Preparing Middle School Music Teachers to Teach Jazz

Abstract

This mixed-methods study combined qualitative and quantitative data to identify middle school music teachers who perceive themselves as highly effective jazz teachers and to uncover the experiences that have best prepared them to teach middle school jazz. Quantitative data suggested that (a) playing in college jazz ensembles, (b) taking a college jazz pedagogy course, (c) mentorship in jazz, and (d) taking a college improvisation course all significantly correlate with one’s perceived ability to teach middle school jazz. However, both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that listening to jazz and playing as a professional jazz musician are among the most closely associated experiences to perceived ability, suggesting that the college jazz experience, although important, may not be the most important way of preparing future middle school jazz educators.

Keywords

band case method curriculum jazz mentoring mixed methods music teacher preparation perceived ability preservice teachers professional development

Research has shown that although music teacher educators and in-service music teachers agree that jazz should be an integral part of undergraduate music teacher preparation, music teachers often enter the profession feeling unprepared to teach jazz (Balfour, 1988; Fisher, 1981; Hepworth, 1974; Jones, 2005; Knox, 1996; Payne, 1973; Thomas, 1980), leaving many to seek jazz professional development opportunities after their college careers (Bauer, Forsythe, & Kinney, 2009). Concerned, members of The International Association of Jazz Educators assembled a panel at their 1999 Conference in Anaheim, California, to discuss music teacher education curriculum and its relevance to preparing future music teachers to teach jazz. When asked if teacher educators prepared preservice teachers to teach jazz, jazz educator David Caffey responded that they may prepare those who are interested, but they do not make jazz preparation a degree requirement, thus failing to reach those who need it most:

There are students not interested in jazz—perhaps it was just never presented to them; or they play an instrument that does not easily fit into traditional jazz instrumentation. These music education majors probably won’t be prepared to teach a junior high or high school-level jazz band. (Caffey, Lindeman, Montgomery, Sher, & Garcia, 1999, p. 39)

Our professional accrediting association, the National Association of Schools of Music does not list jazz as an essential competency for instrumental music education majors, and music teacher educators are often reluctant to eliminate courses from the music education program to make room for jazz courses (Thomas, 1980). Although many band directors indicate they would have been willing to forego other degree requirements to take jazz classes in college (Hepworth, 1974), there is little agreement about what such classes should entail. Some contend that music education majors should be exposed to Jazz Band Methods, Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Band, and Jazz History (Fisher, 1981), as well as Jazz in General Music, Jazz Keyboard, Jazz Arranging, Jazz Combo, Jazz Combo Pedagogy, and Jazz Vocal Technique (Fisher, 1981; Jones, 2005) and even Jazz Philosophy (Elliott, 1983; Jones, 2005). However, there exists no evidence that any of these courses actually prepare future music teachers to teach jazz; in fact, Knox (1996) found no significant relationship between a music teacher’s participation in college jazz courses and decisions of whether or not to incorporate jazz ensembles into his or her program.

Whereas some enter the profession able to effectively teach jazz, others have had to learn on the job (Hepworth, 1974), becoming what Hatano and Inagaki (1986) refer to as adaptive experts able to “apply, adapt, and otherwise stretch knowledge so that it addresses new situations” (Wineburg, 1998, p. 321). What then can music teacher educators do to prepare preservice music teachers to teach jazz? Whether in college or on the job, there must exist previous experiences that effective jazz educators credit as having prepared them to teach jazz. Therefore, the current study sought to identify school music teachers who perceive themselves as highly effective jazz teachers and to uncover the experiences that have most prepared them to teach school jazz.

