Teaching Evaluations and Comments by Preservice Music Educators from Italy and the U.S.A

The present study investigated differences between Italian and United States participants' evaluations of public school band directors. A secondary purpose was to examine differences in evaluations attributable to proficiency levels of the directors observed. Participants viewed videotapes of four different band directors from the United States, two of whom were proficient and two who were not. Participants wrote observational comments and gave each director a numeric rating. Results of these evaluations indicated that while Italians gave overall lower scores, the orders of ratings for both groups paralleled closely. Italian participants' comments focused more on Student Performance and Lesson Content, while participants from the United States commented more often on Classroom Management and Teacher Feedback. Finally, comments for proficient instructors focused more on Feedback and Verbal Delivery, while comments for the other two instructors noted Classroom Management and Lesson Content more often.