Attitudes of select music performance faculty toward students teaching private lessons after graduation: A USA pilot study

Abstract

The present study was designed to pilot test an adjusted version of a questionnaire, used in earlier studies with college music students, to determine opinions of college music faculty on the topic of private lesson teaching. Full-time tenure-track college music faculty, with primary appointments in applied music at two universities in the United States, were contacted for the project. Thirty-two of 51 completed the task with no negative comments about the format, focus or specific questions in the instrument. Results were similar in many ways to previous student responses, and this group felt strongly that they liked teaching, training for teaching is important, and that their applied music lesson students would likely teach someday themselves. They enjoyed talking about pedagogical issues with students and liked the challenges of teaching musicians. Future research with this instrument should focus on larger groups with delineations in specialty area, faculty appointment, institution type/size, teaching assignment, and global representation.

Attitudes of String Teachers and Performers Toward Preparation for and Teaching of Private Lessons

“…However, in spite of that commitment, the lack of agreement for most groups with the idea of enjoying the process of teaching beginners is noticeably lower. This trend is evident in other studies of this type as well (Fredrickson, 2007a; Fredrickson et al, in press; Fredrickson & Brittin, 2009; Fredrickson, Gavin, & Moore, 2012; Mills, 2004; Villarreal, 2010). Perhaps the music profession in general could more actively engage potential teachers in conversations about the very beginning of the music education process.…”

“…The questionnaire for this study was based on the instrument administered by Fredrickson et al, (in press) and originally derived from Mills (2004). Participants were asked to respond to a series of statements, using a 7-point Likert scale, by indicating their level of agreement or disagreement.…”

“…Response choices ranged from 1 ( agree strongly ) through 4 ( no opinion ) to 7 ( disagree strongly ) to not applicable . The 28 statements used for this study (Fredrickson et al, in press) were grouped into six subgroups, categorized as follows:…”

“…Category 3 originally had been “the enjoyment of applied teaching” (Fredrickson et al, in press) but was changed to “personal teaching views” to avoid bias.…”

“…They also indicated that they themselves did not necessarily teach as their best teacher taught them, agreed that good teaching technique was not obvious and needs to be taught, and stated that good performers were not necessarily always good teachers. They also reported that they enjoy talking about teaching with their students (Fredrickson, Gavin, & Moore, in press).…”