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Approaches to increasing the competence and confidence of student teachers to teach music in primary schools

ABSTRACT The National Plan for Music (DfE (Department for Education). 2011. The Importance of Music: a National Plan for Music Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-importance-of-music-a-national-plan-for-music-education.) reflected the need for increasing the numbers of primary class teachers able to teach music and of teachers with expertise in music to become subject leaders. The plan stated that a pilot project would be funded ‘to trial new primary music ITT modules in summer 2012 to boost new teachers’ confidence and skill in teaching music’ (DfE, 2011, 21). Approaches to addressing this intransigent problem, exacerbated if not caused by policies which have led to the marginalisation of music education in the primary curriculum, have been investigated and shared for many years but this was the first opportunity (since the early 1990s) to apply and evaluate effective practices in a national context. The 21 pilot modules were selected and funded to run in 2012–2013. Changes in policies and structures meant that the planned evaluation did not take place but all providers who ran a pilot module did complete their own evaluation and many submitted extensive teaching materials. These data will form the basis for a consideration of the approaches used by the 21 different providers; what informed their module design, pedagogical approaches and choice of content. Follow-up interviews were undertaken to learn what the legacy has been for their training provision. Finally, there is a discussion of how the knowledge gained through this work can be used to support those involved in school-based training.