In the study described here, we used an open-ended written essay to identify the factors that lead students to become music teachers. Ninety music education majors were given the instructions to indicate in their own words their earliest remembrances of when they considered becoming a music teacher, including age, place, who was with them, how they felt, their thoughts at the time, and any other aspects they considered important. Essays were analyzed and classified according to these areas of interest; additionally as a more qualitative assessment, total responses were analyzed to discern some of the nuances evidenced in individual responses. Results indicated that the age at which the decision was made and influential people in their lives were the most important factors affecting these subjects' decision to become a music teacher. The decision was vividly remembered, with school music teachers exerting the primary influence. Of the subjects, 76 % decided to become a music teacher before entering a teacher preparatory program. Students who did not decide until they were of college age remained ambivalent about their choice.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the frequency of particular authentic-context learning (ACL) activities during undergraduate instrumental music teacher training and the initial teaching performance (ITP) of undergraduate instrumental music student teachers. Subjects (N = 30) were instrumental music student teachers at four major universities. Four ACL activities, identified from the literature and limited to instrumental music settings, included (a) early field experience teaching episodes, (b) peer-teaching episodes, (c) episodes of subjects watching videotapes of their teaching, and (d) episodes of subjects watching videotapes of their teaching with a coaching instructor. ITP was determined by evaluating teaching episodes, which occurred within the first 3 weeks of student teaching, using the Survey of Teaching Effectiveness (Hamann & Baker, 1996). Significant correlations were found between ITP and three of the four ACL activities. In addition, an overall ACL experience value was calculated and categorized into high, medium, and low levels. Those with a high level of ACL experiences were significantly better teachers than those with medium or low levels of ACL experiences.
This study examined high school band and orchestra students' perceptions of effective music student teacher skills and behaviors. Participants ( N = 314) began by completing a 34-item survey by rating items 1 to 31 from 1 ( not very important) to 5 ( very important) regarding the degree of importance with which each trait should be exhibited by a student teacher in a music class. Items 32 to 34 asked the respondents to indicate (a) how often they had a music student intern during a specific time period, (b) the respondent's primary performance area, and (c) the respondent's year in school. Resulting data indicated that skills and behaviors receiving the highest mean scores were “Is able to apply knowledge; being competent” ( M = 4.595) and “Has a positive behavior” ( M = 4.586). Skills and behaviors receiving the lowest mean scores were “Can play the piano” ( M = 2.952) and “Has knowledge of technology” ( M = 3.407). ANOVA found few significant differences among the teacher traits and different groups of students.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of conducting instruction on 151 beginning band students' individual rhythmic performance, group rhythmic performance, group performance of legato and staccato, and group performance of phrasing and dynamics. Eight beginning band ensembles, representing diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, were randomly selected for the study. Beginning band students and their ensembles were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. After all subjects were pretested, the experimental bands received 10 minutes of basic conducting instruction per class during a 10-week period. Posttest results demonstrated that individuals in the experimental bands improved significantly more than did individuals in the control bands (p < .001) in their rhythmic performance. Bands in the experimental group improved their rhythm-reading and phrasing abilities (p < .01) more than bands in the control group. No differences were found with regard to legato and staccato, dynamic performance, or overall performance. It was concluded that conducting was a useful tool in teaching rhythm and phrasing in an ensemble setting.Large-ensemble music instruction has been common in American public schools since the beginning of the 20th century. This type of instruction is a popular and important facet in most public school music curricula. Despite this popularity and importance, teaching strategies for instrumental music are highly varied and often produce less-than-optimal results. As a result, researchers (Humphreys, May, & Nelson, 1992; Tait, 1992) have called for more detailed investigations focusing on specific teaching strategies in the music class and rehearsal room.Many music teaching strategies involve modeling techniques that use nonverbal communication in three forms: (1) music modeling, (2) aural modeling, and (3) physical modeling. Physical modeling includes facial and physical gestures often included in formal conducting gesSteven N. Kelly is an assistant professor of music education in
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