Microdurómetro

A concern in education in general is the phenomena of “practice shock”, “reality shock” or “transition shock” (Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005:154). According to Brouwer and Korthagen (2005) and Zeichner and Tabachnik (1981), educational philosophies that developed during pre-service teacher education are “washed-out” during practical teaching experiences. Veenman (1984) stated that once teachers leave pre-service teacher education, severe problems are experienced. This appears to be an international problem (Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005: 154).

In 1983, in Australia, it was estimated that 33% of all new teachers left the profession within the first three years of teaching, while at least 500 new music teachers in America leave the profession annually (Roulston et al., 2005: 59). It was mentioned by Jacobs that between 40% and 50% of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching (2008: 61). Jacobs (2008: 60) stated that the USA faces a shortage of music teachers and that statistics from 2001, showed that 11 000 music educators leave careers in teaching each year, due to either retirement or burnout, while only 3897 Bachelors degrees were awarded in the USA for music education (Jacobs, 2008: 61).

An extension of the problem of practice shock is the occurrence of occupational socialisation that is defined by these authors as being the process whereby people selectively acquire the values, attitudes skills, interests and knowledge of the group to which they belong or seek to belong.

Discrepancies between what really happens in schools, and outdated or poorly planned teacher training courses, are contributing factors in the drop-out rate of

60 young teachers. If young students do not have sufficient pre-service teaching experience and input from suitable mentors, they will find themselves ill-prepared for a career in teaching. According to Brouwer and Korthagen, little is known about how strategies in teacher education can counterbalance prospective teachers’ socialisation into established practice in schools. It is difficult for the individual to influence established practices in schools and novice teachers often struggle for control and experience feelings of frustration, anger and bewilderment (2005:155). Novice teachers tend to feel insufficiently prepared by teacher educators and view school teachers in schools as better “role models” and as people who “do know” how one should teach (Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005:155). Brouwer and Korthagen mentioned that literature on occupational socialisation in schools often states that this is the dominant influence on teacher behaviour, discouraging the modernising of teaching. They concluded by saying that occupational socialisation can be counterbalanced within an extended training program by shaping opportunities for pre-service teachers to relate practical experience and theoretical study.

Many experienced teachers can still remember the disillusionment they suffered in the early years of their teaching careers and many new teachers find enormous disparity between the preparation for teaching and the practice thereof in schools. According to Brouwer and Korthagen the aim of teacher education programs should be to develop basic teaching competence that would help student teachers to enter a teaching career. They refer to this as “starting competence” and it must include the potential for further development during the first years of teaching. This starting competence should include skills to stimulate pupils actively during lessons, problem-based learning characterised by authentic contexts and materials and co- operative learning (2005:158). This will help to ensure good – or at least better – teaching.

Many novice teachers have reported how stress has impacted on their first term of teaching. Calderhead and Shorrock (1997: 179) listed the following feelings that are indicators of such stress:

 Not being able to “switch off” and thinking of work all the time;

 Work 24 hours a day;

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 Huge demands of fitting into the new school;

In the absence of supportive experienced teachers, novice teachers were often left to seek help from whomever they found available or approachable.

To counter-act the influence of practice shock and burnout, it is essential that pre- service teacher educators, veteran teachers and school administrators understand the experiences and views of novice music teachers as they transfer from university to schools. These new teachers should be provided with suitable support and mentoring so that they succeed, rather than merely survive. This should be addressed in two sites – universities and schools (Anderson, 1995: 3).

All those involved in the preparation of pre-service music teachers may be more effective in their roles as mentors and professionals, if they consider the most pressing concerns of novice teachers themselves (Roulston et al., 2005: 60). A common thread that runs through accounts of novice teachers’ accounts of their first few months of teaching, is that they were faced with a steep learning curve that needed climbing at the start of their teaching careers. Severe difficulties could easily have resulted in teachers quitting their jobs at this stage (Roulston et al., 2005: 63). Krueger identified four ways in which music teachers are isolated in their work environments (1999). The first is when a music teacher is the only music teacher in a building or district. In such cases the mentor assigned to support the teacher is often a non-music teacher and it becomes difficult to share common problems and advise novice teachers on the unique dynamics of a music classroom. Many of these novice teachers often search for and solve problems alone with no way of knowing whether they have followed the best course of action.

The second type of isolation is an apparent lack of team teaching support. In this manner of teaching, novice teachers will usually receive the opportunity to team teach with an experienced teacher as a way of receiving support, interaction and feedback while teaching.

The third kind is the feeling of isolation from other teachers. This problem is easily rectified when novice teachers make an effort of getting themselves out of their classrooms to meet other teachers in the school. It also helps if school administrators organise and schedule staff meetings and functions at times that do

62 not conflict with music lessons or rehearsals that often take place after school hours (Benson, 2008: 46).

The last kind of isolation in Krueger’s study, stems from the feelings that other teachers and school administrators do not support or value the music program or curriculum as an academic subject. This has been identified as a reason of attrition even in veteran teachers (Benson, 2008: 46).

Ballantyne stated that the problem with professional isolation is due to three interrelated factors:

 Music Departments fail to develop an awareness of the wider educational issues that impact upon all subject areas across the school;

 The imbalance between classroom music and extra-curricular music activities; and

 Music Departments fail to articulate a rationale for the place of music in the curriculum (2005: 180).