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,…

Managing the teaching-research-creative practice nexus is a concern for everyone working in higher music education, particularly those involved with the supervision and mentorship of graduate students and early career academics. This paper takes as its subject the new Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), drawing examples from research…

Previous research has demonstrated a benefit of music training on a number of cognitive functions including verbal memory performance. The impact of school-based music programs on memory processes is however relatively unknown. The current study explored the effect of increasing frequency and intensity of classroom-based instrumental training…

Cultural boundaries are no longer geographically dictated. This intercultural music making initiative made provision for the social cohesion of the North-West University, South Africa Tswana students as they prepared musical artefacts for "export" that convey, confirm and explore their culture of birth. Advancement in emerging digital technologies…

Primary schools are such busy demanding places. Educators are concerned with a crowded curriculum and high emphasis placed on the development and cultivation of literacy and numeracy concepts. Teachers are generally concerned with the delivery and teaching expectations of all key learning areas of the primary school curriculum. However, the…

Pre-service teacher degree programs are increasingly crowded with subjects covering the wide gamut of knowledge a teacher requires. Ensuring musical knowledge and language for classroom teaching poses a difficult problem for teacher educators. This article examines the challenges of including in the pre-service classroom teaching program a music…

The research described in this paper was carried out in an Australian early learning centre providing pre-school programs for children aged three years to six. The centre has specialist programs embedded and one of these is a music program led by a musician. A recent project, consisting of a staff singing group, was aimed at integrating the…

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…

Many young West Australians learn musical instruments through school based elective programs. However, many students drop out from these programs, particularly in lower secondary school. This paper reports on a study I conducted into the motives of 48 lower secondary school students for playing a musical instrument, and the role of the instrument…

The current paper retrospectively evaluates the efficacy of implementing a large-scale music education program into a regional cluster of Victorian primary schools. The program's primary aim was to increase access and quality of music education for students in these rural schools. The methods utilized to evaluate the program and the discrepancies…

In this time of national curriculum re-thinking, tertiary institutions are positioned to create opportunities amongst pre-service teachers for the cultivation of knowledge, skills and understandings concerning cultural diversity in music education. The demographic profile of the State of Victoria is the most culturally diverse in Australia and the…

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…

This qualitative study focuses on the intrinsic value of musical understanding and how it is influenced by socio-cultural and educational factors shaping the development of a gifted adolescent. Using Gross's (1993) model of case studies of exceptionally gifted children, the student was identified for her innate abilities, and studied using the…

This article investigates the use of gesture as a pedagogic tool in the one-to-one singing lesson. A brief overview of the main approaches of vocal pedagogy exhibits the longstanding dispute between advocates of a purely factual teaching style and defenders of a more imaginative one and shows that imagery and metaphors have long played a role in…