Instrumental Teachers Research Articles

Teacher Feedback in Collegiate Instrumental Music Lessons

Teacher feedback is an integral component of helping students understand their current level of achievement and what they can do to improve their performance. This study built on literature in educational psychology by adopting a framework developed by Hattie and Timperley to explore how different types of feedback are used in studio instrumental lessons. For this study, we investigated the use of feedback of highly experienced collegiate instrumental studio music teachers ( N = 6) and their students ( N = 18). Results indicated that around 83% of all teacher comments were classified as “feed-back” (i.e., reflections on what the student just played), with far fewer focused on “feed-forward” (16%) strategies for improving performance and “feed-up” (<1%) goal setting. Task-level comments on what the student had just done comprised 85% of the feedback, in contrast to process-level (9%) feedback that provides strategies for improving the next performance attempt and self-regulation comments (<1%) that cue the learner to monitor and control their own performance. Discussion of these results include comparisons between classroom and studio teaching practices and ways of refining instrumental teachers’ abilities to provide more targeted and effective feedback to their students.

The Importance of Playing from Memory: Considering the Multi-Sensory Approach in Memorizing Music

It is important for students to play from memory in musical learning. However, some students are afraid of memory lapses. This paper will focus on the benefits of performing from memory in terms of performers and audiences and then introduce the advantages and disadvantages of three types of sensory memory: kinesthetic memory, visual memory and aural memory. Finally, this essay will emphasize the importance of a multi-sensory approach to memorizing music. After that, some methods can be considered by instrumental teachers to help students memorize music.

Music literacy and the instrumental teacher

ABSTRACT In a report commissioned by the Society for Music Analysis to address a gap in music literacy, McQueen (2020) identified instrumental teachers as an important part of music education both within schools and in the community. This article takes as a starting point McQueen’s (2020) proposal that ‘it is through instrumental tuition that music literacy in its many forms is likely to develop’ (65) to tease through some of the implications it might have for contemporary perspectives on music education. In doing so it assesses the relationship between music literacy and music analysis as a complex one involving professional partnerships which can lead to ‘a clash of allegiances’ (83) evident in versions of curriculum knowledge and the values underpinning them. My aim is to bring forward discussions surrounding instrumental teaching and school curricula and argue that greater collaboration between all those engaged in music education will address issues arising from and perpetuated by their separation.

Las prescripciones y la epistemología práctica de los profesores de música: el caso de la orquesta escolar

This study focuses on research into the work of music teachers and visiting musicians in a primary school in France. Their teaching activities are part of the "Orchestre à l'école" scheme. This scheme enables children from working-class and sometimes disadvantaged backgrounds to access and develop instrumental and orchestral practice at different times of the week. The observations were made at the request of the music teachers, who wanted to take stock of their work after several years. The pedagogical quality of these music and music teaching professionals, the institutional framework and the friendly atmosphere of the project enabled this participatory research to take place under the best possible conditions. The study focuses on the effects of the prescriptions set out by the instrument teachers on their practical epistemology. The hypothesis is that the polymorphous nature of the prescription, of the instruction, has as much effect on the pupils as on the teacher's practical epistemology. To verify this hypothesis, the analysis of the documents collected during this participatory research concerns the transcripts of the instrument lessons and the simple self-confrontation interviews conducted with the teachers. How does the practical epistemology of a music teacher evolve through feedback from his or her pupils?
 After reviewing the literature on the notions of prescription and practical epistemology, the article describes the main methodological aspects and develops an analysis of snippets of lessons and interviews selected by the teachers, before proposing a discussion. If the top-down prescription reveals the teacher's practical epistemology, then the students' bottom-up prescriptions should reveal what makes it evolve.

Immediacy, ensemble setup, and classroom space: A quasi-experimental study among secondary instrumental teachers and students

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of closed and opened setup conditions on students’ and teachers’ reported immediacy, affect, motivation, and group cohesion in band and orchestra classrooms. A secondary purpose was to explore relationships among students’ and teachers’ reported immediacy, affect, motivation, and group cohesion. Six teachers and 379 of their students participated in the study. In this within-subjects experiment, teachers were asked to teach with their classrooms arranged in closed and opened setup conditions. In the closed condition, teachers used a traditional setup of arcs and were not asked to change their use of space when teaching. In the opened condition, an aisle was added to the ensemble setup and teachers were provided with strategies to encourage movement toward and among students when teaching. At the end of each condition, teachers and students completed measures of constructs related to immediacy, affect, motivation, and group cohesion. Results indicate the effect of the intervention increased negative affect among students, teacher proximity was associated with negative affect among students, and students’ perceptions of their teacher’s immediacy was found to have positive relationships with student affect, motivation, and group cohesion.

