The comparison of flute education in undergraduate studies in Turkey and in the United States of America

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compile opinions of flute instructors giving education in undergraduate studies in Turkey and in the U.S.A. to assess flute education in line with these opinions, and to determine and compare teaching methods, techniques and materials used. The data collected through "Flute Pedagogy Survey" were interpreted and comparatively assessed in terms of demographic characteristics of instructors, physical conditions of educational institutions, and flute techniques and teaching methods. The "Flute Pedagogy Survey" was applied to 63 instructors in the USA and 34 instructors in Turkey. Academic articles, books, thesis, and online resources published in Turkey and in the USA were reviewed within the scope of literature review. At the end of the study, it was observed that the majority of the instructors do not take lessons for flute pedagogy during their education in both sampling groups. While methods used in teaching flute techniques show similarities in both groups, the results of the study indicated that the lack of Turkish resources creates a serious problem for instructors in Turkey. It was seen that the institutions where instructors work in the U.S.A. sampling group are better in terms of physical conditions (music library, flute types etc.) and they benefit from different materials such as Naxos, Smart Music and tuning CD, online resources and computer programs in flute teaching. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).