Effectiveness of Online Music Professional Development: Implementation Fidelity and Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Few studies have analyzed the effectiveness of online music professional development (OMPD) on teachers’ pedagogical competencies. We evaluated the effectiveness of an OMPD designed to train kindergarten teachers in a music-and-movement intervention, drawing on the notion of implementation fidelity (i.e., level of accuracy with which an intervention is delivered). In addition, we investigated teachers’ perspectives on the factors that facilitated their learning. After 83 teachers from seven kindergartens took the OMPD, all Kindergarten 2 teachers (N = 9) were observed implementing the intervention. In this mixed-methods study, we used implementation fidelity checklists completed by teachers and external observers and individual teacher interviews. Findings revealed consistently high implementation fidelity ratings by both teachers and external observers. School support, practice, preparation, sufficient time and space, and reflection were the facilitative factors identified in the interviews. The study highlights the potential of OMPD in fostering the music-specific pedagogical competencies of general classroom teachers.