The Practice of Pedagogy

Abstract

Despite its relatively short history in Australian musical academia, a recent survey indicates that over half of Australian music institutions now offer Keyboard/Vocal/Instrumental Pedagogy as a formalised course in their institution at either Undergraduate level or Post-graduate level. While it is clear that the imperative to raise the standard of teaching through formal tertiary training has been addressed by some music institutions in Australia, many pedagogy courses/programs are however restricted to lecture type classes, in abstract form or with artificially created practice teaching exercises. Consequently, young professional musicians are still emerging from their advanced study more often than not better prepared as performers than as teachers.

Some researchers argue that the real crux of a successful piano pedagogy program or even one pedagogy course, is and always will be the practical training of current and prospective teachers and this can only be accomplished by a large and successful measure of practice teaching.

This paper examines one pedagogy program currently being offered in an Australian tertiary institution. The aim of the paper is to ascertain the effectiveness of the intern program and whether or not the success of the program lies in the practical training of current and prospective teachers that can only be accomplished by a large and successful dose of practice teaching.