Method

This study uses what Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) refer to as an “Exploratory Sequential” mixed methods design. Johnson and Turner (2003) point out that the strength of conducting mixed-methods research as opposed to two separate studies is that the methods (should) be mixed such that the strengths of each are complementary and the weaknesses do not overlap. For instance, when a need exists to first explore qualitatively, a researcher might choose to use an exploratory design. Such designs are useful when “measures or instruments are not available, the variables are unknown, or there is no guiding framework or theory” (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007, p. 75). Similarly, the first phase of the current study was a qualitative exploration of the experiences that prepared two highly qualified middle school jazz educators. In exploratory designs, the mixing happens between the qualitative analysis and the quantitative method, with the end result being the quantitative results. As such, findings generated from the qualitative portion of the current study informed the development of a survey instrument that was used to collect similar data from a larger population of middle school music teachers. Both data sets were then mixed through discussion to provide a more complete picture of middle school jazz educators’ previous experiences than could be provided with either data set alone (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Mixed Methods Design.

Qualitative Design

The qualitative portion of this study consisted of two individual case studies where the unit of analysis in each case was previous jazz experiences. The two participants, Brad and Walt,¹ are considered a criterion sample (Patton, 2002), in that they were selected to reflect cases that meet “some predetermined criteria of importance” (p. 238). In this study, the predetermined criterion of importance was that both participants were highly respected expert music teachers who teach middle school jazz ensemble but from different perspectives and with different approaches.

Participant 1, Brad, a trombone player, has taught band for 33 years and middle school jazz band for 23 years and considers himself more as an experienced music teacher who teaches jazz than a professional jazz musician. In addition to teaching middle school, Brad also teaches high school band. He has a master’s degree in music education and has served, and presently serves, as an officer in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA). He was twice selected (1996 and 2001) by MSBOA as Band Director of the Year within his region and by MSBOA as the statewide Teacher of the Year in 2002.

Participant 2, Walt, also a trombone player, has taught band for 31 years and middle school jazz band for 26 years and has performed as a professional jazz musician for 32 years. Walt considers himself both an experienced music teacher and a professional jazz musician. Unlike Brad, Walt teaches only middle school band. He has a bachelor of music education degree and has served as an officer in MSBOA. Additionally, he was once selected by MSBOA as Band Director of the Year” within his region.

The data collection process involved three observations and three interviews with each participant. I conducted the first observation and took field notes with each participant, followed by the first interview. This process continued until I observed and interviewed each participant three times. During the observations and interviews, as relevant, I gathered artifacts for analysis. These artifacts included warm-up materials, instructional materials, and lesson plans and served, along with the field notes and observations, to provide context for the interviews and generate further avenues for exploration. All observations and interviews were video-recorded and audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

In this study, all qualitative data sources (i.e., observation, field note, interview, and artifact) were prepared prior to each subsequent observation and interview. Data preparation consisted of transcribing interviews, watching observation recordings, and reviewing artifacts and field notes to get a general impression of the data. I then returned to the data sources and wrote notes in the margins to identify my preliminary thoughts about the data. Once data were prepared from the first round of observations and interviews, I constructed the interview protocol for the second round. This process continued until all interview protocols were constructed and all data sources were collected and prepared. On completion of data collection and transcription, I reread each data source and coded each bit of information in the interview transcripts. The initial coding scheme resulted in 21 codes for Brad and 27 codes for Walt. Since after the initial coding process it became apparent that many of the codes could be combined, I decided to do a second, and final, round of coding to eliminate redundancy and construct a more focused coding scheme. This second round of coding resulted in 8 codes for Brad and 22 codes for Walt.

To develop the themes, I went through the transcripts of each participant separately and placed similar codes into groups by cutting and pasting text into separate word documents. Once all of the text from all of the interviews for each participant was categorized into separate word documents, I went through each document and named each according to its theme. This resulted in three themes for Brad and six themes for Walt. Once completed, each participant was asked to review and alter his transcript to make sure that it correctly represented his voice and identified the most important aspects of his views.

Quantitative Design

The quantitative portion of this study was conducted to determine which experiences from the qualitative findings were most representative of middle school music teachers who perceived themselves to be highly effective jazz teachers. Prior to administering the questionnaire, the instrument was field-tested. To reduce measurement error, Groves et al. (2004) list three distinct standards that survey questions should meet: content standards (ensuring the questions measure the content intended), cognitive standards (ensuring that respondents have sufficient information to interpret the question as intended), and usability standards (ensuring that respondents navigate and complete the questionnaire as it is intended). To meet these standards, Groves et al. recommend conducting expert reviews and cognitive interviews and administering a pilot study. To address instrument content standards, a questionnaire design expert at the University of Michigan Survey Research Center twice reviewed the instrument and made recommendations on the wording of the questions, ordering of the questions, structure of the questions, response alternatives, and navigational rules of the survey.

