Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher delivery and student progress influenced preservice teachers' perceptions of overall teaching effectiveness. Experienced teachers (n = 6) were videotaped teaching mini applied lessons under four conditions: (a) high teacher delivery and more student progress, (b) high teacher delivery and less student progress, (c) low teacher delivery and more student progress, and (d) low teacher delivery and less student progress. Preservice teachers (n = 75) viewed these teaching excerpts and rated each for teacher delivery, student progress, student musicianship, teacher knowledge of subject matter, and overall teaching effectiveness. Participants rated teachers with high delivery as more effective than teachers with low delivery, irrespective of student progress. There was a moderate positive correlation (r = .53) between perceptions of teacher delivery and student progress. Results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that teacher delivery was the best predictor of perceptions of overall teaching effectiveness, followed closely by student progress. teacher delivery | student progress | teacher effectiveness | music education Keywords: Article: The assessment of teacher effectiveness recently has become the center of many conversations and debates related to public school teaching. There has been a strong movement in education towards teacher evaluations that focus on student performance-specifically, progress on standardized tests. In fact, the Marzano Evaluation Model, designed to establish a direct causal link between teaching and student achievement, is currently being employed by the Florida Department of Education as a model that districts can use or adapt to evaluate teachers Research on music teacher effectiveness primarily has been focused on teacher behaviors and delivery of instruction, while few researchers have explored how instruction impacts student learning. Additionally, little research has been conducted to investigate whether student progress is an effective predictor of effective teaching or how student progress impacts viewers' perception of teaching effectiveness. Learning frequently takes place inside and outside the classroom, and numerous variables impact student performance on tests. Given recent No Child Left Behind policies (NCLB, 2002), government calls for increased accountability in the classroom as measured by student progress, and the controversial debate regarding teacher evaluation, it seems prudent to investigate the interaction between instruction and student outcomes. Teacher delivery, teacher intensity, and conductor magnitude are terms that have been used to describe how the music teacher dispenses information. When defining teacher delivery, Several nonmusic studies have provided evidence that students in educational contexts were swayed by teacher delivery when evaluating teacher effectiveness. Teacher intensity has been operationally defined as the sustained control of the student-teacher interaction, with efficient, accurate presentation of subject matter combined with enthusiastic affect and pacing (C. There has been a limited amount of research in music concerning student progress. Duke (1999Duke ( /2000 noted in a review of 25 years of music education research ) that only 13 of 86 investigations measured student achievement. Others have postulated that teachers' ability to attend to student behavior rather than their own teaching behaviors appeared to increase with teaching experience Several music researchers have endeavored to create tools for measuring student progress. Duke (1994) established the rehearsal frame as a means of observing how students achieved teacheridentified instructional goals. A rehearsal frame began "when the conductor first identified a problem in need of correction in the ensemble" and ended "when the identified problem was performed in its original context by the full ensemble" (Duke, 1994, p. 84). Although previous studies have indicated that teacher delivery has a strong influence on participants' perceptions, student progress has not been examined as a factor affecting perceptions of effective teaching. Because the current assessment climate in the public schools is focused primarily on individual accountability and gains for each student, it seems important that preservice teachers are able to perceive student progress when it occurs. The primary purpose of this study was to determine how teacher delivery (high/low) and student progress (less/more) influence preservice teachers' perceptions of teaching effectiveness in private-lesson contexts. The private-lesson setting was used because it eliminated a number of variables and allowed preservice teachers to focus on one student. Specifically, our research questions were as follows: (1) Do preservice music teachers perceive teaching excerpts that contain high teacher delivery differently than excerpts containing low teacher delivery? (2) Do preservice teachers perceive teaching excerpts that contain more or less student progress differently? (3) Is there a difference in perceived teaching effectiveness between lessons with high teacher delivery compared to lessons with low teacher delivery? (4) Is there a difference in perceived teaching effectiveness between lessons with high student progress and low student progress? and (5) Is there a relationship between perceptions of teacher delivery and perceptions of student progress? A secondary purpose