Learning by Doing Increases Confidence

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Learning by Doing Increases Confidence

Where does a teacher’s confidence come from? One researcher (Richardson, 1996) says the belief in one’s abilities comes from:

Personal experience, including beliefs about oneself and others
Experience with school and instruction, which builds a set of beliefs about the nature of schooling
Experience with formal knowledge, including both the subject to be taught and how to teach.

MENC member Myung-sook Auh of the University of New England (Armidale, New South Wales, Australia) observed changes in forty-eight Australian preservice teachers’ perceptions of confidence as they took a ten-week course in learning about music concepts through music activities, such as singing, instrumental playing, composing, and listening. The students were taught how to teach music concepts in the way they had learned them--by doing the activities themselves and by teaching their peers.

At the beginning of the course, almost one-third of the preservice students said that they were “not confident at all in teaching music.” At the end, 98 percent of the teachers-to-be had significantly increased their level of confidence in their ability to teach music. Only 2 percent expressed doubts.

Bottom line: One of the best ways to learn about music concepts is by doing music.

Material for this article comes from:

“Changes in Perception of Confidence in Teaching Music by Preservice Students” by Myung-sook Auh, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia; published in the Bulletin of the Council of Research in Music Education, no 161/162 (Summer-Fall 2004), originally presented at the 20th ISME Research Seminar, July 2004. [The International Society for Music Education (ISME) Web site is www.isme.org.]

“The Role of Attitudes and Beliefs in Learning to Teach” by V. Richardson, in J. Sikula, T. J. Buttery, and E. Guyton, eds., Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996), pp. 102-119.

Resource: Five of MENC’s journals are now being published by SAGE Publications in Los Angeles, California. If you have questions about either paper or online publications, contact Journals@sagepub.com. You can also call toll-free 800-818-7243. Press option 1, then option 2.