Date of Award
5-21-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Music Education, MME
First Advisor
Kyle Chandler
Committee Members
Kyle Chandler; Neale Bartee; Timothy Oliver
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2015 L42
Abstract
The purposes of this study were to (1) describe educational psychology course offerings within undergraduate music teacher training programs at National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) accredited institutions and (2) to examine the emphasis of common educational psychology topics in music methods courses. The study was guided by three research questions: (1) How are educational psychology courses situated (i.e. credit weight, course level) in the undergraduate music education degree program; (2) What are the demographics for the institutions and the music methods instructors sampled; and (3) How do music methods instructors emphasize educational psychology topics commonly cited in the professional literature in their music methods course? After a pilot study comprising fifteen (n=15) institutions, the researcher randomly sampled 50% (n=256) of NASM-accredited institutions with undergraduate music education degrees leading to teacher licensure. Current course catalogues and degree plans for each institution were examined to determine: (a) existence of a course in educational psychology for music education majors; (b) department through which the course is offered (non-music content or music content specific); (c) requisite or elective status of the course; (d) level of course and credit hour weight; and (e) variance in educational psychology requirements across vocal, instrumental, and general music teacher licensing tracks. A web-based questionnaire was piloted by a small group of content experts and was administered to music methods instructors asking them to indicate how much emphasis they dedicate to educational psychology topics in their course(s). Emphasis was measured by the (a) amount of instructional time allotted for each topic, (b) amount and weight of assignments related to each topic, and (c) by rank ordering topics from most to least important. The study findings may inform curricular decisions in undergraduate music teacher education by exploring the extent to which educational psychology topics are blended with pedagogical content skill knowledge and their variants in music methods courses.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Light, Ben E., "Educational Psychology in Undergraduate Music Education Degree Programs in NASM-Accredited Institutions: Topics Covered and the Emphases of Those Topics in Music Methods Courses" (2015). Student Theses and Dissertations. 720.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/720
