ABSTRACT
What is effective teaching? How does an individual become an expert music teacher? Are teachers “born” or “made?” Is effective teaching simply applying common sense to a given situation? There are as many different answers to these questions as there are teachers. Teaching is a challenging professional vocation requiring broad knowledge with very few absolute answers. Being an effective teacher requires a commitment to mastering individual knowledge and skills related to the many ways in which humans learn in order to reach every student in every situation. Thus, effective teaching is a multidimensional complex commitment requiring many different skills and behaviors.
Chapter 8 presents knowledge and characteristics of effective music teachers. This information includes awareness of student and classroom characteristics, motivation theories, and attributes of effective music teachers. The chapter’s premise is that while anyone may qualify to become a teacher, not everyone can be an effective teacher without mastering specific skills and behaviors.