Students as teachers: A study of UK undergraduate music students’ experiences and perceptions of instrumental and singing teaching

This research, carried out between 2020 and 2021, involves an online questionnaire and individual interviews with undergraduate music students at universities and conservatoires in the UK, to examine student experiences of receiving and delivering instrumental and singing tuition. There is no regulation of instrumental teaching in the UK, and individuals are able to teach without formal training or qualification. Existing literature suggests that musicians often begin teaching while still in education, though there is limited research concerning the experience of this process. This research confirms that students are involved in delivering instrumental and singing lessons before and during their undergraduate studies, often beginning with peer learning initiatives in school or ‘helping’ family and friends. The study identifies positive perceptions of the role of teaching in portfolio careers in music and highlights the influence of both instrumental teachers and classroom music teachers in shaping understandings and providing guidance and opportunities for students.

The Development of Teacher Leadership Assessment Instruments in Learning Physics

Teacher leadership is directly related to the development of high-quality learning in schools that focus on improving education based on the principles of professional collaboration. Physics is a part of natural science which has unique characteristics. Some physics material is abstract, so some students need help to learn. Teacher leadership in physics learning is required to improve the quality of physics learning. This study aims to develop instrument teacher leadership in learning physics. It is a research and development design. The research instrument was a questionnaire of 4 types, namely a questionnaire filled out by physics teachers, school principals, physics teacher colleagues, and students. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. All questionnaires filled the valid aspects by expert judgment. The questionnaires filled by physics teachers, principals, and fellow physics teachers comprised 45 items, 45 items, and 44 items, respectively. Only questionnaires filled by students not only fulfill validation by expert judgment but also fulfill empirical validation and reliability of 0.864 with reliable criteria for as many as 39 items. The study's implication is to produce an instrument to measure the quality of prospective physics teachers who can improve the quality of learning physics.

Music Teacher Identity: The Use of Videos in Teachers’ Self-Reflections of Their Past and Present Teaching Effectiveness

Professional teaching videos could be a powerful resource for shaping music teacher identity (MTI). This study examined preservice and inservice string instrument teachers’ (SITs) ( N = 3) preservice and inservice teaching videos to perceive similarities and differences in MTI to reveal professional growth over time. Results indicated that the SITs evolved with experience, knowledge of self, and self-assessment through reflection. MTI development results from teachers’ receptiveness to professional development over time and their ability to adapt to changing contextual environments.

Music teacher identity: Reassessing perceptions during a global pandemic

From 2020 to 2022, a global pandemic caused schools to pivot from primarily in-person instruction to all-virtual or hybrid instruction, creating a shift in contextual learning environments that made it necessary for experienced music teachers to become more adaptable and flexible within their already established expertise or leave the profession. Those teachers who stayed in the profession during the pandemic had additional stress, which resulted in trauma. This article reassessed the perceptions of experienced stringed instrument teachers from a previous study ( N = 3) through the lens of their music teacher identity expertise. Reassessing changes in experienced music teachers’ teaching identity expertise during the pandemic could help preservice teachers enhance their creativity, resilience, and flexibility to face future environmental shifts of any proportion. Experienced music teachers’ outcomes could result in more meaningful and relevant curricula as well as a framework for implementing professional self-care to heal from the trauma of this global pandemic and prevent burnout and attrition.

Conservatoire students’ perspectives on instrumental music teacher education: ‘Developing Pedagogical Knowledge’ (DPK) for the future music education workforce

ABSTRACT Conservatoires train musicians to high levels of proficiency in performance and other ‘principal study’ disciplines, but often, teaching is perceived as a second-class profession, and little is known about how music students learn to facilitate music making in others. Yet, conservatoires have a responsibility to contribute to the development of the music education workforce. Building on Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge model (PCK), two new constructs are created from data gathered through textual narratives and semi-structured interviews from over 100 music undergraduates who reflect on their instrumental teacher education in a UK conservatoire. Transferable Content Knowledge (TCK) encapsulates the transferable skills that students develop in a conservatoire setting, enabling them to become confident communicators and collaborators. Values-Based Knowledge (VBK) nurtures a sense of social responsibility, raising students’ awareness of the professional qualities and behaviours necessary to forge positive relationships and create stimulating learning environments. The emergent ‘Developing Pedagogical Knowledge’ (DPK) framework offers scope to explore the transition from student to teacher across other phases of education and in other disciplines.

Conservatoire alumni as mentors in instrumental music teacher education: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT It has been argued that conservatoires in England have a responsibility to train music educators. This article proposes that alumni could have an important role to play in contributing to their former institution’s instrumental music teacher education provision and explores how two UK conservatoire graduates with at least three years teaching experience mentored students on placements in professional teaching contexts. Through online semi-structured interviews, the two alumni reflected on their own mentoring styles, the benefits and challenges of mentoring, their prior experience of being mentored on placement as former students, and the perceived benefits of reciprocal learning through mentorship. Findings suggest that alumni believe they can offer valuable insights into early instrumental teaching careers. Though long-established teachers are often chosen to be mentors, arguably, alumni are more relatable as workplace role models for current students. Furthermore, it is proposed that mentor schemes offered in conjunction with employers enable conservatoires to continue to support instrumental teacher development long after their students have graduated, since reciprocal learning processes lead mentors to reflect on their own practice, deepening their pedagogical knowledge and metacognitive awareness.

