Teaching music to primary school kids

PhD student Jan Kane

Improving the self-confidence and self-efficacy of primary school teachers in their ability to teach music is the main aim of Macquarie University Education lecturer and PhD student Jan Kane.

The concept of self-efficacy is the level of belief that an individual holds regarding their ability to achieve certain tasks.

During her days as a primary school teacher, Kane found that even the most confident of her peers would keep music at arms length.  “What I am trying to find out is the key things that are affecting people’s belief in their ability to teach music,” says Kane.

Kane’s thesis was born out of her love of music as well as her teaching experience. “As a teacher I saw how beneficial music and the creative arts are for children,” says Kane. “Teenagers love music but there is something stopping them from participating in it.”

Through her role of coordinating the third year of the Primary Teacher Education Program at Macquarie, Kane has been able to base her research on the experience of 334 of her students. “I decided to use my student teachers as subjects so I could do a longitudinal study,” explains Kane. “I surveyed them at the beginning of the course and at the end after they had completed a substantial amount of practical work.”

Kane formulated a questionnaire commencing with open-ended questions about teaching and music training in general. The second section is a self-efficacy scale specifically related to both general and music teaching.

“I wanted to know that if belief in their ability to teach changes over time, what factors impact on their beliefs,” says Kane. “I also looked at perceptions of their musical ability over time and their feelings about teaching – a teaching anxiety scale.”

According to Kane the most interesting thing that she found was that although students’ belief in their ability to teach music increased, their perception of their musical ability remained the same. “That links in very much to what has been found in other areas of the creative arts. People think of musical ability as an intuitive thing, either you have it or you don’t.”

Kane is hoping to finalise her thesis by the middle of this year. “My overall aim is to pinpoint exactly what is affecting student teachers and improving our courses so that they go out there with a much stronger belief in their ability to teach,” says Kane. From there she plans to further her research and eventually would like to establish a semester length unit on creative arts to give lecturers an opportunity to develop skills and expertise in this area.

For further information contact Kane via email: jan.kane@mq.edu.au

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