Learning and Teaching Approaches

The Music teacher training course at the Academy of Music (University of Ljubljana) includes different teaching and learning approaches: lectures, seminars, workshops, smaller group work, individual work, music-pedagogy practise, self-directed study, portfolio and e-learning (just partly – we make first steps on this field).

Teaching skills are process developed throughout the four years. The theory and the first practical exercises for teaching music is the main domain of the subject Special music didactics. The first year students learn how to teach music to pre-school children and primary school pupils in the first three years of schooling. The second year is oriented towards the higher classes of the primary school: from the 4th class (9 year old pupils) to the 9th class (14 year old pupils). In the third year we focus on music schools – we prepare teachers for teaching music theory and solfeggio. The final year is oriented towards teaching and learning music in secondary schools (gymnasium). Students have connected pedagogical practice through all four years. They can develop their teaching skills through classroom observations, independent lesson execution and continuous practice.

Use of technology for teaching differs from one subject to the other. We have two years subject entitled Multimedia (music and computer science) which is focused on the use of new technologies in teaching and learning processes (Sibelius software). The differences in the equipment of the “partner-schools” for our pedagogical practice cause different approaches in using the teaching technologies by students. In general new technologies are used more as a teaching and studying tool.

In the class teacher educational programme (Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana) there are approximately a quarter of all the hours of lectures, practical classes and seminars allocated to pedagogical subjects and the other part for specialist theoretical subjects with their teaching methodologies. Students come into direct contact with pupils during classroom observations, by student-teaching and during teaching practice. Practical training is carried out continuously through all four years of the course, introducing students gradually to independent pedagogic work (from observing to assisting, guided and independent experience). In addition to this each student must carry out one hour of observing the teaching process and one hour of teaching within each special (including music) didactics class.

The class teacher curriculum also includes ICT education of future class teachers. We have the first attempts of creating own musical ICT environment for the primary school (Borota B., Brodnik A.: Musical Time in Play and Image Format, University of Primorska, Faculty of Education Koper). That said, there are few possibilities for students to learn about software like Finale, Sibelius, Cubase etc.