From Instruction to Facilitation: Teaching Practice and Informal Learning in Pre-Service Primary Music Teacher Education

This action research seeks to balance theoretical, practical, and pedagogical skills in pre-service primary teacher education through informal music learning. A ten-session intervention was conducted with eleven university students in Madrid, adapting the methodological principles of informal learning. Interviews, reflective diaries, field notes, and discussion groups were used as data collection tools. Data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis. Through the adoption of a facilitator role, the instructor legitimized sound and imitation as viable strategies for musical acquisition and the dissemination of knowledge. It is concluded that shifting toward a facilitator role, grounded in sound-based demonstration and imitation, is essential for fostering autonomy and peer learning in primary teacher education. The findings suggest that a pedagogical balance can be achieved by rearranging the teaching sequence: starting with intuitive practice and auditory problem solving, and using theory as a later tool to label what students have already discovered within their specific context.