School Improvement Episode 31: Improving confidence in music teaching

As a primary school teacher, how confident would you say you are at teaching music? Do you feel adequately prepared to teach music, or incorporate music into your lessons? What areas of music do you feel you need the most support in?

A pilot professional development program on music teaching in primary schools has been assessed in a new report. The program involved five separate sessions on different areas in music, like composition, singing and instruments. The confidence of the teachers involved in the program were assessed before the program commenced, and after they’d completed all the sessions. The main contributor to their increase in confidence was the simple activities they were able to pick up, which we’ll share in this episode.

We're joined in this episode by the report’s authors, Benjamin Thorn and Inga Brasche. Benjamin is a composer and a casual lecturer in Creative Arts education at the University of New England, and Inga Brasche is a former university lecturer and currently teaches at Presbyterian Ladies' College in Armidale, New South Wales, the same region where this study took place. Let’s jump in to hear more about their research.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guests: Benjamin Thorn and Inga Brasche