September 2009 — Volume 3, Issue 5

Music Teachers Oz connects theory with real world

It’s every trainee teacher’s fear. You’ve learned the theory, done the practical work and, with your degree tucked under your arm, you’re heading for your first teaching post. But does your training match the reality of the classroom? Often not, according to an ALTC project that aims to bridge the gap between students, early-career teachers and academics in music teacher education.

The project team set out to improve pre-service music teacher learning through a framework that integrates theory and practice and contextualises teacher education with real world scenarios so that graduate teachers are better prepared for the workplace. One of its aims was to address the isolation often felt by teachers and academics by bringing them together through a new forum.

The main mechanism for achieving this collaboration was the establishment of a website called Music Teachers Oz. The site developed a life of its own throughout the project with some 3000 people from around the world becoming involved. As a result the project, ‘Bridging gaps in music teacher education: developing exemplary practice models using peer collaboration’, was subsequently dubbed Music Teachers Oz.

Griffith University was the lead institution for the project, with the University of Tasmania, University of Queensland, the University of Southern Queensland and Charles Sturt University as partner institutions.

Project leader Dr Julie Ballantyne said that connecting “real world” teachers with pre-service teachers was a great way to enable students to understand what was happening in schools so they could better prepare for the reality of the classroom. This was done by creating a dynamic situation where individuals and groups could converse, look at case studies and propose solutions for problems.

An international reference group of education academics, implementing academics at participating universities, qualified teachers and pre-service education students helped develop the website and other learning resources. One of the main resources was a series of case studies in which qualified
teachers profiled their teaching contexts and outlined real world problems. The case studies were filmed and used by students during their study. “The feedback we got from students was that this is the real stuff … in a way that their prac does not always enable them to do,” Dr Ballantyne said.

The project report says the website received a widespread and positive response from pre-service teachers, academics, teachers and members of the general public. “Comments indicated that users viewed the MTO website as an exciting innovation for facilitating professional links. Additionally, through interaction with the case studies, the majority of student users were satisfied with the capacity of the website to provide insight into the ‘real world’ of teaching,’’ it says.

Qualified teachers who participated in the case studies also found value in their interaction with pre-service teachers. One summed it up this way: “The students offered some solutions that I hadn’t thought of and, yeah, they were helpful in that respect - just sort of giving me different ideas. And while I may not have done exactly what they had suggested in the way they had suggested, it did open up some different ways of thinking and looking at the problem as well.”

To view the website go to www.musicteachersoz.org