A Comparison of Music Faculty and Music Education Faculty Beliefs Regarding Music Curricula for Pre-service Teachers

The purpose of this study was to compare music education faculty (MEF) and music faculty (MF) beliefs regarding musical knowledge and skills needed by future music educators, to investigate whether music education curricula are adequately preparing students for current needs in the field, and to explore possibilities for curricular change. Through an online survey distributed to a nationwide sample of college and university MF and MEF, participants ranked what they believed to be the most important music-related courses in music education curricula, indicated courses they believed should receive more emphasis and those they believed should receive less emphasis, rated the importance of various musical skills and musical knowledge related to music teacher preparation, and described any curricular changes they believed would be beneficial in preparing future music educators. Results indicated both groups ranked ear training/aural skills courses as most important in music education preparation programs; however, differences of opinion emerged regarding applied lessons, conducting, elementary methods, performance ensembles, and secondary ensemble methods. Both MEF and MF agreed curricular change was necessary. Coding of qualitative responses revealed that consideration of “traditional” elements was not exclusive to MF