This paper presents a story constellation about a beginning teacher (who is also the principal) located in a one-teacher school in an isolated community in Queensland, Australia. The constellation documents the teacher's self-efficacy for teaching the arts (music, dance, drama, visual arts and media). Tabitha, the participant, shares insights…

Students' beliefs about why they may or may not be successful in various pursuits can influence the extent to which they are likely to invest effort in these pursuits and which in turn affects the level of achievement likely to be experienced. Attributional beliefs assign causes for success and failure to a range of factors, including ability,…

It has long been known that generalist primary and early childhood teachers struggle with teaching music, due to a lack confidence and skills. This paper discusses some early findings of a phenomenological study which follows a twelve-month collaboration between a music specialist (the researcher) and a small group of early childhood educators in…

In the middle years of schooling, spanning grades four to nine, it is common practice for generalist teachers to deliver integrated arts education. Research confirms that teacher effectiveness with the arts is influenced by their sense of efficacy, which is derived from a coalition of factors including confidence, competence, subject mastery and…

This paper reports the findings of a study involving 138 NSW preservice generalist teachers and compares them with similar findings from a similar group of students from a previous study. Students' perceptions of their background in formal music education and their confidence in teaching music lessons are analysed. The paper also examines the data…

Significant research has been conducted into the positive effects of arts education on social and intellectual development of students across the ages of 10-15 years. Teacher competence for teaching the arts however does not appear to be as positive. A worldwide trend suggests pre-service teachers exhibit low confidence and content knowledge for…