Abstract
The purpose of the study was to describe music teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges they experienced as virtual mentors of preservice music teachers. Each mentor was assigned a cohort of preservice teachers who were enrolled in an elementary general music methods course. Cohorts observed their mentor’s teaching via Skype. Mentors watched video of their cohort field teaching. After each experience, mentors met their cohorts via Skype for feedback and reflection. Data included mentors’ written reflections and interviews. Virtual experiences were valuable but different from traditional mentoring experiences. Benefits were similar to those identified by traditional mentors. Use of technology alleviated some challenges associated with face-to-face mentoring. Challenges of virtual mentoring related to limits of current technology. Music teacher educators, administrators, and policymakers should consider findings when making decisions about technology-based professional development experiences and teacher evaluation programs.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
