A Grounded Theory of Preservice Music Educators' Lesson Planning Processes Within Field Experience Methods Courses

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand the process of field experience lesson planning for preservice music educators enrolled in choral, general, and instrumental music education courses within three university contexts. Data sources included multiple interviews, written responses, and field texts from 42 participants. Four waves of data collection and analysis revealed a five-step process beginning with "learning the tasks of teaching" and "experiencing an authentic teaching context." Participants articulated the central phenomenon as "embracing teaching as an interaction," which led to "teaching more effectively" and "learning about teaching with my style." The findings reflect that participants developed a situated understanding of how thoughtful preparation is connected to effective teaching. An implication for this study is that preservice teachers should be consistently immersed in authentic context learning environments during undergraduate education.