Describing Preservice Instrumental Music Educators’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

In this descriptive study, I investigated the pedagogical content knowledge of 206 undergraduate music education students by presenting video recordings of beginning band students playing excerpts from their class method books. I asked these preservice educators to identify performance problems and offer potential solutions to the causes of those problems. Participants had difficulty articulating the differences between performance problems and the underlying causes of the problems. The most common solutions for performance problems were generalized recommendations to “address” or “work on” the problems. Several participants made assumptions about the student performers’ background, teachers, and attitudes without supporting data. Music education students need assistance in developing specific techniques to address common performance problems. Additional implications for music teacher education are offered based on the study results.