Abstract
The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine elementary music teachers’ planning times. The existing literature on planning time is scarce and the literature on elementary music teachers’ planning time is nearly non-existent. The following research questions guided the study: (a) How many minutes of planning time do elementary music teachers have? (b) What type(s) of planning do elementary music teachers participate in? (c) What do elementary music teachers do during their planning time? The researcher modified an existing survey (Hixson et al., 2013), which underwent two piloting phases to establish content validity and statistical reliability. The participants (N = 246) were randomly selected from across the United States via the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) survey research assistance program. The survey items relating to planning time were based on the participants’ teaching rotations. All but one participant reported having individual planning time and most (85.8%, n = 211) participants did not participate in common planning time or in a Professional Learning Community for music teachers (54.1%, n = 133). Elementary music teachers planned lessons (n = 240, 97.6%), called students’ parents (n = 132, 53.7%), graded student work (n = 131, 73.6%), attended meetings (n = 131, 53.3%), cleaned their rooms between classes (n =18, 20.1%), repaired instruments (n = 6, 6.8%), and composed and arranged music (n = 3.4%) during their planning times. The results of this study will lay the foundation for future studies regarding elementary music teachers’ planning time and impact future education policy regarding planning time.
Recommended Citation
McKnight, Seth N.
(2025)
"A Descriptive Analysis of Elementary Music Teachers' Planning Time,"
Visions of Research in Music Education: Vol. 47, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/vrme/vol47/iss1/4