The life and influence of string pedagogue Phyllis Young (b. 1925): from the Kansas Plains through the University of Texas String Project (2024)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of professional music teacher identity (PMTI) among stringed instrument teachers who are alumni of the University of South Carolina String Project (USCSP) preservice teacher education program. Using a fixed mixed method design, I first surveyed all USCSP alumni from the past 20 years using the PMTI Questionnaire. For the qualitative portion of the study, the researcher interviewed three USCSP alumnae in their post-second stage of teaching (year 11–20). All USCSP alumni identified, rated, and ranked their expertise in subject matter, didactical, and pedagogical aspects. USCSP post-second stage alumnae also identified and ranked their expertise using current and past video stimulus from their preservice teaching in 1997. The results of this study indicated that experience, knowledge of oneself, adaptability within one’s contextual environment, and reflection are the main components within PMTI development across career stages. All USCSP alumni were a combination of all three aspects- subject matter, didactical, and pedagogical expertise. Their possible changes in PMTI across career stages, however, require a receptiveness to professional development and adaptability to one’s teaching environment. Results from this study also indicated that authentic context learning environments, such as the USCSP, and video stimulus as a reflection tool help mitigate attrition across inservice teaching career stages.

The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of undergraduate string teacher education curriculum in Turkish universities in both eastern and western regions. To accomplishthis task, the relative strengths and weaknesses of Turkish string teacher education were investigated through an intensive literature review and a survey. Seventy-one string professors at nineteen university music teacher training schools in Turkey were sent a questionnaire for the purpose of this investigation. The questionnaire was based on the following subjects: (1) the types of courses in the string teacher training area; (2) the nature of the teaching methodologies used in the string education courses; (3) the existing problems in the string teacher education curriculum; (4) the strengths in the area; and (5) the necessary changes and reforms that should be implemented to improve the level of Turkish string teacher education. Sixty-one of the professors (85.92%) responded. The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the application of the centralized string teacher education curriculum in universities in eastern and western Turkey. Some of these differences are: (1) the number and the quality of string faculty; (2) the conditions of teaching facilities; (3) the use of Turkish music in instructional level; and (4) the number and weekly hours of string education courses. According to the respondents in both regions, the string teacher education curriculum should be restructured and new courses in string teacher training (such as String Skills/Techniques, String Methods, String Laboratory, Public School Orchestra Conducting and Public School Orchestra Literature) should be added to the curriculum. Based on these findings, a model undergraduate curriculum for string teacher education was developed and included at the end of the study.

International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education

International Journal of Music Education, 2014

The purpose of this study was to explore the violin experiences of African American students at an Elementary School in northern Florida to consider the potential for culturally-responsive string education. The hermeneutical approach was used to answer the research questions: (1) What are the personal musical worlds of these African American children? and (2) How do these children perceive the violin program at school? These helped to answer the study’s overall research question: how do the individual perceptions of the violin program and the sociocultural musical backgrounds of these students relate? The data revealed that the participants had shared perceptions of music; in particular, that music tells stories and has a distinctive beat. Their perceptions of music were learned and experienced in their cultural environments and social spaces. The data also made it evident that their musical lives and perceptions of playing violin affect each other. For instance, the children discus...

This chapter considers the question of how music educators determine the musical ends towards which their teaching is directed. Musical traditions, both “great” and “little,” as Estelle Jorgensen describes them, are inseparable from the philosophical traditions through which music educators determine consider their pedagogical ends. This chapter presents a three-part framework to describe how music educators might approach understanding their work as a socially embodied enactment of contrasting traditions. The term tradition is first defined as a means of categorizing philosophical schools of thought from which various musical practices can be understood. The liberal philosophical tradition that grew out of the Enlightenment has emphasized rational aesthetic contemplation as a means towards personal growth. In contrast, the critical tradition, grounded in post-Nietzschean genealogy, has prioritized politicized musical action as a means towards personal liberation. The classical trad...

