Music Teachers’ Perceptions of Efficacy: Student Learning Objectives and Data Driven Indicators

Previous research explains that twenty-first century education has moved passed pedagogical ideologies that focus solely on student tasks that require the recall of facts or rote application of simple procedures. Unfortunately, the literature on music education has ignored the importance of measuring intrinsic attributes of music learning and fundamental musicianship. Measuring ‘valid’ higher-order and critical thinking skills as they relate to music learning is significant because states are now measuring student learning and teacher effectiveness by evaluating multiple data driven indicators. Determining ‘what’ valid higher-order learning ‘looks like,’ and the data that can be generated by this learning in a music classroom, is essentially what is at stake for the twenty-first century music classroom. However, to date, no systematic investigation has been considered regarding music teachers and their process for developing higher-order and ‘valid’ music learning indicators. The purpose of this thesis was to examine perceptions of music teachers in Connecticut regarding the efficacy of the Connecticut Guidelines for Educator Evaluation