Why don't more primary teachers teach music? This article describes a study of forty non-specialist primary B.Ed, students over their year-long professional music course. Initially, most students have little confidence in their ability to teach music. As the course progresses, a smaller proportion of students who lack confidence teach music during school experience. A cycle has developed in which student teachers worried about music do not learn to teach it because teachers with similar worries often do not teach it. The author argues that students who lack confidence in music need more encouragement from all those involved in their professional preparation if they are to break out of this cycle.In primary schools music is often seen as the province of specialist, not generalise teachers. Whereas teachers with special responsibility for other areas of the curriculum usually act mainly in an advisory and administrative capacity, specialist music teachers often assume total responsibility for the music teaching of several classes.In the Primary Survey (DES, 1978) HMI found that approximately 70 % of primary schools, and 84 % of primary schools which are at least three form entry, have a teacher with special curricular responsibility for music. The number of schools which have such music specialist teachers exceeded the number having teachers with special responsibility for any other subject. This pattern was repeated in more recent surveys when HMI found approximately 84% of first schools (DES, 1982) and 82% of combined and 8-12 middle schools (DES, 1985 a) had specialist music teachers.Many primary teachers do not teach music to their own classes. The Primary Survey (DES, 1978) showed that 40% of seven-year-olds, 50 % of nine-year-olds, and 55 % of elevenyear-olds are taught music by a teacher other than their class teacher. More recently, HMI (DES, 1985) found that only about 40% of teachers of junior children in combined and 8-12 middle schools teach any music. In both surveys, there is no other subject in which less children are taught by their class teacher. Indeed, the Primary Schools Research and Development Group (1983) found that 26.6% of a sample of 465 teachers think there is little need for all teachers to be competent B.

What makes instrumental teaching, including vocal teaching, effective? And is this the same in schools and in higher education (HE), including conservatoires? We asked 134 local education authority (LEA) instrumental teachers to state what they believe makes good teaching in schools and in HE, and to list the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching that they recall receiving as students. We found that many teachers believe that good teaching in schools differs from good teaching in HE. There are differences in the beliefs held by teachers with and without qualified teacher status (QTS), and also in those of men and women. Many teachers report that their teaching is influenced by the ways that they were taught, and the ‘peak’ lessons that teachers received often appear particularly influential. We explain the steps we have taken to enable LEAs to apply the findings when planning professional development for their teachers, and suggest further applications.

The last decade has seen changes in the systems used in the summative assessment of musical performance at the end of compulsory schooling. One trend has been the replacement of holistic assessment by segmented assessment. The author discusses the subjectivity, reliability and musical validity of the two systems, and summarises an experiment which investigates the extent to which holistic assessment can be accounted for by means of a segmented marking system. Multiple regression analysis produces a regression equation which accounts for 71% of the variance in holistic marks produced by 29 assessors marking 10 performances. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of this study for assessment in musical performance and other fields.Over the last 10 years or so, there have been significant changes in the systems used for teacher assessment of the solo musical performance components of the public examinations taken at the end of compulsory schooling. At the start of this period, teachers were typically asked to award a single mark drawn from a criterionreferenced scale designed by the O-level or CSE Examination Board. I shall refer to this type of system as holistic assessment. Currently, it is more usual for GCSE assessors to be asked to award marks under a series of subheadings, with the final mark being some linear combination of these submarks. I shall call this type of system segmented assessment.It almost goes without saying that the processes of holistic and segmented assessment feel different to assessors. As a holistic assessor, I feel that I am considering the performance in its own terms: as one of "the musician's fundamental activities of performing, composing and listening" (DES, 1985a, p. 2). Holistic assessment feels musical, to the extent that assigning a single mark or grade to a performance could ever feel musical. But as a segmented assessor, it seems that I must turn the performance into something less coherent than music before I may assess it. This seems to be at odds with the National Criteria for GCSE music (DES, 1985b) which stress the need for GCSE music courses, and assessment, to avoid undue compartmentalisation of musical activities. And it certainly feels unmusical.The segmented system of marking performance may be seen, in an extreme form, in the Criteria for Assessment of Prepared Performance produced by one group Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 07:37 03 January 2015 174 J. Mills of examining boards for the Phase Two GCSE training of teachers. Assessors were required to assign marks of up to three for each of five skills categories (accuracy of notes, accuracy of rhythm, phrasing, control of medium, and technique adequate to the piece) and five interpretation categories (effective dynamics, appropriate tempo, suitable sense of style, sense of involvement in the music, and sense of performance). The totals for skills and interpretation were added to produce an overall mark, with the maximum mark possible being 30.This assessment system is underpinned by the ...

The attitudes and experiences of 13 music students entering a conservatoire were tracked before their entry and throughout their first term at college. Aspirations and apprehensions towards the musical, academic and social aspects of college life were collected in addition to career aims, and the data analysed qualitatively to produce emergent themes. Three pivot points were drawn from the analysis, describing events or factors that appear to shape the development of the students as musicians. The first highlights the importance of the students' first performance at college, and the second focuses on overcoming possible feelings of inadequacy generated from being one of many outstanding musicians. Thirdly, the role of feedback is highlighted as an important part of the students becoming confident in all aspects of their musical work.

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