To address instrument cognitive standards, subject matter experts (music education researchers; n = 5) reviewed the survey and recommended changes within the instrument about the renaming of survey sections and the grouping of individual survey questions within these large-heading categories. Additionally, cognitive interviews were conducted with experienced band directors (n = 3), who were asked to (a) verbalize their thoughts while they answer a question, (b) describe how they interpreted the question just after they have answered it, (c) paraphrase and restate the survey question in their own words, and (d) answer follow-up questions about their understanding and interpretation of each item. As a result of these cognitive interviews, response categories were added (e.g., adding “NA” as a possible response choice for some questions), questions were reworded to more accurately address the construct being measured, confusing directions were adjusted, and certain vague or confusing questions were altered. In total, 37 adjustments were made to the instrument.

To address questionnaire usability standards, the survey was piloted to a nonrandom sampling of respondents who were knowledgeable but not necessarily eligible sample members. The pilot sample consisted of college music education faculty (n = 4), music education undergraduates (n = 7), music education graduate students (n = 2), a retired band director (n = 1), and non–music experts (n = 3). As a part of this pretesting, all participants (n = 17) were asked questions on instrument usability derived from Fink (2003), and the survey was adjusted accordingly.

Once tested, the survey was sent to the then National Association of Music Education (MENC) members who indicated on their 2009–2010 membership form that (a) they teach at the “junior/middle school” level and (b) their “teaching area” is both “band” and “jazz” (N = 1,041). MENC sent a series of three e-mails to all members within this sampling frame requesting them to complete the questionnaire. Eighty-one e-mails were returned as “undeliverable,” resulting in a sampling frame of 960 possible respondents. Of these 960 possible respondents, 264 completed the survey, resulting in a 27.5% response rate. Sample size calculations indicate a 95% confidence level with a 5.1% margin of error for such a sample. However, with only 27.5% of the population responding, a high level of nonresponse bias may be inherent in the quantitative findings of this study. Readers are encouraged to interpret the results with this in mind.

Survey respondents were first asked to indicate their perceived ability to teach middle school jazz on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 was least and 10 was most.² Then, using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 represented not at all important and 7 represented extremely important, respondents were asked to indicate how important each of the following experiences were in preparing them to teach middle school jazz: Playing in school (K–12) jazz ensembles, playing in college jazz ensembles, playing in professional jazz ensembles, taking a college improvisation course, taking a college jazz pedagogy course, jazz professional development, jazz mentorship, listening to recorded jazz, and listening to live jazz.

Mixed Findings

The following mixed findings³ describe participants’ experiences with jazz regarding (a) listening to jazz, (b) jazz in school, (c) jazz in college, (d) professional jazz experiences, (e) jazz mentoring, and (f) professional development in jazz and examines them through the lens of perceived ability to teach jazz. To provide a consistent (mixed) discussion of findings from both data sets, both qualitative and quantitative results are presented in narrative form; specific numeric representations of the quantitative data can be found in the appendix.

Listening to Jazz

Quantitative data indicated a significant difference between low perceived ability (LPA) and high perceived ability (HPA) respondents on the importance of listening to recorded jazz as well as listening to live jazz in preparing them to teach middle school jazz; qualitative data suggested the same. Brad grew up hearing the sounds of Louie Prima, Louis Armstrong, Sinatra, and others from that genre when his parents would have them on in the background. In addition to recorded music, Brad recalled hearing live music when the local high school stage band would give a public performance: “They were kind of my heroes. They had a stage band that was actually really good. But that was mid-60s” (Brad, Interview 3, April 22, 2010).

