Self-Examination of Music Methods Teaching in a Reggio Emilia-Inspired Learning Community

2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110380
Author(s):  
H. Ellie Wolfe ◽  
Angela Munroe ◽  
Heather D. Waters

Music teacher educators have taken different approaches to enrich teaching-specific reflective practice through peer collaboration. In this study, three music teacher educators examined their experiences with the process of pedagogical documentation, a form of collaborative professional development from the Reggio Emilia Approach (REA). They met via video conferencing over the course of a semester to review key concepts related to the REA, share student artifacts, and discuss teaching contexts and considerations. Through this collaboration, participants found space for sharing successes, supporting personal reflection, troubleshooting, and revisiting ideas related to teaching and learning. They deepened their attunement to how teaching contexts continually shift and the affordances and challenges of incorporating the hundred languages (a concept from REA) in higher education.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa R. Kuebel ◽  
Lisa Huisman Koops ◽  
Vanessa L. Bond

The purpose of this autonarrative inquiry was to explore the professional identity development and mentoring relationships of three general music teacher educators during their time at one university. We present our stories of development and re-visioning as general music methods educators through our roles as educator, learner, and co-learner while having taught or team-taught general music methods at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) over the past 10 years. Data included individual journals and transcripts of monthly Google text chats and conference calls. We analyzed the data through the commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place, and engaged in re-storying. Investigating the process of becoming a general music methods instructor provided important insights concerning the impact of time, people, and places on the transition from music teacher to music teacher educator.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-84
Author(s):  
Joshua Palkki ◽  
William Sauerland

Gender is one of the many social constructs that can influence teaching and learning. As trans(gender) people “come out” at earlier ages, an increasing number of teachers will have openly identifying trans and gender nonconforming students in their classes. Music educators and music teacher educators are often supporters of LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual/agender/ally) students; thus, these constituencies should expand their notions of gender away from a simplistic binary category toward a gender-complex approach in which all students—cisgender, trans, genderqueer, and questioning—can thrive. To that end, we provide an overview of vocabulary and teaching pedagogies pertinent to gender issues in music teacher education. In addition, we offer sample lessons and projects that could be incorporated into preservice music teacher preparation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882096412
Author(s):  
Rui Yuan ◽  
Min Yang

This study aims to explore a teacher educator’s perceptions and practice of translanguaging in his education classrooms as a teacher of English as a medium of instruction (EMI). Adopting a qualitative case study approach, the research revealed that the teacher educator used three translanguaging strategies (i.e. integrating academic discourse with everyday discourse, linking verbal and other semiotic resources, and using students’ first language) to create a ‘translanguaging space’ in his EMI classrooms for content teaching and learning. The findings also showed that the teacher educator’s translanguaging practice was both planned and generative, depending on his situated teaching context which presented him with various teaching opportunities and challenges (e.g. students’ resistance and university policy). The study highlights the importance of teacher educators’ reflective practice in their execution and improvement of translanguaging practice in EMI classroom settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
H. Ellie Wolfe

Preservice music teachers may devalue play as a teaching approach unless music teacher educators reintroduce them to play through role-playing, cooperative games, and other playful activities. I designed a 4-week unit on play as part of an elementary general music methods course. Student participants engaged in, reflected on, and planned play activities over the course of the unit. My data sources, which included video recordings, written responses, lesson plans, and researcher notes, were analyzed through the lens of Gray’s conception of play as intrinsic, imaginative, and mentally active. Participants reflected on play experiences and play-based teaching in individualized ways, but also appeared to increasingly value play over time. I discuss implications for implementing play in preservice music teacher education.


Author(s):  
Michael Raiber

The impact of teacher dispositions on the professional development of preservice music teachers (PMTs) has been substantiated. This chapter describes an approach to dispositional development within the structure of an introduction to music education course. A teacher concerns model is used to organize this systematic approach through three developmental stages that include self-concerns, teaching task concerns, and student learning concerns. A series of 11 critical questions are presented for use in guiding PMTs’ dispositional development through these developmental stages. Activities to engage PMTs in the exploration of each of these questions are detailed for use by music teacher educators desiring to engage PMTs in dispositional development.


Author(s):  
Colleen Conway ◽  
Shannan Hibbard

This chapter situates the study of music teacher education within the larger body of music education and teacher education research. It problematizes the terms teacher training, teacher education, and best practice and introduces the concept of teaching as an “impossible profession.” Goals of teacher education, including reflective practice and adaptive expertise, are discussed. The chapter outlines the challenges that music teacher educators face as they try to prepare preservice teachers for the realities of P-12 school-based music education while instilling in these new colleagues a disposition toward change. It concludes with narratives that examine teachers’ descriptions of classroom relationships throughout the lens of presence in teaching as a way to remind teacher educators of the importance of their work to push the boundaries of music teacher education in order to serve the profession at large.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
Crystal Sieger

Students choosing to enter the music teaching profession after having already obtained undergraduate degrees in other music fields may experience unique forms of socialization and teacher identity development. Participants were four students enrolled in a 3-year master’s program with a music teacher licensure component. Through individual and focus group interviews, participants shared their perspectives on program experiences, course elements, and interactions with peers and professors as important influences on their developing music teacher identity. I examined the data for emerging patterns and applied open and axial coding to the most prominent responses, resulting in themes centered on participants’ socialization experiences, desire for independence, need for self-justification, and “outsider” status among peers. To combat lack of peer recognition or support, participants developed strong, collaborative relations with each other. Implications for music teacher educators are considered.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Mara E. Culp ◽  
Karen Salvador

Music educators must meet the needs of students with diverse characteristics, including but not limited to cultural backgrounds, musical abilities and interests, and physical, behavioral, social, and cognitive functioning. Music education programs may not systematically prepare preservice teachers or potential music teacher educators for this reality. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare undergraduate and graduate students to structure inclusive and responsive experiences for diverse learners. We replicated and expanded Salvador’s study by including graduate student preparation, incorporating additional facets of human diversity, and contacting all institutions accredited by National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. According to our respondents, integrated instruction focused on diverse learners was more commonly part of undergraduate coursework than graduate coursework. We used quantitative and qualitative analysis to describe course offerings and content integration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110245
Author(s):  
Karen Salvador ◽  
Mara E. Culp

Although many music teacher candidates begin university studies planning to teach secondary ensembles, most will ultimately be certified to teach younger children and may be called to do so. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare preservice music educators to teach music to children from birth through elementary school through coursework. We emailed survey invitations to representatives from 512 institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. We received 134 usable responses (response rate = 26%). Nearly all respondents offered elementary general music methods (EGMM), and over three quarters required EGMM for all students in initial licensure programs. Only about one in ten responding institutions offered early childhood music methods (ECMM). We describe findings on EGMM and ECMM course structures, content, and materials as well as the employment status, degree background, and other qualifications of the person who typically taught this coursework


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