What makes a great music educator for young children — key teaching traits

Music for young children: The teacher's role

Music occupies a distinctive place within the arts in education as the sonic art form that organises time. For the educator who also performs, teaching music in school presents a genuine challenge. Music has often been treated as the decorative finishing touch — like a strawberry atop an elaborate dessert. The main course might consist of language and mathematics, followed by the cultural relationships built with one's country, with music (or physical education) as the grand finale. Yet how does one share this art with young children, even when teaching remotely? What qualities must a music educator possess for teaching and learning to be effective? Is there a defined profile for such an educator?

Music teachers need both musicianship and pedagogical skill, and these abilities depend on each other. Musicality without teaching competence falls short, and "together they define who we are as musical educators" (Froehlich, 2007, p. 112). Children cultivate their own musicality through actions, exchanges, and engagement with skilled music teachers (Elliott, 2009).

Profiles of the music educator

Several researchers have outlined what distinguishes effective music teachers. Hattie (2003) identifies five dimensions of excellent teachers: they can identify essential representations of their subject, guide learning through classroom interactions, monitor progress and offer feedback, attend to affective attributes, and influence student outcomes (p. 5).

Vásquez and Niño (2000) argue that a music education specialist in early childhood should develop the child's potential through several competencies:

• A positive predisposition — the teacher must be convinced of music's significance in life
• Musical skills: a good ear, a capable voice, rhythmic sensitivity, creative imagination, and overall musicality
• Musical knowledge: basic understanding and practice of rhythm, melody, harmony, and form; skill with classroom instruments; familiarity with different musical systems and methodologies
• Psycho-pedagogical preparation that enables effective music teaching

Music functions as both artistic expression and communication, enhancing other artistic activities. The specialist must understand its powerful appeal, its motivating and integrative qualities, and its contribution to emotional and intellectual growth.

Jacobi-Karna (2007) lists traits that a generalist music teacher should possess:

• Musical talent — expressed through technical competence
• Understanding of child development stages
• Organisation — preparing classes in advance and arranging materials
• Energy — channelling and sharing enthusiasm to "contaminate" the group positively
• Systematisation — using repetition for both learning and playful engagement, especially with younger children
• Patience — recognising that each group is diverse and individuals learn at different paces

Gordon (2000) maintains that teachers need not have formal musical training but should sing in tune and perform songs rhythmically without relying on lyrics. He emphasises movement (not dance) as crucial in early childhood education and suggests certification for preschool music teachers.

Colwell and Rodriguez (2002) add further traits: the ability to recognise and apply individual learning styles in the classroom, superior communication skills, and a balanced use of criticism and praise. This aligns with Tardif's (2000) framework of knowledge, skills, talent, attitudes, knowing how to do, and knowing how to be.

Swanwick (2008) proposes three essential characteristics of a "good enough" music teacher: care for music as a vital human experience; recognition of the musical contributions students bring to the classroom, which supports student independence; and the promotion of musical fluency (p. 12).

When teaching falls short

Not being a music teacher in kindergarten means accepting pre-packaged solutions without challenge. It resembles a classroom dressed up in trite decorations — everything matching and ready-made, leaving no room for surprise. We often mistake affectionate relationships (built on well-developed emotional attunement) for intellectually challenging ones. Teachers may present no real challenges to children. Why not welcome them into an empty space and ask, "What now? What can I make of this?"

Toward the end of the school year, we still see children copying pop stars, dancing to tired formulas. Yet a guitar, a keyboard, or a xylophone sits in the room, waiting for children to produce their own sounds.

The musician as reluctant teacher

A delicate issue arises around musicians' didactic competence in kindergarten. When performance opportunities dwindle, many choose teaching to survive. L'Roy (1983) studied music teachers in training and found that students identified more strongly as musicians than as future educators. Froehlich (2007) likewise examined the musical and pedagogical training future teachers receive from music schools.

In Portugal, there has never been dedicated training for the kindergarten music teacher, only ad hoc courses. Most music teachers are instrumentalists by training. Their ambition centres on instrumental practice — they want to be good instrumentalists and take the stage. Then they discover the professional space is small and already crowded. Often, these teachers leave music school without teaching skills, diving unprepared into a role they have never contemplated.

