American preservice elementary teachers’ self-reported learning outcomes from participating in Korean percussion lessons in a music-methods course

The purpose of this study was to examine American preservice classroom teachers’ self-reported learning outcomes after partaking in a weekly Korean percussion ensemble in an elementary music-methods course. The preservice classroom teachers rehearsed a Korean percussion ensemble piece (Samulnori) as their course routine for half of the semester. Participants’ open-ended essays and semi-structured interviews were analyzed to determine their learning outcomes. Based on Abril’s (2006) three world music learning outcome categories (musical, cultural, and other) as initial codes, the emergent coding process was adopted. Through the data analysis, four themes emerged that illustrated preservice classroom teachers’ learning outcomes: (a) Cultural Awareness: Difference, (b) Music Fundamentals: Overlap with Traditional Course Content, (c) Bonding Experience: Community, and (d) Teacher Education: A Well-Rounded Teacher. Based on the results, possible implications for teaching culturally diverse musics to preservice classroom teachers in music-methods courses were discussed.