Problems of Beginning Teachers: Perceptions of Pre-Service Music Teachers

This paper reports on a study of the expectations of preservice music teacher education students about the problems faced by beginning teachers. The findings are presented against a background of studies of the unrealistic optimism of teacher education students. In this study, there was a consistent tendency for students to express high levels of confidence in their ability to teach, and to believe that they would experience less serious problems as beginning teachers than the "average first year teacher". This optimism is suggested as one reason for teacher education students' reluctance to use theoretical constructs to guide their classroom teaching during the practicum.