The Music Teacher I’d Like: Lessons Learnt From Students

Introduction

“Who is/are your favorite music teacher/s and why?”, is the first question that my undergraduate students are called to answer in our first week of classes, right after they sketch their musical journey map from the moment they recall there was some kind of relationship to music, to the moment they entered my Foundations of Music Education class. For them, going back in time and realizing key moments in their musical lives and key people that either supported them or had a negative effect within their journey makes it easier to identify those great or not so great teachers, who possibly even had a powerful influence on the pathways they followed. And the answers are in most of the cases more or less focused on inspiring and motivating music teachers who supported them, who believed in them, who cared and were friendly, and with whom they developed a personal relationship.

The effective, the good, the great, the successful, or the ideal teacher has been in various educational debates for more than a century and has led to various categories and lists of characteristics and qualities (Blishen, 1969; Kratz, 1896; Symonds, 1947). In questioning “why some teachers are better than others,” Ryan (2003), in his book on teaching and learning, commented that the effective teacher does not simply transfer information to the student regarding a specific subject but actually interacts with the other person. For this exact reason, teachers are anticipated to be more than experts in their field. They need to be friendly, be warm, have social skills, and be able to work with the students and share the miracle and the enthusiasm of knowledge (Ryan, 2003).

Other researchers highlight professional knowledge (in both content and pedagogy of the subject) and personality as the two most important elements of the ideal teacher’s profile. Research attempts mapping the effective teacher’s profile from the students’ point of view have found that creating (and maintaining) good relations with students and the teacher’s teaching skills are the prevalent traits (Kutnick and Jules, 1993; Lowman, 1995). Effective teachers are described as individuals who respect their students and have high expectations of them; they are fair and democratic, they care for their students and their worries, they are good listeners, and they forgive certain behaviors and actions; they are creative, positive, approachable, and responsible toward their students and are always prepared for their lessons and have a sense of humor (Weinstein, 1988; Burdern and Byrd, 2013; Myers and Myers, 1995; McIntyre and O’Hair, 1996; Arnon and Reichel, 2007; Walker, 2008).

Through literature, it is made clear that the essential characteristics of effective teachers are not limited to content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and personality traits. It is critical for the teachers to understand the psychological and sociological dimensions of education, to be familiar with the students’ characteristics, and to know how the educational settings function (e.g., the school). They should be familiar with curriculum requirements, whether these concern the content, the teaching approaches, or the aims and objectives of the subject to be taught. Teachers should also have a vision and be able to realize their social mission through teaching (Arnon and Reichel, 2007; Walker, 2008).

Several studies over the years in the field of music education have also produced lists with several significant traits, which often differed in focus, according to the participants involved and the educational contexts they were given (Economidou Stavrou, 2019; Economidou Stavrou, 2020; Baker, 1981; Brand, 2009; Browing, 2017; Duke, 2005;Hamman and Cooper, 2016; Hennessey et al., 2013; Manford, 1996; Teachout, 1997; Townsend, 2011). Most of them raised characteristics, skills, and behaviors similar to the ones identified by research in the field of education, which can also be related to broader categories such as the music knowledge and skills of the music teachers, their pedagogical approaches and methods, their relationship with the students, and their personality characteristics. Undoubtedly, the diversity between cultures, geographical places, educational systems, and many more are acknowledged and by no means may one claim that what is the case in one country or educational context is similar to others. The lists may vary even more, as each person’s experiences, personality, ideals, priorities, and viewpoints are quite different. There seems, however, to be an agreement in the literature that besides musical skills and pedagogical knowledge, good music teachers put the students at the center of music teaching and learning, give them voice, and take their views into consideration (Barrett, 2005; Burnard and Bjork, 2010). They set it as priority to serve their students’ needs (Wis, 2002), and they create an environment of trust and care (Juchniewicz, 2010; Steele, 2010; Steele-Royston, 2017).

Other studies investigated the competences, characteristics, and instruction goals of the effective instrumental and vocal teachers (Biasutti and Concina, 2018; Creech and Papageorgi, 2014; McPherson and Hattie, 2021) or focused on specific aspects of the profile of effective music teachers, such as the reflective music teacher, the creative music teacher, and the interpersonal behaviors of the music teacher (Economidou Stavrou, 2014; Steele-Roylson, 2017; Economidou Stavrou and Neophytou, 2017). However, from all the aforementioned studies in music education, very few investigate the students’ perspectives. In most cases, it was either investigation of preservice or in-service music teachers’ perspectives.

