Transforming Music Teaching via Technology: The Role of Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if 1-week technology workshops can be an effective means for the professional development of music teachers in using technology for instruction. The results indicate that three indicators of effectiveness—teacher knowledge, teacher comfort, and frequency of teacher use—can he significantly improved in these settings. Participants ( N = 63) were music teachers enrolled in summer music technology workshops. At the beginning of the workshops, participants completed a questionnaire designed to provide demographic information and assess their knowledge of music technology, degree of comfort with music technology, and the frequency with which they used music technology in their teaching. Following an intensive weeklong workshop dealing with strategies for teaching music to K—12 students using music technology, participants completed a second questionnaire that was parallel to the first. Participants completed another similar questionnaire 9 to 10 months after the workshop. Significant differences were found between the pre-and. postworkshop questionnaires, between the preworkshop and follow-up questionnaires, and, between the postworkshop and follow-up questionnaires in all three areas. There was also a moderate correlation ( r = .43, p = .00) between participants' frequency of technological use and the degree to which they reported their access to technological resources.