One of Walt’s earliest experiences hearing recorded jazz came through his parents’ listening to their Benny Goodman record collection:

I probably only heard it a few times ‘cause it was too good to play. But it was something that you realized was very important to people who you thought were really important and that was maybe some of the connection. (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010)

Although these early experiences with recorded jazz influenced Walt, hearing live jazz was what really hooked him. Walt grew up in Detroit right across from Rouge Park where trust fund gigs were often held. He recalled seeing them once in a while in the park: “They were just so close that there was a connection there. [That is] the earliest [experience] where I thought ‘I like this beat, I like this genre, I like what’s cooking’” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010).

Jazz in School

No significant difference was found between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of their high school jazz experience in preparing them to teach jazz, and neither Brad nor Walt received much formal instruction on improvisation. The only instruction that Walt received was to “make something up” without any guidance as to how to do that:

It was like going over a cliff. It was embarrassing and I thought, “I’m going to figure this out.” I suppose it is kind of like when you made your first tree house. You said, “OK we can get up in it and it’s not going to fall, but man it looks like hell, so we’re going to make the next tree house better.” That is sort of the way I was about it. I said, “Well, I have to refine this and figure out how to do it better.” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010)

One of Walt’s most powerful experiences was when his band director invited several players from the Motown industry to play with the band. He recalled that the level of professionalism that these musicians brought with them made an indelible mark on him at an early age:

I specifically remember Johnny Trudell, who was the number one call for years in Detroit, and Jack Brokenshaw from the Australian Jazz Trio came in and they brought their pro charts and we played them and I just thought, “Wow, this is special.” That was the big hook right there. I was in the boat then. Just that whole attitude and professionalism that jazz people bring—I thought, “Gosh, this is a great way to organize. This is a great way to come to rehearsals.” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010)

Similarly, Brad did not receive much instruction from the band director but rather received it from the mentorship of more experienced peers. Brad played jazz in middle school and high school “stage band.” In high school, stage band was not a curricular class or even a school-sponsored club but just a group of students that assembled one evening per week for rehearsals led by the band director. The band director was not much of a jazz expert, and Brad’s high school stage band experience included very little improvisation instruction:

I don’t remember being taught anything about improvisation in high school or middle school. It was, “Here is the chart—play the chart” and then you had a saxophone player that was pretty good at improvising, so he would get all of the solos. I got more from those guys than I really did from the director, who basically knew that [improvisation] wasn’t his thing. (Brad, Interview 1, February 17, 2010)

Jazz in College

Significant differences were found between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of playing in college jazz ensembles in preparing them to teach middle school jazz. Significant differences were also found between LPA and HPA respondents on taking a college improvisation course and taking a college jazz pedagogy course. However, both qualitative participants reported that their college jazz courses did little to prepare them to teach jazz. Instead, Brad’s education was focused mainly on classical playing. Brad played with the jazz band and began to get a little more involved with learning improvisation: “[I took] a jazz improvisation class my freshman year and thought—‘wow this is kind of cool. You get to make up your own tune?’” (Brad, Interview 1, February 17, 2010). Although much of his studio lesson time included jazz improvisation instruction, it was fairly unstructured and did not involve much more than going through the room and everybody taking a solo.

Like Brad’s experience, Walt’s college band was clunky and did not swing. The drummer was usually “somebody who played rock drums and decided to take that rock experience and hammer it into a jazz band, which didn’t always work” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010). Although they usually had good horn sections, it was despite the “less than swinging” rhythm section.

Professional Jazz Experiences

Although no previous studies have addressed the importance of playing with professional jazz ensembles in one’s preparation to teach jazz, quantitative data indicated a significant difference between LPA and HPA respondents with the single largest effect size of any of the previous experience variables on the importance of playing in professional jazz ensembles in preparing them to teach middle school jazz. Similarly, both qualitative participants suggested that these experiences were important. Although Brad did not play a lot of professional jazz gigs in college, he did play in horn sections that played popular music, and he attributed these experiences to developing his instincts to teach jazz:

There was a place in Saugatuck called the “Old Crow” that we played at a lot. It was kind of a funk/Chicago/Earth Wind and Fire band that used horns. We had an African American vocalist/keyboardist that knew all that literature. A lot of which had the funk horn thing in the background. We had kind of an eclectic mix of stuff. Two saxes, a trumpet and me, keyboard, guitar, bass and drummer. We played a lot of places. At that time that sound was kind of hip. That was when Chicago was big. That was when Earth Wind and Fire began to get big. Tower of Power—God, I forgot about them. It was a fun time to be a horn player because we were cool, you know. (Brad, Interview 1, February 17, 2010)

Similarly, Walt felt that he learned the most by playing in the real world.

