The purpose of this case study was to explore the concerns of pre-service teachers in music instruction during peer- and field-teaching experience with 28 junior-level elementary pre-service teachers. Data was collected during the 2024 Fall semester t...
The purpose of this case study was to explore the concerns of pre-service teachers in music instruction during peer- and field-teaching experience with 28 junior-level elementary pre-service teachers. Data was collected during the 2024 Fall semester through reflection journals, individual interviews, and class discussions conducted after each peer teaching and field-teaching episode. A deductive content analysis revealed that, during peer teaching, participants were most concerned with task-related domains (69.2%), followed by self-related (23.1%) and student-related domains (7.7%). In contrast, during the field teaching, the proportion of task-related concerns slightly decreased (53.8%), while self-related (30.8%) and student-related concerns (15.4%) increased. An inductive analysis further uncovered that, during peer teaching, participants often experienced interpersonal tension due to introverted dispositions, as well as burdens related to lesson planning and time management. During the field-teaching, major concerns included feelings of professional inadequacy as a pre-service teacher due to peer comparison, limitations in questioning strategies, difficulty anticipating student responses, and challenges in responding spontaneously to real-time classroom situations. This study suggests that teacher education programs should be designed to ensure the continuity of pre-practice experiences through field-based peer teaching. This would help pre-service teachers perceive the teaching practicum not as an unfamiliar or disjointed experience, but as a familiar and practiced one.