Performing arts programs in Arizona high schools have been facing significant budget cuts in recent years. It has been established that high school students who are involved in extracurricular programs perform better in school than their uninvolved peers, thus allowing them to succeed at a higher rate in four-year universities (Fredricks, 2012). This study aims to determine how involvement in Arizona high school performing arts programs can impact a student’s academic success at a four-year institution. Data will be collected through a survey with questions related to current college students’ involvement in performing arts in high school as well as their academic success at their respective 4-year institutions. It is expected that there will be a correlation found in the data between high achieving students and the skills that being involved in performing arts programs in high school provide. With this correlation in mind, the research will provide necessary tools for principals and superintendents to argue that performing arts programs add incredible value to students’ lives during and beyond their high school years.
Each time Steve assessed students and placed them within the orchestra’s seating hierarchy, he experienced a tension in his identity as a music teacher. To relieve this tension, Steve changed the orchestra seating structure from a hierarchical-ranked structure to a randomized-rotating structure. This allowed him to provide individualized feedback to students as they rotated into the front row without issuing social sanctions. But this structural change also disrupted some of the students’ identities as musicians and the labels they used to position themselves in orchestra. Steve’s insistence that the student sitting in first-chair was the “leader for the day” continued an element of the hierarchical seating that conflicted with the students’ understandings of meritocracy and leadership. Additionally, by decoupling the students’ seating from the playing tests, Steve delegitimized his primary form of assessment. Based on my findings, I discuss implications for music education practice, and music teacher education.
Based on the work of foreign language education researcher Simon Borg (2003) a conceptual framework was developed that shows the various sources of teacher beliefs and practices, including formative preservice musical experiences, inservice contextual factors, and inservice professional development. Employing a qualitative multiple case study method, six purposely-selected middle school orchestra teachers, representing a variety of experience levels and program characteristics, shared their teacher beliefs and practices. Data generation included observations, interviews, stimulated recall (think aloud teacher commentary of videotaped teaching episodes), and written reflection surveys. During analysis, six core teacher beliefs about middle school string students and how they learn were identified. These beliefs guided the teachers’ observed practices.
Findings from this study illustrated that preservice formative musical experiences influenced the middle school orchestra teachers’ beliefs about the value and importance of music teaching as a career. Data from the participants revealed a wide variety of instructional practices emanating from largely similar core pedagogical beliefs. Analysis suggested that experienced teachers held more developed teacher beliefs, and they selected instructional practices carefully, where inexperienced teachers were still formulating their own beliefs and experimenting with instructional practices. Data from the study point out that contextual constraints sometimes prevent teachers from enacting their closely held beliefs. This incongruence influenced three of the six participants to change teaching positions or retire early from the education profession.
The study of music teacher beliefs and practices may be of interest to preservice and inservice music teachers and music teacher educators. Future studies may explore the relationship between teacher beliefs and practices and student achievement, and contribute to string music education research.
Through reflection on how my personal, professional, and contextual knowledge of teaching developed, I examine how the values I held, the inquiries I undertook, and the communities in which I engaged affected my learning about teaching and shaped both my continuing professional development and who I am becoming as a teacher. Values that emerged in my teaching practice included: creating a student-friendly learning atmosphere, building a learning community, and being a reflective learner. Change agency functioned as a teacher lens and impacted student learning. I also analyzed patterns between my instructional plans, actions, and learning experiences in multiple professional communities. Professional and personal development relied not only on formal learning but was also promoted by informal learning opportunities and a personal learning process.
Findings suggest that teachers’ attempts to engage with external resources and awareness of their personal orientations as internal resources appear essential for sustainable change in teaching practice. Teacher professional growth requires exercising positive personal qualities, such as confidence, compassion, and courage, as well as resilience as an educator and a lifelong learner. Teacher reflection and self-study play a pivotal role in enabling teachers to sustain professional growth.