A description of New Horizons Band assistants’ perceptions and experiences

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to describe the perceptions and experiences of New Horizons Band assistants in terms of learning, skill transfer and pedagogical preparation. The participant population for this study was 35 past student teacher-assistants from three New Horizons bands, one in Texas, one in Florida and one in Virginia. There were ten open-ended items on the questionnaire that asked about student assistant perceptions and experiences. Participants noted the growth they experienced from serving as a band teaching assistant in a New Horizons programme, describing their appreciation for lifelong learning, exposure to the complexity of how to teach to a variety of learners, and experience with the challenges of pacing with adults and blunt feedback from programme participants. The article concludes with a discussion of possible collegiate preparatory experiences that could broaden the teacher training experience for college programmes.