The differences between novice and expert group-piano teaching strategies: A case study and comparison of beginning group piano classes

This case study compares the teaching strategies employed by a novice and an expert instructor of two beginning children’s group-piano classes. In the United States, there is a century-long tradition of teaching piano to children in groups, and group teaching is championed in pedagogy texts and at professional educator conferences throughout the world. However, there are few meaningful formal opportunities for professional development of group-teaching skills or for observation of successful group-piano instruction available to teachers who wish to develop group-teaching skills. This exploratory study seeks to provide some initial data about group-teaching practices of novice and expert teachers. Curricular considerations, teaching techniques, and student engagement and learning emerged as common themes. Analysis highlights how the components of these themes manifested themselves in these novice and expert teachers’ classes and describes how these teaching techniques affected students. It is hoped that future research will include testing new paradigms for training teachers to work effectively with groups of beginning piano students.