Sequential Patterns and the Music Teaching Effectiveness of Elementary Education Majors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of sequential patterns of instruction and individual pattern components (including task presentation, student response, and teacher feedback) to the overall teacher effectiveness of music lessons taught by elementary education majors. Subjects were enrolled in three sections of a music methods course for elementary education majors ( n = 20; n = 21; n = 20). All groups received similar instruction, and additionally, Experimental Groups 1 (passively) and 2 (actively) received instruction in sequential patterns. Groups completed four teaching tasks, which served as training for the presentation and analysis of a fifth music-concept lesson that provided data for the study. Music-concept lessons were evaluated by a master teacher for overall teacher effectiveness. Additionally, lessons were analyzed for time spent in and frequency of patterns and components. Results indicated no differences in teacher effectiveness scores. However, groups differed in amount of time spent in individual pattern components. Experimental groups spent more time in student response and less time in task presentation, while the contact control group did the reverse. Examination of pattern-usage frequency indicated that the contact control group implemented more complete patterns than did experimental groups. When subdividing complete patterns into specific and nonspecific feedback patterns, however, both experimental groups used more specific feedback, and the contact control group used more nonspecific feedback. Some correlations between teacher effectiveness scores and pattern usage were low to moderate, and implications are discussed. All groups completed a posttest to ascertain that teaching skill instruction did not interfere with required academic content, and no differences in achievement were noted.