Movement of Chinese Music Student Teachers Through Fuller and Bown Stages of Concern: A Comparison of Survey Ratings and Free Response

Abstract

Student teaching is a critical element in music teacher preparation. Fuller and Bown’s three-stage model of teacher concerns development has been widely utilized in the United States, but little is known about the development of concerns of Chinese preservice music teachers. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate Chinese student teachers’ (N = 65) concerns and shift-of-concern patterns before and after student teaching. A rating survey translated to Chinese and written free responses were used to examine concerns. Both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that teaching experience, as predicted, notably decreased student teachers’ self concerns. Analysis of written comments revealed that many concerns were context-specific, and thus we added a new category: social concerns, including legitimacy of music as a subject, physical work environment, and others. Comparisons between the two types of dependent measures showed notable differences. By ratings, task concerns were ranked significantly higher than self and student impact concerns both before and after student teaching. The written comments, however, revealed that Chinese student teachers had the most self concerns before student teaching but emphasized social concerns after student teaching. In-depth discussion includes emerging themes, cultural context, possible factors associated with concerns shifts, and implications for future research.