| Summary: | Research indicates that music teachers generally did not nurture student self-efficacy beliefs for musical performance, suggesting three possible reasons. It might be that teachers lack knowledge about self-efficacy, do not have a valid or reliable method to evaluate or measure student self-efficacy, or possess insufficient strategies for developing self-efficacy beliefs (Zelenak, 2011a). In light of these findings, Zelenak (2011a) developed the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES) (see Zelenak, 2011b) to provide teachers a way to measure the strengths and/or weaknesses of the four sources of self-efficacy information as reported by their students in relation to music performance.
The theoretical framework for this study draws from Bandura’s (1986) construct of self-efficacy, a derivative of social cognitive theory, which is based upon the interactive relationship among behavior, cognitive factors, and environmental influences, with forethought as a crucial factor. The purposes of this study were to discover to what extent the teaching experiences, education, and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers influenced student self-efficacy beliefs, and to discover to what extent student self-efficacy beliefs changed between pretest and posttest with teacher intervention of using self-efficacy enhancing teaching methods in the classroom.
Participants were currently enrolled music students in middle or high school (N = 242) and their respective music teachers (N = 5) in one school district in West Virginia. Results were compared according to the students’ grade level as well as to the teachers’ teaching experiences, educational backgrounds, teachers’ reported self-efficacy beliefs, and teacher intervention. Due to small teacher sample, the current findings cannot be generalized
Analysis of raw score data provided some insight into whether the independent variables affected the students’ pretest and posttest MPSES scores. All student participants’ scores improved from the pretest to the posttest, with the greatest changes being found in the teachers’ years of experience, educational background, and teacher self-efficacy categories; however, the statistical analysis of the data was found not to be significant. Future studies, especially those including qualitative data from teachers’ classroom experiences, would provide a wealth of knowledge for continued research on how music teachers can help nurture their students’ music performance self-efficacy beliefs.
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