Preparing conservatoire students for the music education workforce: institutional and industrial perspectives on instrumental teacher education in England

ABSTRACT A skilled music education workforce is essential to ensure longevity of music-making for future generations of young learners and access to high-quality instrumental music tuition remains crucial for school-aged pupils. Yet, Higher Education providers, including conservatoires, are not held accountable for providing high-quality pedagogical training to ensure that music graduates are best equipped to support musical learning in children and young people. Perspectives on instrumental teacher education obtained through interviews with academics at six English conservatoires were triangulated with questionnaire responses from senior leaders of 66 Music Education Hubs in England. Findings revealed institutional challenges relating to the privileging of principal study activity; inconsistent pedagogical provision across the conservatoire sector, and a mismatch between students’ pedagogical training and employer expectations. Closer collaboration and dialogue between institutions and employers are recommended to ensure that conservatoire graduates are trained appropriately to meet the needs of the modern music education sector.

Instrument teachers’ practices, beliefs, and barriers regarding musical creativity: Exploring the creative process of interpretation

Instrumental music teaching traditionally emphasizes the cognitive, motor, and motivational processes of score reproduction, often at the expense of creative musical activities, such as improvisation or composition. Since today’s international art school curricula prominently include creativity competencies, opportunities to integrate creativity in instrumental lessons must be explored. This study investigates instrument teachers’ conception of musical creativity: its scope, opportunities, and risks. About 273 teachers completed an online questionnaire on their use of creative class time, beliefs, and barriers to creative instrument teaching. Although the majority acknowledged the benefits of creative activities for score-playing, they invested little in improvisation and composition due to a lack of time and training in musical creativity. Teachers considered interpretation a valuable form of musical creativity, next to improvisation and composition, but questioned its feasibility in instrument lessons. Implications for instrument-teacher training are discussed.

Investigation of body posture problems experienced in baglama teaching process

This research was conducted to determine the bodily setting problems experienced during the bağlama teaching process and to reveal the search for solutions to these problems. The research was conducted in accordance with the case study design, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The participants of the study consisted of 42 bağlama instrument teachers, 88.1% of whom were male (n=37) and 11.9% of whom were female (n=5). In the study, "open and closed-ended questionnaire form" prepared by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. The data obtained were analyzed according to thematic analysis technique. The research data were analyzed under five themes. These themes are; "Sitting mistakes and solution suggestions", "Instrument Positioning Mistakes and Solution Suggestions", "Right Hand Positioning Mistakes and Solution Suggestions", "Left Hand Positioning Mistakes and Solution Suggestions" and "Use of Apparatus for bodily setting". As a result of the research, it was determined that students experienced bodily setting problems during the baglama vocalization process and that teachers made various practices to overcome these problems.

Exploring the importance of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach: Pedagogical perspectives and the emotional response of listeners

Music education in the United Kingdom has long been centred on the study of historic European classical music. Many studies within the field of Music Psychology have investigated the various ways in which people respond to Western Art Music, and how those responses may differ in accordance with the listening context, but very few have examined the effect of music by specific composers. Bach’s music is still performed regularly around the world—arguably more so than any other composer—and continues to be regarded as essential repertoire by instrumental teachers across many disciplines. This study sought to investigate the potential reasons for this from the perspective of pedagogic value and listener response. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, incorporating semi-structured interviews with music educators alongside a listening experiment in which participants rated their emotional responses to a selection of pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. A reflexive thematic analysis was used to present an apologia for the continued propagation of Bach’s music in mainstream education, and listeners’ emotional responses were measured using a standardised scale. Additional ratings for valence, arousal, familiarity and overall enjoyment were also gathered from each participant. Results indicate a statistically significant relationship between the music of specific composers and some emotion categories. These findings could lend support to the continued hagiolatry of J. S. Bach in music education, in spite of the welcome drive towards the diversification of the curriculum.

Examination of school readiness and factors related to developmental vulnerability in children born very low birth weight.

