The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of initial impressions on the perception of teaching effectiveness in choral music student teachers. Secondary school music teachers (n = 78) and undergraduate music education majors (n = 84) viewed ten randomly selected 15-second thin slices of choral music student teachers in classroom interaction. Participants (N = 162) were given 45 seconds after each teaching sample to rate teaching effectiveness on a 7-point Likert-type scale and record open-ended initial impressions of each observation. Open-ended responses were examined and coded to create a taxonomy of influencing factors.
Results indicated that after viewing 15 seconds of classroom interaction, music teachers and pre-service music teachers agreed in their perception of the three most and two least effective teaching samples. Both groups cited teaching strategies (36%) and rehearsal strategies (18.7%) most often as influencing their evaluation of effectiveness. Factors cited less often included delivery/communicative skills (14%), student behavior (13.9%), personality/appearance (8%), and classroom environment (3.6%). Specific factors cited most frequently for highest-rated teaching samples included quality of verbal instruction, rehearsal effectiveness, and the use of Curwen hand signs and Solfege syllables. Factors cited most frequently for lowest-rated teaching samples included organization skills, classroom management skills and teacher personality characteristics. Implications for music educators and suggestions for future research are discussed.
