Authentic Practice and Process in Music Teacher Education: Excellent Teacher Education Programs Provide Students with Experiences from Which They Can Construct Their Own Understandings of Music, Education, and Music Education

Overview & Synopsis

To become a music teacher, an individual must understand music, learning and teaching, and music learning and teaching. In this article, the author discusses how preservice music education students can formulate these understandings and describes a kind of curriculum that fosters these kinds of understandings. She also considers some ideas that are central to the fields of music, education, and music education in terms of their potential for achieving authenticity. A suggested set of courses designed to foster students' understandings of learning and teaching processes in connection with what they learn about music and a sample curriculum for preservice music teacher education is presented. (Contains 16 notes.)