Journal of Research in Music Education

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine preservice and first-year music educators’ perspectives on fieldwork activities embedded within a music teacher preparation program. One cohort of students was tracked for 2.5 years as they participated in an elementary teaching practicum, fulfilled the student teaching internship, and ultimately entered the field. Drawing on data from a previous study of the same cohort’s perceptions of a service-learning project (2013), this report provides a comparative analysis of the students’ evolving perceptions of fieldwork over time. The perceived transfers of emergent skills and dispositions to the first year of practice also are explored with particular attention to the voices of first-year teachers. Findings suggested a wide range of benefits associated with each type of fieldwork, including overlapping and unique constructs. Perceived collective transfers included comfort and experience, habits of self-reflection, skills and knowledge for job interviews, and comfort with the observation process. These findings may assist higher education professionals as they design field-teaching activities and make informed decisions about best practices in music teacher preparation.

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand the process of field experience lesson planning for preservice music educators enrolled in choral, general, and instrumental music education courses within three university contexts. Data sources included multiple interviews, written responses, and field texts from 42 participants. Four waves of data collection and analysis revealed a five-step process beginning with “learning the tasks of teaching” and “experiencing an authentic teaching context.” Participants articulated the central phenomenon as “embracing teaching as an interaction,” which led to “teaching more effectively” and “learning about teaching with my style.” The findings reflect that participants developed a situated understanding of how thoughtful preparation is connected to effective teaching. An implication for this study is that preservice teachers should be consistently immersed in authentic context learning environments during undergraduate education.

Gifford Pinchot III coined the term intrapreneur to recognize “dreamers who do”: individuals who transform ideas into new endeavors within existing organizations. The purpose of this study was to gauge the salience of intrapreneuring for K–12 music teachers and examine how its attributes and behaviors relate to teachers’ workplace motivation and demographics. From a sampling frame of 1,351 public school music teachers in New York State, 576 teachers completed an online questionnaire for a response rate of 42.6%. Results showed statistically significant differences in teachers’ intrapreneurial orientation depending on teaching experience, level and specialization of teaching position, and school affluence. Higher levels of confidence in and contextual support for intrapreneuring predicted stronger teacher motivation. Respondents who self-identified as intrapreneurs facilitated collaborations between their students and guest musicians, piloted new approaches for teaching creativity and improvisation, and developed innovative curricula. While respondents generally felt autonomous, they did not feel they had adequate resources for launching new endeavors, and they perceived low levels of tolerance for risk and mistakes within their school organizations. Findings of this study may help isolate specific intrapreneurial attributes and organizational factors that could support teacher-driven pedagogy and reduce teacher demotivation and attrition.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between phonological awareness and music aptitude. I administered the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (IMMA) to second-grade students in a rural school in Pennsylvania (N = 17). Speech-language specialists administered a hearing screening and The Phonological Awareness Test 2 (PAT-2) individually to participants and scored the measures. Findings indicated a moderate, positive relationship between PAT-2 standardized composite scores and IMMA raw Tonal subtest scores (r = .485). A linear regression indicated IMMA raw Tonal subtest scores predicted PAT-2 standardized composite scores. The relationship between music aptitude and phonological awareness has implications for students, music teachers, and professionals who may remediate literacy skills, such as reading specialists, speech-language pathologists, and music therapists.

The purpose of this research was to examine effects of two listening strategies on melodic dictation scores. Fifty-four undergraduate music majors completed short tonal melodic dictations in a within-subjects design with three conditions: (a) no specified strategy in the instructions, (b) required listening before writing, and (c) required writing while listening. The purpose of the first condition was to determine subjects’ preference for listening before writing or writing while listening prior to requiring each. Two repeated measures t tests revealed no significant difference in test scores between the second and third conditions and no significant difference in test scores between subjects’ demonstrated preferred strategy and nonpreferred strategy. Results corroborate prior research suggesting that both may be viable strategies for melodic dictation, each offering unique benefits to aural memory and musical comprehension. Implications for high school and college aural skills instructors include the need to offer students options for dictation strategies and help them choose when and how to use them. Students who have tried multiple strategies in practice and considered their relative benefits might be better prepared to make wise decisions during dictation.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe children’s lived experience of enjoyment during musical play. Data sources included class video from 15 weeks of a 24-week extracurricular music class for 4- to 7-year-olds taught by the researcher, parent-filmed video of child participant music-making in home settings during the same period, and transcripts of exit interviews with parents and children. Participants included 12 children and 4 adults, all of whom had contributed to prior studies on children’s music-making in family settings. Phenomenological data analysis followed Moustakas’s approach. Five elements emerged as hallmarks of children’s musical enjoyment and provided the textural description of “what” occurred during musical enjoyment, including active musical engagement, signs of physical engagement, a balance of familiarity and novelty, inclusion of activities allowing for student control or choice, and a safe and playful environment. Structurally, participants’ enjoyment occurred in four ways: within a balance of structure and freedom, within a balance of community and individual expression, as a cycle between children’s musical enjoyment and participation, and as a springboard to musical risk-taking and musical agency. Implications for practice and research are discussed.