Pedagogical Values of Undergraduate Choral Conducting Faculty

Conducting courses are a common feature of the choral music teacher education curriculum. However, practicing teachers often place lower value on conducting skills than other skills necessary for effective teaching. There may be a disconnect between the emphasis placed on conducting in the undergraduate curriculum and the relevance of conducting skills for beginning teachers in the K-12 choral classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the pedagogical values of undergraduate choral conducting faculty as they relate to the needs of practicing choral educators through a survey of course content, teaching methods, and suggested curriculum additions. Current undergraduate choral conducting faculty (N = 173) from NASM-accredited institutions responded to an online questionnaire. Participants rated how much they emphasize conducting topics in their undergraduate choral conducting classroom and how important those same topics are for practicing choral educators using Shulman's Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework (Shulman, 1986). In addition, faculty participants responded to open-ended questions regarding the purpose of conducting skills, effective methods of curricular instruction, and suggested additions to the undergraduate choral conducting curriculum. Participants rated Content Knowledge (CK) Skills as their highest priority followed by Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Skills and Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) Skills for both emphasis in conducting curriculum and importance to practicing educators. However, in individual ratings, emphasis and importance of PCK topics did not match—faculty rated PCK topics as highly important but not emphasized in the conducting curriculum. Results indicated a need for conducting curriculum redesign to better serve the needs of preservice teachers. Most faculty reported instructor feedback and conducting demonstrations to be effective methods of teaching undergraduate choral conducting. Participants also indicated a need for increased time spent on rehearsal skills in the choral conducting curriculum. Because the purpose of conducting skills for practicing educators takes the form of both conductor-related and rehearsal-aid purposes, additional conducting curriculum time spent on rehearsal skills would be advantageous. It should also be considered that many participants reported a need for increased diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in the choral conducting curriculum. Conducting taught in combination with pedagogical skills might provide a more holistic conducting-teaching experience that is relevant to the multifaceted nature of classroom teaching. Though CK skills are highly emphasized and valued by current conducting faculty, they also find PK and PCK skills important to add to the conducting curriculum. Currently, CK skills are emphasized in the choral conducting curriculum, though adding PCK and PK elements will help preservice teachers be better prepared for classroom instruction. Additional implications are discussed.