Music Teacher Education Programs Research Articles

Multicultural and popular music content in an American music teacher education program

The teaching of multicultural music, and to a lesser extent popular music, has been the stated goal of music education policy makers for many decades. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to estimate the amount and percentage of time music education majors in a university teacher education program spent on 13 styles of music in history, theory and performance courses during a four-year program, both in and out of class. Subjects were the entire population of undergraduate pre-service music teachers from one large university music school in the southwestern United States ( N = 80). Estimates were provided by the course instructors. Subjects spent widely disparate amounts of time on musics of the western art (92.83%), western non-art (6.94%), and non-western (.23%) traditions, with little time (.54%) devoted to popular music. The discussion centers on solutions sometimes proffered for musically unbalanced music teacher education programs, implications relative to accreditation and national music standards in the USA, and changes implemented by the institution under study.

Distance Learning in Graduate Music Teacher Education

The impact of a graduate distance learning music teacher education program on the professional development of in-service music teachers is evaluated through telephone interviews of 16 program graduates, a questionnaire completed by 29 current students, and a questionnaire completed by 10 graduating students. Emergent themes are development of teaching philosophy, changes in teaching practice, personal growth, and high program satisfaction. Philosophy changes are generally reported in vague terms. Graduates' classroom methods, curriculum, assessment, and technology integration practices are widely affected. Program attributes that enhance learning and satisfaction include increased interaction among music teachers, positive faculty—student interaction, real-world tasks, quality of learning, and technology integration. Assignments requiring asynchronous communication, multimedia creation, or online research increase interaction and real-world applicability.

Mentoring Preservice Teachers for Development and Growth of Professional Knowledge

How can professors, teachers, colleagues, and administrators mentor preservice teachers toward professional growth? How can music teacher education programs exemplify, generate, and nurture a cultu f metoring? It seems self-evident that mentoring is an important topic in the professional development of teachers. The publication of Great Beginnings for Music Teachers: Mentoring and Supporting ~rs1 acknowledges MENC's interest in the topic and articulates important strategies for addressing the needs of beginning teachers during the induction phase of their professional developent. ven earlier than their first years in the classroom, however, preservice teachers can benefit from a mentoring environment while still students, as they begin to develop an identity with the role of teacher.

Pop and world music in Dutch music education: two cases of authentic learning in music teacher education and secondary music education

Popular and world music play an important role in Dutch music education. This article examines two case studies that illustrate authentic music learning environments in which these types of music are prominently used. The first case follows a student during her training at the Rotterdam Academy for Music Education, in which her own musical and teaching experiences are crucial elements of her training. The second case focuses on a recently published music methodology in the Netherlands called Soundcheck. Following this methodology, pupils in secondary education are stimulated by playing in groups on real instruments, using pop and world music. Reflecting on their musical experiences helps them to learn more about music. These case studies illustrate in a practical sense the dynamics of authentic music learning in schools and in a music teacher education programme in the multicultural environment of Rotterdam.

What Music Teachers Want: The Emergence of a Unified Understanding of an Ideal Teacher Education Course

‘Burnout’ and praxis shock seem to be causing teachers to leave the profession early. Much research suggests that this is a reflection on the quality of teacher education programs. Interviews with teachers who were in their first four years in the secondary music classroom reveal how they view their pre-service preparation, and therefore provide an insight into how pre-service teacher education might be effectively reconceptualised. This paper explores the relationship between Zeichner and Liston’s (1990) teacher education ‘traditions’ and early-career music teachers’ perceptions of an ‘ideal’ teacher education course. Analyses of interviews with 15 early-career secondary classroom music teachers suggest the emergence of a common understanding regarding the design of effective music teacher education programs. Rather than representing any of Zeichner and Liston’s four traditions in particular, early-career music teachers speak of a music teacher education approach that incorporates all of the traditions in an integrated way. This understanding of an ‘ideal’ teacher education course should be considered when designing or reconceptualising teacher education courses in order to provide improved opportunities for future music teachers.

A dissonant duet: Discussions of music making and music teaching

The literature in the field of music teacher education describes a tension between the music making and the music teaching in the professional lives of music educators. Yet how do music educators themselves think about their work? This study is an investigation of how six elementary general music teachers who are also performers speak about their music making and their music teaching. Data was collected in 4 hours of largely unstructured interviews with each respondent. Data analysis strategies included identifying emergent themes, constructing profiles, juxtaposing interview excerpts and categorizing characterizations of the tension between making music and teaching music. The main findings were that the participants characterized their music making and music teaching in three ways: as two distinct roles that they take on in their professional lives, as a single approach that they take to two activities, and as an experience of making music that they hope to recreate for their students. This study aims to inform the current rethinking of music teacher education programs on the part of institutions of higher education by contributing to a richer and more nuanced understanding of the lives and work of music teachers.

Effectiveness of preservice music teacher education programs: Perceptions of early-career music teachers

The quality of teaching in schools is directly linked to the quality of preservice preparation that teachers receive. This is particularly important in the area of music teacher education, given the unique challenges that classroom music teachers commonly face. This paper reports on research designed to investigate the knowledge and skills that early-career music teachers perceive to be necessary to function effectively in the classroom, and their perceptions of the effectiveness of current teacher education programs in preparing them to teach secondary classroom music. Questionnaires were completed by 76 secondary classroom music teachers in their first three years of teaching in Queensland, Australia. Importance-Performance Analysis was used to determine those areas of the preservice course that constituted a high priority for attention. The findings suggest that preservice teachers need increased support in their development of pedagogical content knowledge and skills, and non-pedagogical professional content knowledge and skills. This research provides an empirical basis for reconceptualising music teacher education courses and raises important issues that music teacher educators need to address in order to ensure that graduates are adequately prepared for classroom music teaching.

A Model In-Service Music Teacher Education Program

A Model In-Service Music Teacher Education Program

Research in Music Teacher Education

tion as a means of improving instruction, its delivery, and its evaluation. This viewpoint, however, must be challenged if the music education profession is to make significant improvements in the quality of teaching in America's music classrooms and rehearsal halls. Moreover, this position must be revised if research is to be viewed positively by both preparatory and practicing music educators. A positive view of research would facilitate necessary and desirable curricular and methodological modifications to school music programs. Music teacher education programs must include an early introduction to systematic inquiry and consistent reinforcement and use of research concepts. Additionally, the important research being done in traditionally academic educational settings, such as studies focusing on cooperative learning and effective schools, must not be minimized or-even worse-discredited as

Music Teacher Education: New Directions

Research about the delivery of music teacher education programs indicates a number of areas which should be addressed. The report below describes innovative practice in an advanced elementary methods course at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. In Music Education 306, theory and practice were connected through student-directed discussions of foundation issues; the development of personal musical competencies; observation, teaching in the schools, and reflection on practice; the challenge to examine issues critically; and student involvement in the planning of their own learning and assessment. Excerpts from student reflections illustrate some of the learning which occurred.

A Bibliography of Research on the Evaluation of Music Teacher Education Programs

A Bibliography of Research on the Evaluation of Music Teacher Education Programs