So, when school got out in May, that’s when the education really began because you came back to Detroit and played with all these big bands from every corner of the city. I mean, I remember at one point it was 28 straight nights of trust funds and then sometimes you go from the trust fund to the evening gig, clubs, then backing up singers. That is the education right there. You start to play with the real world and you decide you want to play some of these solos, so you are gonna go home and you’re gonna work on these changes. (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010)

Jazz Mentoring

Although quantitative data indicated a significant difference between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of jazz mentoring in preparing them to teach middle school jazz, Brad did not have any jazz mentors at any point in his teaching career. Although he recalled watching some all-state jazz band rehearsals led by professional jazz educators, most of what he learned about teaching middle school jazz has been through trial and error. “The scant amount that I know, I pretty much sought out and learned myself. I can’t tell you that I have ever had a person that I sat down with and got great ideas about jazz from” (Brad, Interview 1, February 17, 2010).

However, Walt’s experience was quite different. When Walt was in late high school and college, his friend’s father, a piano player, mentored him. He took Walt under his wing and took him on professional big band gigs. “It was kind of like the Yoda thing where you just sit in the car—‘I’ll drive you and I’ll tell you how this thing works’” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010). Since college, a lot of what Walt has learned about teaching of jazz has come through the mentorship of jazz colleagues such as Mike Grace. Mike, a legendary school jazz ensemble teacher in Ann Arbor, was a Disney Teacher of the Year finalist and someone whom Walt credits as being the “best teacher of improvisation that I have ever come across” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010). Walt has always felt that jazz musicians are very willing to share their art with the next generation, and he often invites these mentors to come work with his bands:

This is just way too big a discipline to think that you know it all. Even Mike Grace. Here is a guy who is an absolute world-class jazz educator and he has a shlub like me come in—why? Because I know a whole lot more about jazz trombone than he does and he wants to do what’s good for his kids. I think that jazz people are real free about doing that. I have a book full of people that I could call and they’ll come in. Just give them a call. They may need some gas money. Your real good friends, they won’t care, they’ll do it for free. I called Bill Watrous in L.A. and said, “I know you are going to be playing in Orchestra Hall, if you have time, would you be kind enough to come out and work with my jazz band?” He said, “Oh yeah man, I’d love to. That would be great.” And he did. I got Bill Watrous—one of the all-time greatest jazz players on the planet. (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010)

Professional Development in Jazz

Though Bauer et al. (2009) found that band directors believe “jazz ensemble” and “teaching improvisation” to be among the most highly valued professional development topics, quantitative data in the current study indicated no significant difference between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of jazz professional development in preparing them to teach middle school jazz. Furthermore, neither Brad nor Walt recalled experiencing many professional development activities in jazz. When asked whether he has attended jazz sessions at music conferences, Walt indicated that apart from an occasional clinic on the Latin rhythm section, he never felt that conference sessions had much of an impact on his jazz professional development:

I would always try to go to whatever stuff I could at the Chicago show. That was always a thing. But the real clinics are when you are on the band stand and you are looking around and you are listening and you go over and talk to the drummer and you talk to the bass player and you sit down at the break and you rap with the sax man and you say, “Where did that come from?” (Walt, Interview 1, February 19, 2010).

