Designing a Teacher’s Handbook: Perspectives of Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Regarding Activities and Songs

Abstract

Printed educational materials such as teacher’s handbook may affect the quality of education as much as teachers, curriculum, educational environment, and the other course materials. Perspectives of eighty-two pre-service elementary teachers regarding the activities and songs included in the teacher’s handbook for music course were examined by content analysis for shedding light on the nature of the handbook and for producing knowledge about how an effective teacher’s handbook for music course may be like. Even though the question was deliberately worded to let respondents express their both positive and negative views, the number of respondents who expressed positive views and the frequency of such expressions were considerably lower compared to the negative ones. Inappropriateness for age group and learning outcomes, insufficiency for facilitating learning, requiring hard-to-attain materials, and difficulty of application raised as major concerns for both activates and songs. Additionally, activities were argued to be repetitive and lacking entertainment while songs were criticized for their rhythm, melody, lyrics, quality, and practicability in the classroom.