Many children born very low birth weight (VLBW) experience school struggles with preparedness requiring adequate physical, social, behavioural, cognitive and communication skills. A global assessment of proficiency is necessary to identify those at risk in any such area and direct early intervention accordingly. Study objectives were to characterize developmental vulnerability and school readiness scores in these key domains in a sample of children born VLBW versus their provincial public school system peers and identify early-life infant and parent factors related to suboptimal school readiness. The Early Development Instrument teacher assessments of school readiness were collected for a Canadian VLBW sample (NCT02759809). Comparisons between children born VLBW and peers were made. Group differences between children born VLBW considered vulnerable (<10th percentile, not developmentally ready for learning) and not vulnerable were tested and linear regression explored associations between early-life factors and domain scores. Of 77 available Early Development Instrument assessments, median (interquartile range) assessment age was 6.0 (5.7, 6.2) years, birth weight 950 (793, 1250) grammes and birth gestation 27.4 (25.6, 29.7) weeks. A higher proportion of children born VLBW versus peers exhibited vulnerability in Physical Health and Well-being (24.7% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.04), Communication Skills and General Knowledge (23.4% vs. 10.2%, p = 0.0001) and vulnerability in ≥2 domains (26.0% vs. 14.4%, p = 0.004). Children born VLBW classified as vulnerable versus not vulnerable had lower birth gestation and 5-min Apgar. Adjusted regression models found Apgar <7 associated with lower scores for Physical Health and Well-being (-0.86; 95%CI: -1.71, -0.00; p = 0.049), Social Competence (-1.77; 95%CI: -2.92, -0.62; p = 0.003), Emotional Maturity (-1.55; 95%CI: -2.43, -0.66; p = 0.0009) and Communication Skills and General Knowledge (-1.63; 95%CI: -3.19, -0.06; p = 0.04). This VLBW sample exhibited poor school readiness in multiple domains. Identification of lower birth gestation and Apgar may assist targeted early interventions to mitigate vulnerability.

Art in the development of creativity and cognitive-logical capabilities through the prism of formal and non-formal education

Modeling the personality of students is any teachear’s major goal in his activity. The article addresses the role of the musical instrument teacher in the development of students’ creativity and cognitive-logical abilities. The indisputable role of creativity in the development of cognitive-logical abilities is highlighted, based on the theoretical investigation of bibliographic sources, theoretical generalization, as well as the analysis of work experience.

The Importance of Ensemble in Instrumental Music Teaching

This proposal focuses on research the importance of ensemble in instrumental music learning with the aim of using the results to stimulate more teachers and students to pay attention to the ensemble approach as a means of study. This paper will investigate the subject through interviews and reviews. In total, eight instrument teachers will be interviewed, four of whom teach instrumental music on a one-to-one basis, and four arrange instrument teaching through ensemble lessons. Initially, all teachers will be asked to complete a questionnaire. Then, they will be interviewed after they have delivered their lessons, which will be recorded on video. This approach is intended to analyze and evaluate the different teaching methods, discovering which teaching method allows the increased efficiency of instrumental music teaching by encouraging student creativity. This paper aims to add value to instrument education and better encourage students to learn about instrumental music.

Digital Listening Tools to Facilitate Children’s Self-Regulation of Instrumental Music Practice

In this study, we explored the ways in which listening tools within technology-mediated environments can facilitate children’s self-regulation of instrumental music learning between lessons. This interpretive multiple case study utilized a software application assigned for 22 weeks to a piano teacher and four students (ages 8–10). Data sources include student and teacher semistructured interviews and practice session observations. Self-regulated learning theory informed the recommended learning approach with technology and provided a lens for within- and cross-case thematic analysis. Study findings suggest that digital tools that provide accessible and customizable listening experiences can be used strategically to promote independent listening opportunities between lessons, in turn facilitating processes of aural familiarity and problem-solving. However, students’ self-regulatory development was also dependent on learning preferences and sustained teacher facilitation. The recommendations in this study can inform instrumental teachers about pedagogical approaches with technology, and the implications can contribute to the design of digital environments to support children’s instrumental learning.

“Failing in spite of wonderfulness”: High-stakes ensemble adjudication in low-income schools

The culture of competition in music education is pervasive, reflecting the overall growth in standardization and accountability measures in education. With this study, I addressed the intersection of two underexamined topics in music education: teachers’ experience with competitive ensemble events and the structural challenges of working in a low-income, student of color (SOC) majority campus. In this basic qualitative study, I examined how instrumental music teachers navigate the high-stakes policy of an adjudicated large-ensemble contest within and beyond their classrooms. Research questions include the following: (a) What do teachers perceive to be the unique challenges they face in preparing for and participating in ensemble adjudication as a result of their context in a low-income, SOC-majority campus? (b) How does preparation and participation ensemble adjudication influence teaching and learning in instrumental music classrooms? (c) What do teachers perceive to be the function and justification for compulsory ensemble adjudication? Findings suggest that teachers working in these contexts experience unique challenges in preparing for and succeeding in adjudication events due to the intersection of campus-based challenges and policy. In addition, music teachers experience similar narrowing of content and heightened stress as their general education counterparts within accountability structures.