Discussion

Quantitative data revealed that the experiences most correlated with perceived ability to teach jazz were “listening to recorded jazz” followed by “listening to live jazz” and “playing in professional jazz ensembles.” Significant, but smaller, correlations were found concerning playing in college jazz ensembles, taking a college jazz pedagogy course, mentorship in jazz, and taking a college improvisation course. Neither playing in school jazz ensembles nor jazz professional development was found to correlate with one’s perceived ability to teach jazz. However, when considering the quantitative results in conjunction with the qualitative findings, a new level of complexity is revealed.

For instance, although no significant difference was found between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of playing in school jazz ensembles and neither qualitative participant reported receiving much direct instruction from their school band directors, both Brad and Walt valued the growth that came from listening to and playing with more advanced players in their school jazz ensembles. This suggests what many good teachers already know—that part of the value of the school jazz ensemble experience resides in the space where music students interact with their peers and professionals in the community—and confirms previous research stressing the importance of peer social interaction in learning to improvise (Dyas, 2006; Goodrich, 2005).

Significant differences were found between LPA and HPA respondents on the importance of taking college jazz courses in preparing them to teach jazz. These findings are consistent with Fisher (1981), Jones (2005), and Thomas (1980), who found playing in a college jazz ensemble, taking a college jazz improvisation course, and taking a college jazz pedagogy course to be among the most important college experiences for preparing music teachers to teach jazz. However, qualitative findings in the current study suggest otherwise, reflecting Knox’s (1996) findings that mere participation in a college jazz course was not sufficient preparation to teach jazz. It might just be a question of the chicken or the egg—do college jazz courses prepare future jazz teachers or do future jazz teachers take college jazz courses? The current study suggests that it is a bit of both. Since jazz is often not a requirement of music education degree programs, it may be that HPA respondents were already interested in jazz and were thus more likely to take college jazz courses as electives. Although college jazz courses can prepare students to teach jazz, they do so only to the extent that students are already inspired to learn such skills, thus calling to question the effectiveness of requiring such courses as part of the music education degree.

Although playing in a college jazz ensemble, taking a college jazz improvisation course, and taking a college jazz pedagogy course may all be valuable college experiences for learning how to teach middle school jazz, they may not necessarily be the most valuable general experiences for learning how to teach middle school jazz. Previous research suggests that young musicians often become interested in playing jazz by listening to jazz (Dyas, 2006; Goodrich, 2005), and quantitative data in the current study indicated listening to recorded jazz and live jazz to be the two variables most significantly correlated with perceived ability. Brad and Walt also described the importance of listening, but in a way that suggested that their early jazz-listening experiences may have been compelled as much by social interactions as they were by an intrinsic attraction to the music itself. For instance, both participants spoke of taking interest in jazz because their parents listened to it—Walt even described valuing it because it was important to people who he thought were important. Brad recalled how the high school jazz band were his “heroes,” and Walt described the gigs at the Rouge Park in terms of seeing them and their close proximity—all descriptions signaling that their “listening” experiences were influential in ways deeper than the mere organization of sound in time. Goodrich (2005) talks at length about the important role of social interaction in jazz education, and if we consider that many HPA participants’ listening experiences may have been valued in ways similar to those of Brad and Walt, then music teacher education should look for ways to foster communities of jazz learners.

Although no previous research has examined professional jazz experiences in music teacher preparation, both qualitative and quantitative data in this study strongly suggested playing in professional jazz ensembles to be an important experience for preparing one to teach jazz. On the surface, this finding might suggest that music teacher educators should encourage students to become involved in professional jazz experiences, perhaps even providing opportunities for students to receive college credit for such experiences. However, it may be that those who were interested and proficient enough in jazz to play professionally were the same ones who considered themselves to be highly effective jazz educators in the first place. Instead, this finding further validates the larger narrative of this study that underscores the importance of one’s preparation to teach jazz being driven intrinsically and detached from any compulsory conditions or extrinsic motivations.

