lion Area Junior High School in Pennsylvania, and she is currently the K-5 general music teacher at the State College Friends School.
Beth’s research interests include teacher preparation, assessment, and class interactions. She is currently piloting a measure of pre-service teacher responsiveness in the hopes of creating a measure to diagnose how effectively pre-service teachers respond to students during teaching cycles.
Eileen Hower received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from SUNY Potsdam, and a Master of Arts in Music Education from Marywood University. Ms. Hower has taught general and choral music at Central Columbia Middle School since 1991. She teaches grades 5-8 general music and has three choirs,-- the 5th and 6th grade chorus, the 7th and 8th grade chorus, and the CCMS Select Chorus. One interesting feature of her teaching is that her 7th grade general music students all participate in the writing and performing of an original opera. The opera story is based on the students’ social studies curriculum and has its roots in ancient mythology, and the opera is performed for the entire student body, faculty, staff and parents. Her professional affiliations include PMEA, MENC, ACDA, and she is President of PA-ACDA.
Her research interests: “Middle School General Music”; “The Arts in Education”; “Do the arts in general and music specifically, bring meaning, depth of understanding, value and richness to education, AND are those features quantifiable?”
Yi-Ting Huang grew up in Taiwan. She received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the National Taipei University of Education, and a Master of Arts in Music Education from the Michigan State University. She taught in public school for four and a half years. Her teaching experience includes grades 1-6 general music, ensembles, choral music, and classroom teacher position, as well as early childhood music in a community school.
Yi-Ting is currently a Ph. D student in the Penn State Music Education department with a focus on general music, early childhood music, assessment, and the application of multicultural music to education. She is also interested in flute pedagogy and is presently studying flute with Dr. Armstrong. She earned teaching certificates in Early Childhood Music from The Gordon Institute for Music Learning, and in Flute Teaching Training from Suzuki Association of the Americas. Her professional affiliations include MENC, PMEA and SAA.
David Knauss, ABD, is teaching undergraduate and graduate music education methods, American music history, and philosophy of music education at Baptist Bible College, Clarks Summit, PA. His combined teaching experience includes 35 years in public schools and college at Williamsport Area Schools, Mansfield University, and Baptist Bible College. He has received degrees and certifications from West Chester University, Mansfield University, Central Connecticut State University, Western Carolina University, and Memphis State University.
As a composer, sacred music improviser, and classroom music curriculum writer, Dave’s research interests include melodic structure (Meyer’s melodic schemata) and melodic perception (Krumhansl’s tonal hierarchy), and why certain melodies and jingles seem to be memorable while others seem to be not.
Lauren Kooistra holds a BM in Piano Performance from Gordon College and a MM in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College. She has taught studio piano privately, at Westminster Conservatory, and most recently at State Street Academy of Music in Harrisburg, PA. Lauren is currently on leave from the faculty of Messiah College, where she teaches Piano Pedagogy, Keyboarding, Music through the Piano, and Studio Piano.
Lauren is a Ph.D. candidate with a cognate in Learning Theory. Her research interests include music reading at the piano, music reading for students with learning disabilities, and building an organic aural vocabulary with early musical experiences as a foundation for music reading.
Yu-Chen Lin joined PSU in 2007 and is a currently full-time Ph.D. Candidate with cognate of early childhood and related cultural issues. She received a Master in Music Education degree from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelor's degree with French Horn major and Piano minor from National Taipei University of Arts, Taipei. Yu-Chen taught music appreciation, musicianship, Chinese chamber music at Hua-Kwang High School of Arts, coached group French horn classes at high and elementary schools, and instructed applied piano and French horn lessons in Taipei for years. In New York City, Yu-Chen was a piano instructor at Columbia University and music teacher at B.B.C. Music School of Manhattan for classes “Music and Movement”, “Dalcroze for children” and “Mommy and Me”.
As Yu-Chen’s interests revolve in early childhood and multiculturalism, her research concerns include young children’s spontaneous music making, young children and multiculturalism, and the incorporation of world music into early childhood music curriculum.
Darrin Thornton is a full-time Ph.D. Candidate in Music Education with a cognate area in Adult Education. He serves as the graduate assistant with the Athletic Blue Bands and assists with brass methods courses. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Northwestern University in Human Development and Social Policy, a Masters in Education in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University and a Masters in Music from the University of Missouri in conducting.
During his professional career before returning to school full-time, Thornton has taught at the elementary, middle and high school level in the state of New York, served on the conducting faculties at the University of Missouri and SUNY-Fredonia, and has over 17 years administrative experience holding posts at the University of Missouri, SUNY-Fredonia and Penn State University. He currently remains active as a performing percussionist, conductor and adjudicator.
Thornton’s current research foci include music education program enrollment management, teacher training and continued professional development, educational access and outreach in music, and adult music education and involvement beyond high school.