Guided by Townsend’s statement (2011) “Look to your students to assess your effectiveness as teacher” (p. 3), I thought it was worthwhile to examine how secondary school students in my country sketch the profile of their ideal music teacher and what it takes to be a great music teacher in the eyes of the students. A year later, I thought “but do also teachers share similar perspectives on the ideal music teacher’s profile?”, so I moved on to investigate music teachers’ perceptions. I must admit that the findings were very thought-provoking as it was interesting to see that there was no convergence between teachers’ and students’ perspectives on what constitutes the ideal music teacher (Economidou Stavrou, 2020).

The current study was part of a larger project investigating secondary school students’ and music teachers’ perceptions of what constitutes the ideal music teacher (Economidou Stavrou, 2020). The way students envision their ideal music teacher is another lens to look at music teacher effectiveness, and it should matter, probably the most. In this article, major findings from the students’ perspective are presented and discussed. In particular, the current study investigates why some music teachers stand out whereas some others are someone of whom students would rather erase their memory (McPherson and Hattie, 2021) and focuses on three research questions:

1) Who is the ideal music teacher through the eyes of secondary school students?

2) Who could never be students’ ideal music teacher?

3) How could the student perspective challenge the mindset and practices of music teachers and music teacher education priorities?

Methods

The study took place in Cyprus, and the participants consisted of 518 secondary school students, from 14 different public general secondary schools taught by 23 different music teachers. In each school, we administered the questionnaire to one second-grade and one third-grade class. Our sample consisted of 54% 13–14-year-old students (second grade of secondary school) and 46% 14–15-year-old students (third grade). The students had compulsory music lessons in schools twice (second grade) or once (third grade) a week. We used geographically stratified random sampling and covered all five cities in the island. 295 girls (57%) and 222 boys (43%) responded to the questionnaire. There was no intention to make a generalization of the results; rather, we aimed at sketching the students’ perspective on what characteristics deemed important for them in regard to their ideal music teacher.

The students completed a two-part anonymous questionnaire investigating their view on the qualities and competencies of the ideal music teacher. The questionnaire distributed included eight questions, six of them being open-ended. The students, among others, were asked to brainstorm and note down, on a diagram of ten empty boxes, up to ten characteristics of what they considered important for the profile of their ideal music teacher. The intention was to allow students to capture with their own words their perspective instead of giving them predetermined statements to choose from. Further to this question, we asked the students to list the four most important characteristics of their ideal music teacher from the list they compiled, as well as to list the four characteristics that their ideal music teacher would never have. In this article, we present and discuss the findings solely from these three open-ended questions of the questionnaire, investigating students’ perspective on what constitutes and what not an ideal, for them, music teacher.

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the researcher’s institution research ethics committee, as well as the Cyprus Ministry of Education relevant Center for Educational Research. Parents of students in selected classes were informed through a letter about the study and what their children would be required to participate, and a signed consent form from the parents was received in order for the children to be eligible to take part in the study. The students filled in a printed version of the questionnaire, distributed by the researcher, during school hours. On the day of data collection, the researcher met with the students of each class at a time prearranged with the school principal and informed them as to the purpose of the study. It was made clear to the students that participation would be voluntary and anonymous. In order to ensure unbiased answers, the researcher was the only adult present in the classroom at the time of the completion of the questionnaire.

The analysis of the findings in the three open-ended questions that are reported in this article followed the process of coding for each different answer provided by the participants and then the characteristics collected were analyzed based on quantitative data analysis (SPSS statistical package), producing frequency tables, in order to identify the most popular responses/characteristics. Despite the fact that some of the characteristics referred to similar aspects but using different words, no thematic analysis was conducted as we wanted to keep the original wording used by the participants.

Results

Encoding participants’ answers in the question where they were asked to note down up to 10 characteristics of their ideal music teacher from their own point of view, a list of 236 different characteristics was formed, mapping the ideal music teacher in the eyes of the students (Economidou Stavrou, 2020). Findings revealed that according to a large number of students, the “ideal” music teacher is polite, is friendly, has a sense of humor, and is kind, patient, and pleasant. About 20% of students would like their music teacher to be clever, not strict, as well as fair and cooperative. Moreover, a person to trust, with advanced musical knowledge, is communicative, enjoys discussing with the students, accepts the making and receiving of jokes, teaches modern songs, and is creative. Furthermore, the ideal music teacher should be, according to the students, competent in playing musical instruments, should not shout, and should come to class being neat. Interestingly, out of the 20 most popular characteristics of the ideal music teacher, only four referred to the teacher’s musical and teaching skills, whereas the remaining 16 characteristics concerned the teacher’s personality traits and interpersonal skills (Economidou Stavrou, 2019; Economidou Stavrou, 2020).

