Book Description
This dissertation comprises three projects that were designed to investigate specific lesson planning practices and how music teacher educators might improve students' instructional preparation. The first investigation is a review of literature pertaining to lesson planning and teacher knowledge - specifically Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and Content Knowledge (CK). The second investigation is a survey study about preservice teachers' perceptions of where in their coursework lesson plans were taught and used, beliefs regarding the importance of planning, and how prepared they felt to use lesson planning in their classes. Respondents (N = 107) indicated that they were taught lesson planning more often in music education courses than in general education or music method courses. The third investigation is an experimental study. Novice conductors (N = 20) were randomly divided into two equal groups (n = 10 per group). I sought to determine whether novices who focused their rehearsal preparation using typical score study methodologies (CK) differed from those whose preparation involved both score study and specific rehearsal strategies (CK and PCK). I found no significant differences between the control and experimental groups' score study knowledge or rehearsal effectiveness ratings. Results from these three projects indicated that preservice teachers (a) found lesson planning to be important, (b) felt prepared to use lesson plans as part of the instructional process, and (c) could use either preparation method to prepare for rehearsals.