Nowadays, differentiated teaching can be a valuable tool for any teacher who wants to plan his teaching in such a way as to respond to the different learning needs of his/her students. Basic principles of differentiated instruction are interaction and collaboration, flexibility and the achievement of metacognitive competence. These principles take place through a variety of teaching methods. Learning centers are such a strategy in which different areas of study and action are created in the classroom according to the interests and abilities of the students (IEP, 2025). The learning centers have a defined layout in the classroom, while there is a title that states the purpose of the activities and instructions for their implementation at each station.  Students are asked in groups to carry out the activities of each learning center in a certain period of time and to rotate through all the centers thus creating more opportunities for successful learning (IEP, 2025· Hunt, 2009). In particular, the general music classroom can be an ideal setting for the incorporation of  music centers, as their rich learning environment offers  meaningful experiences for all students without exception (Ballinger, 2011) and responds to their needs for mutual help and individuality (Hunt, 2009). Some types of music centers that have already been implemented in formal music education are listening, creating, technology, and music  instrument centers (Βallinger, 2011· Hunt, 2009). 

 In this particular workshop, the participants will be familiarized with the music of Africa through musical examples of popular songs and music pieces that combine traditional elements of African music with its most contemporary versions. The whole project will be implemented with the strategy of music centers. The aim of the workshop is to encourage and inspire the participants to design and implement similar methods of differentiated teaching, so that music knowledge is gained with the help of multiple learning methods always in harmony with the needs of all students. Specifically, three music centers (listening, performance, creation) were designed with separate content each, in order to respond to the different learning profiles that a classroom may include (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). However, the activities are performed in rotation, because a student may belong to more than one learning style. In detail, the participants will form groups, each one of which will be invited to: a) match audio files of African music with sentences referring to the contemporary and traditional elements of each example and compare two African songs with the help of interactive applications (listening center), b) perform and accompany the traditional song Fatou yo (Senegal) with the musical tubes boomwhackers and rhythmic percussions (performance center), c) compose a music piece based on photos from Africa's everyday life (creation center). Finally, each group will present and comment on the outcome of its participation in one of the three music centers.

• Meaningful musical experiences

Marina Mintza has been working as a music teacher at Primary Schools since 2005 and as a music educator in conservatories and Centers for Creative Education. She holds a Master's Degree in Music Education from the Department of Music Studies (NKUA), Advanced Theory, and is a graduate of the Two-Year Training Workshop of Artistic and Creative Education "ANIMA". She contributes with experiential workshops to conferences, workshops, and music teachers' training programs. In 2018, she released the book "Games with the Musical Tubes Boomwhackers" (published by Fagottobooks) in which she participated as a co-author. She believes that “music is first discovered and then learned’’ and that is why learning music through experiential activities is at the core of her music teaching. 

Chatzilamprou Maria is a graduate of the Department of Music Science and Art (UOM, 2004) and holds a master's degree in Educational Sciences - Music Pedagogy (UNic, 2016). Since 2005 she has been working in public education as a music teacher, while since 2009 she has been permanently appointed to secondary education in Lasithi, Crete. At the same time, she teaches piano and prepares pupils for their admission in university for music studies. She has published in conferences and attended educational seminars (IEP, NCUA, University of Patras, University of Crete). She maintains the blog gymnasioumusic.blogspot.com since 2017 with original educational material for Middle School General Music Class.