of this study was to determine which of the following variables influenced participants' perceptions of overall teaching effectiveness: teacher delivery, student musicianship, student progress, and teacher knowledge of subject matter. Method Participants Participants were 75 music education majors from two large state universities, one in Utah and the other in North Carolina. Both universities were located in urban settings. Participants were enrolled in the current semester's offerings of music education courses. There were 26 females and 49 males, 12 freshmen, 30 sophomores, 25 juniors, and 8 seniors. Of the 75 participants, 12 identified themselves as choral in emphasis, and 63 identified themselves as instrumental. Preparing the Stimulus Recording Six experienced teachers (brass, n = 2; voice, n = 2; and strings, n = 2) were recruited to teach mini applied lessons to a beginning student (one of the researchers served as a mock student for all lessons). The teachers were between the ages of 28 and 45 and were Caucasian. Three teachers were female, and three were male. For purposes of consistency, all teachers were asked to teach their lesson and incorporate the following: (a) Announce two learning objectives at the beginning of the lesson, (b) include some type of teacher modeling on their instrument or voice, and (c) incorporate feedback that was contingent and specific, in a ratio of four approvals to one disapproval, which had been found to influence positively perceptions of teaching effectiveness in previous research Teacher delivery and student progress were the two variables manipulated. Therefore, we created four conditions: high teacher delivery and more student progress, high teacher delivery and less student progress, low teacher delivery and more student progress, and low teacher delivery and less student progress. High teacher delivery was defined according to the behaviors identified in the research literature: eye contact, vocal modulation and volume, engaging facial expression, and energy. Given that each teacher announced two learning objectives for each lesson, student progress was defined operationally as the student's having accomplished both goals (more student progress) or having partially accomplished one of the two goals (less student progress). Teachers were asked to dress professionally for their video recording, as the camera would be focused exclusively on them. A digital video camera (Canon FS400) recorded the teachers' lessons in a university faculty studio, with a view of the teachers' upper body only (head to torso). All (except vocalists) brought musical instruments and provided one for the student to use. In order to provide consistency among the lessons, we asked each teacher to identify and work on two goals for a beginning student. For strings, the two goals were boxed fingers and clear pizzicato tone. For vocalists, goals were tall vowels and singing with a supported tone. Brass players were to perform a sustained buzz on the mouthpiece and make a sound on the horn. Each teacher had several "takes" for each condition, and these were recorded for later review by independent observers, who were asked to choose a single excerpt that best reflected high/low teacher delivery and more/less student progress while exhibiting all stipulations listed earlier. Trials not meeting criteria were discarded. Validity Check/Implementation of the Independent Variable In order to determine whether the appropriate teacher delivery (high/low) and student progress (more/less) conditions had been executed, five experienced teachers, unfamiliar with the research study and the teachers in the video, were invited to serve as independent judges. Using Montemayor's (2006) dyad concept, the researchers created a before-and-after audio recording for each student. Judges listened to paired comparisons of the first student trial and final student trial from the mini teaching excerpts and were asked to determine whether more or less progress had been displayed by circling the appropriate response. The judges were not given detailed instructions regarding the performance goals that were established by the teacher in the video. Rather, they rated the student's progress according to their own paradigm. Similarly, the experts viewed two excerpts of the same teacher (one of high delivery and one of low delivery) in a paired comparison format and were asked to select the version they felt displayed high delivery. Reliability among the five observers (computed using the formula [agreements]/[total observations]) was 98% for teacher delivery. Delivery was rated as we had intended by all five judges in every instance but one, where one of the five judges disagreed. The reason for the one disagreement was unclear and may be attributed to fatigue, confusion, or personal preference. This high level of agreement indicated that the teacher delivery variable was implemented correctly and could be perceived as intended. Reliability for student progress was 79%. There were four excerpts where judges were split in their assessments (3/2); thus, student progress was not perceived reliably as "less progress" as had been intended in these four instances. Therefore, we altered the four excerpts by replacing audio of the final student performance trial with an earlier performance trial from that particular lesson that demonstrated less progress. Because the student was hidden from view of the camera, the audio adjustments were not noticeable.