Does curriculum change have impact on students? A comparative research of Finnish teacher education students' willingness to teach music

Abstract

This research focuses on student teachers’ willingness to teach music. The base group consists of second-year students at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) from the years 2015 (n=82, 78% of the students) and 2016 (n=93, 74% of the students). We explore how students’ willingness to teach music changed after the curriculum was reshaped in 2015. We focus on students’ thoughts about music teaching, challenges in the subject, and the influence of music hobbies. Our earlier research (Mäkinen & Juvonen 2017) showed that 45% of the students were not willing to teach music in future. The first data was collected in 2015, when the subject-based curriculum was in use. The second data was collected in 2016 after changes in curriculum. We compare two curriculum models and their impacts. This research uses mixed methods and the data consists of closed and open-ended questions and narratives written students. In earlier research we found four music teaching attitude-based groups, which we use also in this research. They were: 1) “Enthusiastic”, 2) “Hopeful but qualified” 3) “Doubtful and fearful” 4) “Others”. The student teachers have a clear concept of their musical skills. This was measured by their own evaluation. After the curriculum change, the students understand that they can teach music without being specialists in music. The changes in curriculum have made a strong impact on the students’ division into the attitude-based groups.