| Elementary music educators often lack specific training to be effective teachers. This qualitative phenomenological study explored elementary music educators' perceptions about their effectiveness in teaching music to children after participating in Orff Schulwerk training. Orff Schulwerk is a process for teaching music to children using speech, song, movement, and the playing of instruments. The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary music educators' perceptions about effectiveness in teaching children after Orff Schulwerk teacher training. Participants were chosen using criterion based purposeful sampling. The 24 participants were elementary music educators who had at least one level of Orff Schulwerk training. Questions were asked to elicit responses about perceived changes in effectiveness that occurred as a result of training. The interview responses were coded using open, axial, and selective coding. The results indicated participants perceived an increase in their effectiveness in teaching music to children after Orff Schulwerk training. This study promotes positive social change by describing a process that could improve teacher effectiveness in the music classroom and, ultimately, lead to improved student learning. |
