Certification and the college student.(Forum Focus: Collegiate Chapters)

Invite collegiate faculty and students to take advantage of the MTNA Professional Certification program in order to recognize collegiate students' academic, performance and teaching competencies. Although I am the collegiate chapter advisor and pedagogy professor at Wichita State University (WSU) and the certification chair for two local associations in the Wichita area, I admit I have not consistently stressed the importance of certification.

Upon reviewing the certification standards, I realized that collegiate students are presently being prepared to meet the requirements for fulfilling the standards through their music and pedagogy curricula.

Collegiate music students satisfy the performance and academic preparation requirements of Standard I through their coursework. Piano pedagogy students can satisfy the teaching competency--two years of teaching experience--by student teaching in the university's community music program. At Wichita State, at least three faculty members observe the student's teaching--the pedagogy and performance teachers and the preparatory director. Therefore, they could serve as the three references required for the application for MTNA Certification.

The MTNA Assessment Tools were part of each student's pedagogy final examination last spring. The assessment resource assists teachers in evaluating their competency and progress in meeting Standards II, III, IV and V. The students assessed their own teaching and that of their peers in regard to lesson and curriculum issues, as well as a self-evaluation of the studio environment and personal attributes. One student commented, "The Assessment opened my eyes about how many wonderful activities and resources are available, that there are many scheduling options and that teaching piano is a business and should be run as such." Another student said, "I used the MTNA Assessment to see what I don't do. I need to begin to listen to the student's ideas, because I usually only give directions rather than build on the student's ideas."

After reviewing the students' responses, I evaluated the pedagogy curriculum and my strengths and weaknesses in delivering instruction. Although I value teaching with current technology, the students rated themselves low on using digital instruments. The students learn to arrange accompaniments on digital instruments as part of the pedagogy course syllabus, and I plan to make the instruments available for student teaching and require their use!

I was pleased that the student teachers said they frequently include improvisation and sight reading in their teaching. However, they commented that ...