The Influence of Social Intelligence on Effective Music Teaching

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social intelligence on effective music teaching. Forty teachers from “exemplary programs” and “more challenging programs” across band, chorus, orchestra, and general public school music programs were administered the Interpersonal Perception Task—15 (IPT-15). In addition, 84 external evaluators viewed teaching excerpts of 12 “exemplary” and “challenged” teachers and rated the (a) overall effectiveness and (b) main attribute that influenced their evaluations of each teaching excerpt. Results indicated no significant differences between the IPT-15 scores of “exemplary” teachers and “challenged” teachers.The external evaluators rated teachers identified as “exemplary” significantly higher than they rated teachers labeled as “challenged.” The majority of attributes influencing external evaluators’ ratings of overall teacher effectiveness were social, constituting more than 85% of all responses. All teachers who demonstrated effective social skills were perceived as effective teachers. Effective communication skills were the most frequently cited attributes for “exemplary” teachers, whereas ineffective classroom management was the most listed attribute for why teachers were rated ineffective.