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An investigation into the most significant influences on the way beginning teachers incorporate music into their primary classrooms

The aim of this study was to identify the significant influences that effect the
way beginning teachers in the A.C.T. incorporate music into their primary
classrooms.
Twenty-eight teachers from 23 different schools were interviewed in this
study. These teachers were chosen on the basis that they were beginning
teachers (teachers who were in their first, second or third year of teaching)
and had graduated from the University of Canberra from 1988 to 1990. The
teachers were interviewed over a 7 week period in Term 4 of 1990. The
interview schedule incorporated aspects of a questionnaire and an interview
employing both closed and open-ended questions.
The study found that although 71% of the teachers taught some music in
their classrooms, no teacher actually taught the whole music curriculum (as
defined by the A.C.T. Curriculum Guidelines, 1990). Singing, listening and
moving were taught by most teachers but areas of the music curriculum
such as playing, reading and writing, improvisation and composition were
rarely included. These results were influenced by factors such as the musical
background of the teachers, preservice courses, the school music curriculum,
whether or not teacher's colleagues taught music and the school's
utilisation of the music specialist. For example, teachers who taught music
were more likely to come from a school that had a music curriculum rather
than from a school that did not.
This study has implications for the development and implementation of
primary school music curricula, the reassessment of future preservice and
inservice programs, the utilisation of human resources within primary
schools and the development of more positive attitudes towards music in
schools and society in general.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219371
Date January 1992
CreatorsSutcliffe, Sarah, n/a
PublisherUniversity of Canberra. Education
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Rights), Copyright Sarah Sutcliffe

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