Author Identifier

John Nathan Heyworth

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4008-1939

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

School

School of Education

First Supervisor

Dr Geoffrey Lowe

Second Supervisor

Dr Christina Gray

Abstract

In Australia, in the current climate of economic rationalism in which there has been an increasing emphasis on literacy and numeracy, funding for specialised subjects like music has been reducing. As a result, generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for delivering effective music education in primary schools. However, the time dedicated to training pre-service teachers in music education in tertiary institutions has diminished. Further, time constraints involved in building pre-service knowledge and skills in teaching music may impact many pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their ability to teach music.

Within these constraints, digital technology may provide a key to improving pre-service teacher training in music education in universities, resulting in better quality delivery of music in schools. This study investigates the potential of digital looping technology to build generalist pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and efficacy for teaching music in primary schools. The study involved three stages of investigation: Stage One: an experimental and control intervention involving measuring the self-efficacy of pre-service teachers before and after they completed one unit of study incorporating looping technology; Stage Two: video analysis in a practicum setting; and Stage three: participant self-reflections following the practicum to investigate the transferability of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy from university-based learning to classroom practice. Based upon the study, this thesis makes a number of recommendations for future practice in terms of generalist pre-service teacher training, as well as recommendations for future research.

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