scholarly journals Music Teacher Knowledge: An Examination of the Intersections Between Instrumental Music Teaching and Conducting

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sommer H. Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Knowledge ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Specialized Form ◽  
The Moment

The purpose of this study was to examine the complexities of instrumental music teacher knowledge as they relate to the intersection between instrumental music teaching and conducting, and to explore how participants describe and perceive these intersections. The key research question guiding this study was, How do high school instrumental music teachers describe the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting? This study focused on the participants’ ( N = 4) perceptions and descriptions of the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting. A multiple-case-study design was used. The central finding of this study suggests that the practice of instrumental music teaching demands a specialized form of knowledge that reflects the integration of, rather than the intersection between, both teaching and conducting. This specialized form of knowledge informs the participants’ in-the-moment decision making, judgments, decisions, and communication with students and the ensemble as a whole. The findings of this study suggest implications for music teacher education and conducting education, specifically in the areas of devising professional development opportunities that are systematic, multilevel, and multifaceted and that mirror the integrated nature of teaching and conducting that occurs in practice.

Instrumental Opportunities: Music for All

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Linda Thornton ◽  
Mara E. Culp
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Inclusive Settings ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Teacher Students ◽  
The Face

Although resources exist to help instrumental music teachers assist learners in inclusive settings, students’ voices may be absent from those resources. As such, music teachers may struggle to honor the needs and experiences of students with physical differences. Students with physical differences may be steered away from instrumental music or toward an instrument that may not be the student’s preference. The purpose of this study was to understand the stories of students with physical differences and their teacher to examine how participation in instrumental music was enabled in this setting. Data were generated through examining artifacts and completing interviews with the instrumental music teacher, students, and students’ parents. Interview data were analyzed using process/action coding. Main themes that emerged were (a) previous experiences and prior knowledge, (b) recognizing strengths and challenges, (c) perseverance toward desires in the face of uncertainty, (d) help and support from others, and (e) materials. Implications for future research and possible applications to music teaching and music teacher education are discussed.

Instructional Expertise and Micropolitics: The Social Networks of Instrumental Music Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-350
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Career Stage ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

The purpose of this study was to understand the social networks of three instrumental music teachers in a midwestern school district. Research questions were (1) How do instrumental music teachers describe their formal/instructional networks? and (2) How do instrumental music teachers’ social networks differ by career stage? I used a qualitative ego network design to map social networks of information sharing with a focus on the flow of social capital. Data sources included a name-generating questionnaire to construct networks and two semistructured interviews focusing on the nature and significance of teachers’ ties. Findings suggest that social networks showed particularities in terms of number of ties and tie strength. On matters of instruction, participants sought out music teachers whom they respected or who possessed specialized knowledge. Participants spoke of the importance of forging micropolitical ties to secure needs related to resources and scheduling, using ties strategically. Finally, participants felt that networks differed by career stage with advice seeking decreasing over time and networks becoming more close-knit. Implications are offered for music teachers and music teacher educators.

“Staying On Our Feet”

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine G. Bell-Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
New Music ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
School Year ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers

Multiple forms of support for teachers new to the profession are important and necessary. The use of an online community by 11 novice instrumental music teachers at the middle school and high school levels was investigated in this case study. The teachers exchanged messages and information within the online community during the 2010–2011 school year; data sources included all transcripts from the online community and multiple interviews with each participant. The participants’ experiences in the utilization of the wikispace as an online community of practice was analyzed using Wenger’s three components of domain, community, and practice. The findings suggest that the online community appeared to have met novice teachers’ emotional needs as they learned to become music teachers but that their positions were often also quite different in terms of specific responsibilities and music curricula they taught. Thus, online conversations focused more on the affective issues that surround being a new music teacher rather than on curriculum and classroom-specific content.

Instrumental Music Educators’ Experiences in a Professional Development Course

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tami J. Draves
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Teaching Situation ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Engaged Teachers ◽  
Development Course

The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences of instrumental music teachers in Designing Arts Instruction, a 4-day professional development course in a large urban school district. Specifically, I was interested in which activities participants (a) found most relevant and applicable to their current teaching situation, (b) believed would most benefit student learning, and (c) believed would contribute most to their overall music teacher development. Multiple forms of data were collected including participants’ reflections, researcher-facilitator journal and field notes, and structured individual interviews. Curriculum development and rubric writing were relevant to participants’ teaching situations and also engaged teachers’ personal musicianship. Participants recognized creative activities as motivating for students. Collaboration emerged as the course feature that contributed most to participants’ overall development. Those who plan and facilitate professional development might consider including aspects that invite collaboration, deep thinking, engagement, and reflection, particularly within the context of teachers’ musicianship.

scholarly journals Music Teacher Rankings of Selected Core Teaching Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
J. Si Millican ◽  
Sommer Helweh Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Technical Vocabulary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Service Music

There is a decades-long history of music education researchers examining characteristics and skills associated with effective teaching and assessing how preservice music teachers develop those competencies. Building on studies of pedagogical content knowledge and the professional opinions of experienced music educators, researchers are now attempting to identity a body of core music teaching practices. We asked experienced in-service music teachers ( N = 898) to think about the skills beginning music teachers must possess to investigate how respondents rated and ranked selected core music teaching practices in terms of their relative importance. Developing appropriate relationships with students, modeling music concepts, and sequencing instruction were the top core teaching practices identified by the group. Results provide insights into knowing, naming, and framing a set of core teaching practices and offer a common technical vocabulary that music teacher educators might use as they design curricula and activities to develop these foundational skills.

scholarly journals Music Teacher Dispositions: Self-Appraisals and Values of University Music Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Woody ◽  
Danni Gilbert ◽  
Lynda A. Laird
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Teacher Dispositions ◽  
Music Students ◽  
Music Majors ◽  
Education Majors ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Music Education Majors

For music teachers to be most effective, they must possess the dispositions that best facilitate their students’ learning. In this article, we present and discuss the findings of a study in which we sought to explore music majors’ self-appraisals in and the extent to which they value the disposition areas of reflectivity, empathic caring, musical comprehensiveness, and musical learnability orientation. Evidence from a survey of 110 music majors suggested that music education students possess and value the dispositions of reflectivity, musical comprehensiveness, and musical learnability orientation more highly after they have matured through their college careers. Additionally, based on their responses to music teaching scenarios, it appears that senior music education majors possess greater empathic caring than do their freshman counterparts.

Addressing the concerns of conservatoire students about school music teaching

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Mills
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
First Year ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
School Class ◽  
Secondary Music ◽  
School Music

While most of the students who graduate each year from the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London build performance-based portfolio careers that include some teaching, very few of them enter secondary school class music teaching. This article describes how young musicians' concerns about the career of secondary class music teacher develop as they move from sixth former to first year RCM undergraduate to third year undergraduate, and proposes some ways in which these concerns may be addressed. RCM students often agree strongly with statements consistent with a positive attitude to teaching, such as feeling a sense of achievement when pupils learn, and considering that teaching is about helping pupils realise their musical potential. However, they also tend to think that secondary class music teaching is not ‘doing music’. Successful secondary music teachers may take a different view, and the effect on RCM students of working with such teachers is reported descriptively.

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