Many of the 236 different characteristics of the ideal music teachers identified in the study were characteristics suggested only by few students, resulting in such a long list! However, there were in total forty characteristics that were included by more than 30 participants. Those 40 characteristics/qualities ranked highest by the students and were then classified in the following five umbrella categories: 1) music teacher’s personality traits, 2) music teacher’s musical skills/knowledge, 3) teacher–student relationship, and 4) music teacher’s pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and teaching approach, and 5) others.

In Figure 1, the categories are shown with the numbers of total responses under each category. Following the diagram, the characteristics/qualities are presented analytically and grouped where they refer to the same or similar quality, behavior, trait, or skill (N = number of responses).

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1. Students’ views on the qualities of the ideal secondary school music teacher.

Fourteen out of the 40 characteristics were under Personality traits and 12 under Teacher–student interaction and learning environment, as evident in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

TABLE 1. Students’ responses related to teacher’s personality traits and teacher/student relationship and interactions.

If we take into consideration that the above personality traits resulted from a brainstorming question where any respondent could write in their own words anything they considered important that characterizes their ideal music teacher, it is noteworthy to comment that being polite, having good manner, being friendly and kind, and having a sense of humor are the top priorities for our learners.

Grouping students’ responses under the teacher–student interaction and learning environment, it seems that a strict teacher who gets angry easily and yells at students is something that really concerns the students. In addition, the good communication between the teacher and students is also a very significant ingredient for a great music teacher according to students.

Under the category “Teacher’s musical skills/knowledge,” surprisingly there were only three out of the 40 characteristics ranked highest in students’ responses with a total of only 180 responses, these being advanced musical knowledge (N = 77), competencies in playing musical instruments (N = 61), and a beautiful voice (N = 42).

Under the “Content knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Teaching Approaches,” there were 8 out of the 40 characteristics and a total of 432 responses where students describe a teacher who loves music teaching (N = 36), organizes pleasant and interesting music lessons (N = 89), gives them the opportunity to learn songs they like (N = 63), and helps them learn to play a variety of musical instruments (N = 36). Obviously, they are also concerned with dealing with a teacher who explains the lesson well (N = 79) and does not give them a hard time in assessment (N = 66).

Some additional characteristics which could not fit into any other category referred to an ideal music teacher who is good-looking and neat (N = 93), smart (N = 88), and young (N = 36).

Grouping together the personality and the teacher–student relationship, we end up with 1,977 entries, compared to 612 entries that refer to teachers’ musical knowledge, skills, and teaching approaches and pedagogies. We could claim that the findings suggest that, according to the students who participated in the study, whether a music teacher is considered to be a good music teacher is more than 75% determined by the teacher’s personality traits, the social interaction, and the relationship with the students and only around 25% by his/her musical knowledge, skills, and teaching practices and approaches. It is alarming, if you consider, that most of the time in most of music teachers’ training courses and seminars is spent on teaching music teachers various methods, approaches, trends in music teaching and learning, lesson planning, selection of activities, repertoire, etc. And similarly is all the effort, time, and energy a music teacher dedicates to prepare for his/her lessons.

The ideal versus the “not so great” music teachers.

Who is for you the ideal music teacher?

In a question asking students’ to identify, from their list of the “up to ten” characteristics, those four they considered the most important to characterize their “ideal” music teacher, the 10 higher-ranked responses of the students are summarized in Table 2.

TABLE 2

TABLE 2. The four most significant characteristics of my ideal music teacher.

It is worth highlighting here that, literally all ten characteristics considered most important by secondary school students were referring to personality and interpersonal characteristics of the music teacher and not a single one to pedagogical or content knowledge. There was not a single characteristic in regard to music teachers’ musical skills, knowledge, pedagogies, and methods.

Who could never be for you the ideal music teacher?

