Shared concerns : investigating ways instrumental teachers learn to teach

Abstract

Instrumental teachers are generally highly trained and skilled performers who are self-taught educators, a situation further complicated in Australia by the lack of mandatory formal studio-teacher accreditation. Research from Australia and other countries with a similar lack of studio teacher training, suggests that this results in teachers who are focused on transmitting musical skills following a master/apprentice conception of teaching and learning and who teach following the model that they were exposed to, with little reflection. The research for this thesis contributes to the debate by seeking information on the processes by which instrumental teachers learn to teach. It also investigates the personal learning networks that teachers build for themselves in order to learn to be effective through auto-didactic means. The study finds the idea of the isolated instrumental teacher who teaches as he or she was taught to be an oversimplification of the studio-teaching paradigm and as such, investigates the field through the lens of theories of informal learning that are social in origin. These theories include constructivism, lifelong learning, theories of experiential learning and the reflective practices that they incorporate, situated learning and communities of practice and transformative learning. The data was collected through 33 in-depth semi-structured interviews, 2 asynchronous web forums and a focus group, in order to investigate the ways in which instrumental teachers have learnt to teach from the perspectives of teachers of three stages of experience, novice, experienced and expert. Adjunct to this, the study aimed to test the viability of an asynchronous web forum as a medium for group knowledge building. Findings belied the view suggested by previous research, that a lack of formal teacher training creates a strongly held belief in the effectiveness of teaching following the model of teaching as one was taught. Instead, this theory represented only a starting point for the participants who quickly recognised that effective teaching depends upon a variety of exemplars beyond that initial model and built self-learning strategies that ranged from highly formal and accredited qualifications to informal autodidactic practices. Although the web forums were successful as a data-gathering tool on issues of importance for instrumental teachers, their success as a mode of communication and collaboration was less clear-cut and seemed to depend on the community created within each with the second forum depending on the efforts of a small core group of high-range participants for sustained momentum. The study saw three distinct profiles of teacher experience and, in contrast to previous research, saw a student-centred and creative approach taken by both the novice and expert groups. The novice group focused on creative practices such as composition with an overarching philosophy that learning must be fun whereas the experienced group focused on building efficient and broadly transferable systems to build effective technique. The expert group were the least generalizable. However this group's individually distinct approaches were designed to unite both a student-centred and creative approach with a systematic and technique building approach and these two prongs informed a distinctly individual teaching philosophy. The acquisition of expertise for participants at all levels of experience depended on reflecting on heightened experiences that involved an element of risk serving as a trigger for transformative learning. Conclusions drawn from the research findings have implications for the studio teaching profession because they find that instrumental teachers learn to teach through a spectrum of ways. Indeed, this research categorises those ways on a continuum ranging from several informal approaches to formal courses. Through doing so, this research provides a classification that teachers can reflect upon and build on in their own practices. The findings on the development of expertise and transformative learning provide a description of a journey built from teacher reflection and experiences rather than solely teacher action. Thus the research in this thesis provides an alternate view of professional development for instrumental teachers.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English