Teacher expertise and feedback in music composition

Abstract

This paper reports on how a number of students in a high school music classroom responded to the formative feedback that their teachers gave their music compositions. Given the importance of feedback in current discourses regarding effective pedagogy and assessment for learning, this study provides a much-needed snapshot of feedback within the context of high schools and the more subjective domain of the arts. Student responses to oral and written feedback were analysed by a pre-service teacher over a period of weeks by observing feedback when it was given, discussing its impact with students, and observing if, and how, this feedback was put to use in the development of the student compositions. We also note the type of feedback that the teachers gave to their students, and whether the students found the feedback worthwhile and important. We suggest a pivotal factor in the high uptake of feedback in this study was the quality, specificity, and individualised nature of the feedback that the expert teachers were able to provide for students.