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The present paper reports data from an original qualitative study that investigates how music students reacted to novel remote teaching strategies that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. A population of twenty learners enrolled at an Italian conservatory responded to an open-ended survey, verbalising their recent learning experiences concerning three complementary aspects of their everyday practice: (i) how efficiently new remote education settings were implemented, (ii) what novel musical activities have been creatively developed with the help of technology, and (iii) how peer interaction was transformed by the lockdown period. By providing concrete examples, our participants offered insights into the benefits, challenges, and transformations this sudden pedagogical change has produced. Our findings show how different approaches to rehearsal and time management have emerged, in turn impacting on how students prioritise short-term and long-term goals, enhance their creative potential, and establish and renew interactions with peers.

The study examines the professional development of in-service advanced music teachers as a result of their participation in a three-year collaborative online course. A socio-constructivist theoretical framework was used for designing and implementing the course. Participants were 24 teachers (22 teaching instrumental music and 2 vocal music) enrolled in blended collaborative learning activities. A mixed research method was adopted for assessing the impact of the course on teachers' attitudes and skills, including quantitative data (a close ended questionnaire about the quality of the online activities) and qualitative information (focus groups and interviews). Focus groups were conducted with teachers for collecting their satisfaction and perceived professional enhancement. School principals were interviewed to investigate perceived changes of teachers' behaviours in their music schools. The findings highlighted the impact of the course for improving music teachers' professional skills. Attending the course was an opportunity to discuss student-centred didactic principles, teaching methods, and practices in music education. Participants reported the development of a metacognitive attitude, a reflective teaching approach and a goal-oriented method to curriculum planning. The key factors that contributed to the effectiveness of the course as well as implications for designing professional learning activities for music teachers are also discussed.

This paper reports a study investigating trainee teachers' beliefs about music abilities and learning. The study employed two questionnaires: the "Music abilities beliefs questionnaire" (MABQ) and the "Music learning beliefs questionnaire" (MLBQ) which were specially designed to reveal the beliefs of trainee teachers of primary and secondary schools (middle and high school). Internal consistency and factor structure of the two questionnaires were investigated through the application of Cronbach alphas and factor analysis techniques. For the MABQ, four factors were extracted, which were interpreted as study abilities, performance technical skills, discriminative abilities and interpretation. For the MLBQ, five factors were extracted, which were interpreted as personality, cognitive characteristics, musical factors, family and social factors, and physiological and body factors. Each factor from both questionnaires was subjected to ANOVA taking into consideration the influence of three concurrent variables, such as age, gender and grade taught (primary/secondary). Results revealed significant differences between primary and secondary trainee teachers in the way they consider music ability and learning. The results are discussed in relation to their potential impact on teacher education and implications for future research. (Contains 2 tables.)

Prior research has revealed that non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers lack confidence in teaching music in spite of changes to teacher training and the introduction of music in the National Curriculum in England. The current study investigated the effects on non-music specialist trainee primary teachers' confidence to teach music in the classroom after having experienced six keyboard-based "blues activities" presented in an asynchronous e-learning environment. Participants were videotaped as they worked with music technology and a "remote facilitator", to play a 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together. Participants also took part in individual, semi-structured interviews before and after engaging in the "blues activities". Video and interview data was analysed employing inductive, qualitative procedures. This exploratory intervention study was undertaken with three participants and is reported as three individual case studies. After the "blues activities" intervention, all participants were able to play the 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together and reported improvements in their confidence to teach music in the primary school classroom. The results also revealed improvements in participant perceptions of their own musicality when compared with "other musicians" and links between perceptions of their own musicality and prior musical experience. Implications for future research and music education are discussed. (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables, and 1 note.)