Previous research suggests that jazz professional development is a topic important to band directors (Bauer et al., 2009), yet jazz professional development was not found in the current study to correlate with ability to teach middle school jazz, suggesting that although this topic is perceived as important, it holds little association with one’s perceived ability to teach jazz. That jazz professional development is an important topic to band directors perhaps reinforces the fact that band directors often feel unprepared to teach jazz more than it indicates that this activity affects one’s ability to teach jazz. Brad felt that what he knows about teaching jazz he learned on the job, reflecting Hepworth’s (1974) findings that music teachers often learned how to teach jazz outside of the college curriculum. Walt’s experience is consistent with Conway (2008), who found that experienced teachers believe informal interactions with other music teachers to be the most valuable form of professional development; both Brad’s and Walt’s experiences suggest that what one learns about teaching jazz is directly related to the level of intrinsic motivation to develop the skill.

Conclusion

That seasoned music teachers believe that listening to jazz and playing as a professional jazz musician has prepared them to teach middle school jazz more than any school, collegiate, professional development, or mentoring activities may seem troubling to those in music teacher education. However, these findings may suggest that music teacher educators should instead focus their efforts on helping preservice music teachers become what Hatano and Inagaki (1986) refer to as adaptive experts. Whereas routine expertise is characterized by the ability to efficiently solve standard or routine problems, Wineburg (1998) describes adaptive expertise as “the ability to apply, adapt, and otherwise stretch knowledge so that it addresses new situations—often situations in which key knowledge is lacking” (p. 321). Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005) explain,

Both routine experts and adaptive experts continue to learn throughout their lifetimes. Routine experts develop a core set of competencies that they apply throughout their lives with greater and greater efficiency. In contrast, adaptive experts are much more likely to change their core competencies and continually expand the breadth and depth of their expertise. This restructuring of core ideas, beliefs, and competencies may reduce their efficiency in the short run but make them more flexible in the long run. (pp. 48-49)

Although music teacher educators should continue to help students acquire the competencies required to effectively teach jazz, they should, perhaps more important, help them acquire the professional curiosity required to continually expand their competencies beyond those for which they were specifically prepared. If we consider that both qualitative participants independently sought skills outside of those for which their music education program specifically prepared them, then we must acknowledge the importance of adaptive expertise in preparing them to teach middle school jazz.

Music teacher education cannot directly prepare students for the myriad teaching situations they will experience as professionals. Thus, although listening to jazz and playing as a professional jazz musician can be important experiences in preparing those who are interested in teaching middle school jazz, music teacher educators should also look for ways to help students develop the skills required to adapt and apply general knowledge to area-specific knowledge. However, this is only a conjecture; to determine this, future studies are needed on the relationship, if any, between HPA music teachers and their levels of adaptive expertise and, perhaps more important, which experiences help learners acquire the skills to become adaptive experts.

Footnotes

Appendix

Survey Participants’ Previous Experiences.

	Perceived Ability	N	Mean	SD	t	Significance (Two-Tailed)	Effect Size (η²)
Playing in school jazz ensembles	≤7	98	5.22	1.875	−1.960	.051	.02
Playing in school jazz ensembles	8+	97	5.75	1.888
Playing in college jazz ensembles	≤7	90	5.10	1.891	−2.744	.007	.04
Playing in college jazz ensembles	8+	92	5.83	1.675
Playing in professional jazz ensembles	≤7	69	4.28	2.344	−3.564	<.001	.08
Playing in professional jazz ensembles	8+	88	5.50	1.959
Taking a college improvisation course	≤7	73	4.81	2.018	−2.169	.032	.03
Taking a college improvisation course	8+	84	5.48	1.840
Taking a college jazz pedagogy course	≤7	62	4.55	2.266	−2.501	.014	.04
Taking a college jazz pedagogy course	8+	79	5.43	1.919
Jazz professional development	≤7	105	5.35	1.737	−1.920	.056	.02
Jazz professional development	8+	98	5.78	1.366
Jazz mentorship	≤7	100	5.35	1.794	−2.254	.025	.03
Jazz mentorship	8+	100	5.86	1.378
Listening to recorded jazz	≤7	126	5.91	1.470	−3.750	<.001	.06
Listening to recorded jazz	8+	103	6.55	1.017
Listening to live jazz	≤7	124	5.74	1.566	−3.620	<.001	.06
Listening to live jazz	8+	103	6.42	1.168

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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