A Survey of K-12 Music Teachers’ Classroom Management Experiences in Music Teacher Preparation Programs

Abstract

The purpose of this follow-up study was to explore classroom management sources and content in music teacher preparation programs. K-12 music educators, who self-identified as members of various professional music education organizations, were the participants in this study. Similar to the initial iteration of the survey with elementary general music educators, recurrent sources of classroom management reported by participants included mentoring from a licensed teacher and supervised fieldwork. Teaching procedures and pacing instructions were common examples of classroom management content included in a music teacher education program, which differed slightly from those identified by elementary general music teachers. Mentoring from a licensed teacher and supervised fieldwork were the two sources of classroom management preparation with which participants were most satisfied; however, the majority of participants did not view their classroom management preparation to be sufficient. These findings suggest that music teacher educators might continue to provide an array of experiences, within music education programs, for students to actively practice classroom management skills and strategies