Generalist and specialist primary music teachers’ uses of nonverbal and verbal support during music practice.

Abstract

Generalist teachers, also called nonspecialist teachers (Henley, 2011), are teachers in primary schools who teach music, but have not studied education at a university or a conservatory, nor attended any (or only a few) preservice or in-service teacher training courses on education. Many studies report much primary school teaching of is provided by generalist teachers (Henley, 2011; Pascoe et al., 2005). Generalist teaching is a wide-spread phenomena in Australia (Pascoe et al., 2005), Great Britain (Henley, 2011; Holden & Button, 2006; Seddon & Biasutti, 2008), North America (Sinclair, Jeanneret, & O'Toole, 2009), and European countries (Eurydice, 2009), including Germany (Hammel, 2011), where this research study is based. The amount of lessons taught by generalist teachers at German primary schools ranges between 72% and 86% (Hammel, 2011) of all lessons in primary school. In German schools, a specialist teacher cannot always be found to act as a helping mentor for the generalist teachers (Hammel, 2011). Furthermore, lessons taught by generalist teachers are often cancelled (Bahr, Fuchs, Gallus, & Jank, 2004; Fuchs & Brunner, 2006). Removing (and arts) lessons from a primary school's seems to be common practice, when resources (e.g., time, finances) decrease. Therefore, music and the arts are frequently considered to be the 'frills subject' in a school's timetable (Garvis & Pendergast, 2012, p. 107). The main problems generalist primary teachers face are little musical training (abilities; Heyworth, 2011; Pascoe et al., 2005) and that they often lack the confidence to teach the practical aspects of in the classroom (Henley, 2011, p. 25). A lack of confidence to teach among generalist teachers has been revealed as prevalent by many qualitative studies regardless of their site or setting.1 Further research on generalist teachers stated generalist teachers are often lacking self-confidence to teach (Garvis & Pendergast, 2012; Hennessy, 2000; Mills, 1989; Schellberg, 2005). Other common problems of generalist teachers are their lack of personal experiences and the overall lack of priority for in primary schools (Russell-Bowie, 2009). Advantages of generalist teaching are the generalist teacher's knowledge and awareness of each child in the class, compared with a nonclassroom teacher. A generalist teacher may adjust musical learning conditions fit best to their students' interests and needs. Another advantage of generalist teachers who are teachers is they do not have to adhere to the school's to practice music. They have more capacities and can fit in practice in the many times a week.To help generalist teachers to teach these practical aspects of music, adequate professional development measures need to be researched and established in initial teacher training and during their time as qualified teachers. Thus, the abilities and the confidence of generalist teachers to teach can be improved (Biasutti, Hennessy, & De Vugt-Jansen, 2015; Henley, 2011; Holden & Button, 2006; Schellberg, 2016; Telemachou, 2007). One of the few studies documents the quality of teaching in primary school is the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills report (2009). It does not distinguish between generalist and specialist teachers, but it reports that: Only half the teaching in art, and religious education was good or outstanding. The best teaching showed teachers understood the particular demands of individual subjects in relation to pupils' learning. (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, 2009, p. 5).Nonetheless, the question is which teacher training approaches might improve the learning outcome of generalist teachers? …