Evaluating Preparation Programs for Music Education and Visual Arts Education Teachers

Abstract

Boardman (1990) writes that “formal training in music instruction for teachers has existed in institutions of higher education for at least one hundred years” (p. 730). Art education has an even longer history. Educators in these disciplines demonstrate an equally long and impressive history of concern for quality teacher education programs; in fact, one of the goals of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), founded in 1924, was to establish standards for music education programs (Boardman, 1990; Davis, 1990; NASAD, 1989; and NASM, 1989). Music and visual arts educators are concerned about the effect of the current educational reform movement on their programs, and on all teacher education programs (Erbes, 1987; Olson, 1986; Taylor, 1989). They also bemoan the lack of research to guide program improvements (Boardman, 1990; Davis, 1990). Leonhard (1985) states that “music teacher education has changed very little in the last 50 years” and attributes that problem to the fact that “no program has ever been systematically developed for the specific purpose of preparing music teachers” (pp. 10–11). Sevigny (1987) reports that his search of the literature on visual arts teacher education “yielded minimal historical documentation of teacher training methods in the visual arts, sparse conclusions relating art curriculum theory to teaching practices, and limited empirical knowledge about teaching effectiveness in relation to” discipline-based art education (pp. 95–96). Despite these findings, there is considerable literature about music and visual arts education that can be used in program planning.

“. . . the fine arts should have a firm place in the experiences of all children, if excellence in achievement is the ultimate goal” (Parrott, 1986, p. 71).