Preservice Music Educators’ Perceived Development From Collegiate Large Ensemble Experiences

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate preservice music educators’ perceptions of large ensemble experiences at a southwestern university. The researcher created and tested a survey designed to explore how preservice educators perceived their large ensemble experiences may impact their pedagogy and musicianship. Respondents ( N = 101) answered agreement statements about ensemble experiences and course enrollments. Instrument data yielded four perceived developmental aspects: Conducting Gesture Growth, Musicianship and Pedagogy, Repertoire and Literature Selection, and Other with a Cronbach’s alpha of .92. A composite score for Musicianship and Pedagogy indicated a statistically significant difference by primary teaching area. Preservice music educators reported their conducting gesture had the most musicianship growth from large ensemble experiences. Participants gave the highest pedagogy ratings for statements about large ensembles preparing them for a career in music education, improving their teaching effectiveness, and ensemble experiences altering their perceptions of music teaching.