June 2, 2026
Justin West, Associate Professor of Music and Human Learning, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Butler School Teaching Excellence Award.
West’s career spans an unusually wide range of roles and experiences. With recent publications, a full teaching load, and extensive student mentorship, his academic profile is both active and varied. Beyond the university, he has served as a church choir director for more than two decades, recently conducting a requiem for chamber orchestra and choir during Good Friday services. He describes that work simply: “It keeps me on my toes and musically involved.” Before joining the Butler faculty, West worked as a middle and high school choir director in the Houston area before pursuing his doctorate, an experience that continues to shape his teaching as he draws on that broad professional background to recreate real-world environments in the classroom.
That philosophy carries through into his courses, where he emphasizes applied, hands-on learning over traditional lecture-based instruction. Rather than focusing primarily on readings about research, students design studies, collect and analyze data, and receive feedback in real time, developing practical skills that mirror professional practice. West says this approach is especially important for students who are still adjusting to academic expectations and the realities of the classroom. “They don’t know what they don’t know,” he said, describing the learning curve many new students face as they begin to see themselves as researchers and educators. “The best thing that I can do is give them a dose of reality and a sense of what it is like in the real world.”
Justin West mentors a younger colleague at a 2025 music education conference.
A major shift in his teaching philosophy came during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when remote instruction forced him to reconsider the role of technology in learning environments. The experience ultimately reshaped his approach.
The COVID-19 period, he says, “has made me a big fan of in-person extemporaneous learning.”
Since then, he has moved away from computer-based assessments in favor of in-class, paper-and-pencil evaluations.
“When I see a student teaching a middle school choir, the only piece of technology you need is a piano, and that’s it,” he said. “I don’t think students want technology, I don’t think they want an AI choir director.”
For West, engagement in the classroom is key, particularly when it comes to attention in an increasingly digital world.
“You would hope that the class is so engaging that students don’t use the phone,” he said, but then added that “I remember when I was a high school teacher, I had to police the cell phone issue, and it can be a big distraction. I think the cell phone bans are a good policy.”
He adds that the challenge is widely understood among educators.
“I think any teacher who has been in K-12 schools in the past few years understands the challenge of devices, of social media and bullying,” he said. “I have not seen the use of TikTok in the middle of a choir rehearsal.”