British Journal of Music Education, 2011

Although there are many examples of notable string programmes there has been relatively little comparative analysis of these programmes. This paper examines three benchmark string programmes (The University of Illinois String Project, The Tower Hamlets String Teaching Project and Colourstrings) alongside Music4All, an innovative string programme run over three years in five primary schools in regional Australia. The paper discusses difficulties encountered in the Australian experience and gives recommendations for future programmes including allowing adequate time and resources for the planning phase and the importance of ongoing professional development for staff.

legacyweb.rcm.ac.uk

Bergonzi, L.S. (2007). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse classrooms: To see in living color. Policies and Practices: Rethinking Music Teacher Preparation in the 21st Century. Charles Leonhard Legacy Symposium sponsored by Teachers College, Columbia University; School of Music, University of Illinois; Department of Music & Dance, University of Massachusetts; and Mid-America Productions, Inc. New York City,

Australian Journal of Music Education, 2016

The provision of musical experiences for youth, especially in low socio-economic areas (SES), requires funded support and imaginative resourcing. This paper presents data from the Penrith (NSW Australia) Youth StringProgram offered in partnership by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Penrith Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (The Joan) over a period commencing in 2015-2016. The current context for young musicians in the locality is one of inequitable distribution of educational resources and access to knowledge. Consequently, this research is framed by Opportunity to Learn theory. The program has been designed to encourage young string players in the Penrith area through a program of guided rehearsals and tutorials. The evaluation plan incorporates the following data: student practice logs; and student, parent and tutor focus groups as well as site visit observations to capture information about the quality of program implementation. Thispaper reports on the research question: What did the participants gain from their involvement in the program? Findings demonstrate that the participants developed both skills in performance and expressive ensemble playing. Implications are that the program has encouraged the students to be aware of their own progress and to develop personal goals, whether they are to play a challenging piece of music well or to imagine a future in professional music making. The impact of the carefully spaced rehearsals in the program, the combination of local and visiting tutors and the development of personal goals suggest avenues for future research.

Cognition and Instruction, 2014

More and more studies are dealing with the association between teachers’ and students’ conceptions of learning and teaching and their actual practices in the classroom. Nevertheless, few studies have directly researched the influence of teachers’ conceptions on those held by their students. Our primary objective was to analyze the influence of music teachers’ conceptions on the ideas held by their students regarding learning and teaching. We interviewed 60 children: 30 with teachers who held traditional conceptions of teaching and learning and 30 with teachers who held constructive conceptions. Data were collected using a structured interview after viewing videos in which the actors depicted instrument lessons corresponding to the three conceptions of teaching and learning identified in previous studies – direct, interpretative and constructive. The first analysis (ANOVA) was quantitative and considered the choice of videos. The second analysis was qualitative (lexicometric analysis), based on the explanations for those choices. The results showed that students reflected the conceptions corresponding to their teachers’ profiles. The explanations from students in the constructive group were longer and more elaborate, focusing on learning processes and conditions as well as on student autonomy, whereas the traditional group focused on outcomes and responding to the teacher’s instructions.

Australian journal of music education, 2012

This study documents and analyses the environment where music education happens in a regional Conservatorium in New South Wales, Australia. The study aimed to gain insight into the structure, nature and professional practice of a regional conservatorium, and identify innovative pedagogical possibilities. An ethnographic case study was undertaken over one year, with intensity ranging from weeklong immersion schedules to occasional short-term observation of activities. Schwab's (1969) commonplaces of schooling (milieu, subject matter, students and teachers) were applied as a priori themes, providing a scaffold for preliminary classification and exploration of the data. Empirical themes were identified as they emerged through data analysis, and subsequently applied. A dominant finding of the study is the areas of intersection between the commonplaces of schooling: the triangulation of expertise (teacher, performer and musician); a curriculum design that is student centred; mechanis...