Preservice and Experienced Teachers' Opinions of Skills and Behaviors Important to Successful Music Teaching

The purpose of this study was to compare the responses of preservice teachers and experienced teachers when asked, “What skills and behaviors are important to successful music teaching in the first three years of experience?” The sample consisted of randomly selected groups of preservice teachers ( n = 35) and experienced teachers ( n = 35). Subjects were given a list of teacher skills/behaviors and asked to rate the level of importance of each item using a 4-point Likert-type scale. For each item, the mean score for both groups was calculated and used to determine rank order. Of the 10 top-ranked items for each group, 7 were common to both groups. On 6 of the 40 items, there existed a difference of 10 or more rankings between the groups. Nine of the 40 items were ranked equally or within one ranking of each other. As an ex post facto measure, each of the items was placed into one of three broad skill categories (personal, musical, or teaching). A two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to determine that both groups rated personal skills and teaching skills as significantly more important than musical skills.