Overcoming barriers: towards a framework for Continuing Professional Development to foster teaching sound-based music

This paper presents a theoretical discussion emerging from a pilot study within the EARS 2 teacher’s pack study, in which the suitability of the teacher’s packs that accompany an online sound-based music resource (EARS 2, www.ears2.dmu.ac.uk) was tested. The study investigated if the teacher’s packs could bridge the gap between the teacher’s current knowledge and the knowledge that was provided in the resources on sound-based music given to the teacher. During the study a minor technical glitch appeared which caused the teacher to discontinue with the teaching trial. This was seen as a critical incident and was analysed using the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan 1954). During the analysis, three different theoretical concepts were applied to the critical incident: cognitive prototype theory (North and Hargreaves 2008, Wolf 2013a and b), the threshold concept theory (Meyer and Land 2003, Holland 2015, Wolf 2016) and the concept of metacognitive knowledge (Wilson and Bai 2010). The paper concludes by suggesting a theoretical framework for teacher CPD in sound-based music. The results presented in this article cannot be generalised due to the sample size, however, this is currently followed up in further research.