Sometimes, we may think of a past teacher we had in school or university, but we cannot think of a single nice memory to cherish. From time to time we even might come across those teachers and pretend we did not see them. Why? What are those annoying or indifferent characteristics or behaviors, actions, or approaches of those teachers which would stop us from greeting them?

Being or becoming a music teacher is important to also have some “Don’ts” in mind, not only several “Dos.” In this context, it was interesting to investigate the students’ views on the music teacher they would not like. To do that, we asked the participants to state which were the four characteristics that their “ideal” music teacher would never have, in other words, what were the things that they mostly did not like about a music teacher. Table 3 shows the 10 most common characteristics suggested by secondary school students and music teachers.

TABLE 3

TABLE 3. Who could never be my ideal music teacher?

The coding of students’ answers in this question gave 204 different characteristics with the most common answer having been suggested by half of the students: the “ideal” music teachers should not be strict. A significant percentage stated that the “ideal” music teacher cannot be short-tempered, shout in class, be suspicious and edgy, and be mean and pressing. The characteristics related to the behavior of the teacher and his/her attitude toward students seem to be prevalent among students’ responses. Last but not least, among the 10 most common answers concerning who is not the “ideal” music teacher in the eyes of secondary education students is a teacher who is not fair with her/his students and a teacher who thinks that s/he knows everything. It is noteworthy to mention that among the ten most popular answers, there was nothing referring to teachers’ insufficient musical skills or knowledge nor something in regard to their teaching practices. All characteristics that students considered to be most annoying in a music teacher focused on the teacher’s personality and behaviors, once more.

According to the responses of the students, there were 20–35 students who noted that their ideal music teacher cannot be someone who does not take jokes, is boring, is bored to teach, is violent, is hesitant with the students, and who gives many or difficult tests and does not have high-level musical knowledge. Again it is important to stress that out of the 18 characteristics ranked higher by the students, only the last three are not referring to personality/interpersonal characteristics. There were of course more characteristics that were referring to teachers’ musical skills and pedagogical and content knowledge, but each of those were mentioned by fewer than 20 out of the 518 students.

Discussion and Implications for Music Teacher Education

What do these 518 students tell us about what they see in, and what they want from, a music teacher? And what could secondary school music teachers, as well as music teacher educators possibly learn from them?

Comparing the 10 most important, for the students, characteristics for their ideal teacher with the 10 most important characteristics that their ideal music teacher could never have, it becomes obvious that a nice approach, kindness, fairness, and a positive and pleasant atmosphere with no tensions are what the students seek for from their music teachers. And again, all of them are personality and interpersonal characteristics in both questions. Our findings correspond to the findings of Steele-Royston on what students want and do not want from their teachers regarding interpersonal behaviors, which show that trust, humor, friendly approach, enthusiasm, personal interest for the students, high expectations, and willingness to hear the students’ views are critical to students. Her participants similarly did not want a teacher who gets angry in class, is manipulative, scares students, is sarcastic, and makes discriminations among students (Steel-Royston, 2017). The significant difference in these two studies lies in the fact that our participants were never asked to share their views specifically in regard to the interpersonal characteristics of their music teacher. They themselves decided that, out of every possible answer they could give, personality and interpersonal characteristics were more important to them than their music teachers’ skills and pedagogies. Students called for a music teacher who teaches songs and pieces they like and gives them opportunities to learn instruments they like, a request often met in studies investigating how students envision their music education (Economidou Stavrou, 2020).

In contrast with a significant number of studies and other publications which highlight certain music knowledge and skills, music teaching and learning approaches, classroom management skills, and communication skills, all of which are undoubtedly important elements for the profile of a good music teacher (Ballantyne and Packer, 2004; Ballantyne, 2005; Duke, 2005; Brand, 2009; Townsend, 2011; Hennessey et al., 2013; Hamann and Cooper, 2016; Browning, 2017), the emphasis in this study is placed more on music teachers’ personality traits and effective communication with students. A first explanation might be the fact that the current study investigated students’ perceptions whereas the aforementioned studies looked into in-service and pre-service music teachers’ view on what constitutes the ideal music teacher. Secondly, it is possible that if the question was posed differently, asking the students to describe the ideal music teacher from whom they were most likely to learn, students might have had a different focus when completing the questionnaire and different priorities.