Every day I encounter people who discover wonderful things through this first impact. But it would be far more valuable if the word "pedagogy" entered their specialised training during their music degree. I am not advocating for a single method. The specialist teacher must be naturally competent and able to turn music into a celebration, which is ultimately what is intended.

A teacher must confront the question: "What is a four-year-old child?" They need to know children's interests and understand the foundational elements in the Curricular Guidelines for Kindergarten Education.

Regarding profiles, I see people genuinely moved by a child captivated by a sound. That fascination — when a colleague recognises it and can share it with others — is a good starting point. Being transported by a child frozen still because they heard an unfamiliar musical excerpt, asking what it is — that is something we all should keep inside.

But it is not easy working with young children. How do we do it? We work with people who are aesthetically astute and technically refined — someone in love with their instrument, whether a recorder, guitar, or piano — who passes on that passion so children say, "Bring the guitar again tomorrow, I want to sing that song with you because you're the one who sings it well." Children say not "the teacher," but "you." They feel confident with us. They don't care if we are older; they want to be like us.

We are the model. And the model cannot dismiss the music children hear. That is not how we treat literature or mathematics. Why would we do it in music?

Selecting the right educators

To be an educator is to humbly let one's passion for the world, for people, for ideas, and for things flow through. It means having a deep drawer of beautiful things to share. There must be a sieve — a rational process for selecting educators. These professionals should be well paid and placed at the top of their careers because they are the first adults who shape children. These early impressions — absolutely crucial for life — are stored and define us.

How many musically gifted individuals have been lost due to the ineptitude of educators and training programmes?

There should be an osmosis-like process that lets anyone interested in education experiment, guided by experienced practitioners. We need to love what we do — that intimate feeling of having something special to share creates unique moments.

Kindergarten is large enough; we waste too much energy. University teachers are not inherently bad, but many are disconnected from the classroom reality, from children's language, from direct observation. That is dramatic.

I advocate for a period of immersion in the initial training of kindergarten teachers (Tardif, 2000) — presenting them with the challenge: "Is this what I like?" Trainees need to discover their own "tic," their personal style of approaching children. There are as many styles as people. No single ideal teaching method exists; there are thousands of possibilities. Which ones work for each of us?

I also believe there should be an elite school for Music Expression trainers, staffed by experienced professionals. It is concerning to see educators working with children who have never read Tolstoy, Gogol, or Bertolt Brecht, and who have never heard of Sergei Prokofiev. Yet they repeat the same sentences for hours as if it all makes perfect sense to them.

A culturally rich music educator — someone who turns the light on and leaves us astounded — can show us more colours than we see. I envision such educators as well-read, strong writers, technically skilled: they sing, play instruments, tell stories, and move.

They should sing in tune, though many professionals struggle with posture and sing without enough elasticity (Dolloff, 2009). Classroom acoustics in kindergarten are often poor — spaces are too lively when they should include hushed areas.

I see music educators who are technically confident and aesthetically irreverent, excited, always questioning. We need people with that deep drawer. In this view, there would be fewer musical educators — a dedicated group suffering from a specialty tic.

Higher music courses should have admission prerequisites — indeed, all teacher training courses, including university teacher preparation, should. I meet highly competent colleagues who cannot see the ocean of people around them. In universities, some faculty cling to their habitus — researching in narrow lanes near their specific line of inquiry, as if the world existed only under that line. Their technical-scientific excellence is known, but their pedagogical practice with children is sometimes invisible.

This pedagogical shortsightedness reaches kindergarten children. The error becomes the rule, and we later receive scientifically capable professionals who "have no patience with them." How can university didactics teachers have no immersion internship with very young children? I have met excellent pedagogical teachers who love their work. Why not consult them about the unofficial knowledge they use? Sharing that wisdom would strengthen the initial training of music educators.

If a colleague critiques an activity I led, I can reply, "True, I was not clear enough." We learn from each other constantly.

Children must see our passion for music — when we sing, when we start with "Once upon a time..." and shift to a whisper, when sound becomes a song or a song dissolves into just colours. Children perceive our bodily reactions, how we expose ourselves — that is essential for them to feel we share their enjoyment. This is complicity, and it cannot be bought.

Surprise the children and surprise yourself. The music educator is a magician, an illusionist, a translator of languages. They hold the singular power to astonish children and themselves.

Be careful what you teach.
It may be learned.
— H. C. Froehlich

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