Personality traits, as well as interpersonal relations for a music teacher, for any teacher, are equally important to musical knowledge, skills, and teaching methods and approaches and are ingredients that cannot be absent from the ideal music teacher’s profile. Unfortunately, these might probably be the ones that are least touched upon during university years and in-service training. It would be of great interest to investigate further into it, by looking into the ways the issue of the personality of the music teacher is, or might be dealt with, during university years. Even though music teachers may have highly developed musical skills and great knowledge of their subject, these do not guarantee that they will be good teachers. Personality and interpersonal characteristics ideally are greatly combined and interact with musical skills, knowledge, and teaching approaches and methods, all of which are extremely important puzzle parts for a successful music teacher. And then we have the art of teaching, where magic things can happen.

Teaching is, by no means, simply a “delivery technique” (Cain and Cursley, 2017, 4). Teaching is complicated, as it is both and art and a science (Marzano, 2017). And while the knowledge of the subject, the pedagogies, methodologies, and theories, the instructional strategies, and the content are undoubtedly essential, it is the art of teaching that will define whether one is truly a good teacher (Marzano, 2017). Teaching becomes even more complicated because it is both artistry and attitude (Townsend, 2011), and it is interaction between humans and that alone makes it, likewise, complex.

The music teacher students wish for is not expected to have every single of those characteristics, traits, and competences. The list may act as a reference point to what matters to students. Nobody underestimates the importance of music skills and knowledge, pedagogical methods, and approaches taught in colleges, academies, universities, and in-service trainings. Knowledge in regard to lesson planning, varied repertoire, current and older methods, and methodologies are indeed valuable for any music teacher. Is it, however, possible that the music teacher’s personality traits and interpersonal relationships are underestimated during pre-service and in-service training? What is then the role of music teacher educators? Is this aspect of music teaching and learning adequately discussed during university years? Are the future music teachers engaged in reflective practices and experiences in order to identify the significance of personality and interpersonal characteristics of a music teacher, during their teaching practicum or music lesson observations (Economidou Stavrou, 2014)? Are future music teachers engaged in discussions about the importance of each single learner in our class and our significant role in the music classroom to help every children develop musically despite their different readiness level or interests or learning profiles (Economidou Stavrou, 2015)? And again, opportunities for working further on interpersonal relationships between the music teacher and the students could be reinforced in music education programs, including more opportunities for critical analysis of live or videotaped music lessons taught by different music teachers, self-reflection of pre-service students own teaching. Furthermore, new possible ways to foster the development of interpersonal skills during music education modules or in-service seminars and workshops could be investigated through further research.

There are no recipes for the ultimate music teacher. Any recipe may vary, depending on who is asked to share the ingredients. Nevertheless, a Decalogue is compiled stemming from echoing our participating students’ voices and perspectives from the literature, which includes some of the main ingredients future and current music teachers might have in mind. Undoubtedly, if we asked music teachers, or music policymakers, or school administrators, or even parents about their ideal music teacher, the list most definitely would not look the same.

Coda

Decalogue for Great Music Teachers Through the Eyes of the Students

1) The personality of the music teachers and the relationship built between them and their students are highly valued by the students.

2) Preparing and organizing an excellent music lesson in terms of activities and repertoire is significant but does not guarantee effective teaching and learning.

3) Music teachers also being great musicians is fantastic and will probably motivate the students. This is indeed a prerequisite for being a good music teacher, but again it is by no means sufficient.

4) Successful music teachers’ priority is to teach their students (teaching the person)—not the curriculum content, the unit, the musical instrument, the attainment targets, or the national standards (teaching something).

5) A friendly approach, some humorous moments during the lesson, a joyful atmosphere, politeness, kindness, and patience are deeply appreciated by students. These require, one could assume, the least effort and preparation on behalf of the music teachers, but they seem to be the ones that make the big difference in the eyes of students.

6) A negative atmosphere, tensions, too much strictness, and music teachers who are not fair with the students and think they know everything do not support a good student–teacher relationship and a fruitful learning environment.

7) Communication, mutual respect, and interaction are vital elements in effective teaching and learning contexts, and they seem to be a major priority for students.

8) Successful music teachers love children, teaching, and music. All three!

9) Caring is a key word. It connects everything together. Music teachers who care about their students find ways to meet many of the challenges that may arise.

10) Including students’ preferences on repertoire and activities motivates and engages students in meaningful and relevant musical experiences.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Center of Educational Research and Evaluation, Cyprus Pedagogical Institute. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors, and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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