Music Teacher’s Competences in the 21st Century

Rethinking education of music teachers for new learners’ generation is as crucial as identifying the new competencies that today’s music teachers need to develop. According to analyses of EU documents and scientists’ conceptions concerning music teacher’s competences, the author characterizes tendencies and priorities for improving music teachers’ competences in the 21st century. The basic task of music education is promoting the formation of learners’ personal attitude to the world, to self and others, to provide the opportunity for learners to learn music as a new form of communication. In this context music teacher has to demonstrate knowledge and understanding not only in music subject, but in a) communication and positive relationship-building; b) collaboration with parents, colleagues, musicians, composers and specialists in other spheres; c) development of creative and social skills of learners based on three pedagogical principles – personalization, participation and productivity, as well as through and in the arts/culture approaches in music education process.


Introduction
In the era of globalization and the expansion of cultural flows, musical education requires a rethinking of the activity of a music teacher and his/her competence sphere. In this regard, discussions are needed on the competence and training of a music teacher in a multicultural society, where not only technology and knowledge in the field of culture, music, and social sciences are changing rapidly, but more importantly, the person himself/herself changes -his/her attitude, environment and culture communication, as well as the nature and mechanisms of its activities. Within the context of these changes, music education takes on a new sense of possibilities and challenges.
The above-mentioned trends have caused a great interest in the society to study the development of professionally necessary qualities of a teacher's personality. Currently, a music teacher should have a whole range of qualities and competencies, without which the realization of the goals of music education is practically impossible.
Many authors (Dietrich et.al, 1983;Cruickshank et.al, 2002;Gijsbers, van Schoonhoven, 2012;Redecker, Punie, 2013;Scott, 2015) point out that emotional stability and cooperation with learners (partnership), positive self-esteem and the amplitude of positive personal characteristics, as well as motivating personal enthusiasm, warmth, humor, trust and a focus on success. In this context, the search for a solution to these problems is needed not only from a pedagogical point of view: serious interdisciplinary research is needed, involving psychologists, sociologists, neurophysiologists and other specialists. At the present stage, it is important to rethink the existing, as well as to identify new competencies of a music teacher, as well as ways to train new teachers for various types of music educational institutions.
The main questions in this article are: Which are priorities for improving music education quality in the 21 st century? Which are music teacher's key competences?
Research aim: to characterize tendencies and priorities for improving music teacher's competences in the 21st century.
Research methods: analysis of EU documents and scientists' conceptions concerning music teacher's competences in the 21st century.

EU priorities for improving teacher competences
In order to develop learners' musical culture, the music teacher needs to motivate learners and engage them in meaningful learning based on their values and relevance. Only real experience, combined with sustainable involvement, cooperation and the ability to express oneself through musical activity in its diversity, allows learners to create and organise their knowledge, to form and develop personal qualities, to conduct various kinds of research. And the central connecting means of self-development is communication, which is quite multifaceted if we speak about the process of musical education.
The European Parliament and the European Council in 2006 adopted a Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (European Union, 2006): among the key competences, the most important competences are transversal, including the meta-competence of learning to learn. In this context music teacher's competences in learning organization and leadership, analytical and reflective activity, internal and external cooperation become especially relevant. It is important that in the learning process music teacher could • put forward learning objectives for learners and provide useful feedback on the achievement of these goals; • teach learners to formulate and independently achieve their own goals; • choose and skillfully use productive teaching methods, with the help of which students learn in-depth and meaningful to use of information in the music education process; • use modern information technology and relevant tools to track learner's growth. EU priorities for improving the quality of pedagogical activity and teacher education actualize the need to improve the qualifications of teachers, as well as the promotion of professional values and relationships (European Union, 2007, 2009).
The document "Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications" (2005), produced by a working group of Association of Teachers' Educators in Europe, classifies three broad areas of competence: • working with others -the teacher needs competencies to develop the capacity of each student; • working with knowledge, technology and information -the teacher needs competencies in the field of information technology; • working in and with society -the teacher needs the competence of cooperation with various organizations and specialists outside the school, which, in turn, will contribute to the development of skills of cooperation and mobility of learners with the aim to create intercultural dialogue. Speaking about the nature of teaching, teacher training and teacher competence, the European Commission (2013) has identified six paradigms that should be considered as integrated, complementary aspects of the profession: the teacher as a reflective agent, the teacher as a knowledgeable expert, the teacher as a skillful expert, the teacher as a classroom actor, the teacher as a social agent, the teacher as a lifelong learner.
On the basis of the analysis of the above-mentioned EU documents in the field of education, the following priorities for improving music education quality are most important: democratic values, collaboration with colleagues and society for shared educational aims and creating intercultural dialogue, as well as maximising the learning potential of every student through individualized learning and high expectations.

Teacher's competences as dynamic system
According to Feiman-Nemser (2008), an understanding of teacher competences as a dynamic combinations of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills implies that there are four fundamental aspects: learning to think, know, feel and act as teachers.
Learning to think as teachers imply: • a critical examination of one's beliefs; • the development of not only analytical and conceptual thinking, but also the development of metacognitive awareness, i.e. thinking and deciding on teaching, as well as reflecting and adapting practices in a concrete pedagogical situation (Anderson, 2004;Feiman-Nemser, 2008). Learning to know as teachers concerns several aspects of knowledge generated by one's own practices: • deep knowledge in a study subject, as well as in pedagogy and psychology; • the knowledge of new technologies applied to subject teaching is fundamental in the digital age (Mishra, Koehler, 2006); • the knowledge and understanding of historical, cultural and structural features of the subject area on the basis of interdisciplinary in the curriculum; • knowledge of school curriculum, class management, methodologies, education theories and assessment (Darling-Hammond, Bransford, 2005). Learning to feel as teachers is linked with intellectual and emotional aspects of professional identity (Hagger, McIntyre, 2006). It includes attitudes, expectations, selfefficacy, self-awareness, and mediation between ideals, aims and school realities (Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, Krüger, 2009).
Speaking about music teacher's professional qualities, it should be stress special significance of emotional competence; particular structural component of this kind of competence is the musical emotional experience: the ability to feel it by itself, the ability to articulate it with musical expression and the ability to bring about a positive experience of music acquisition in learners. The content of the subject Music gives the emotionally competent teacher more opportunities than other subjects to create a positive experience in the learners.
Learning to act as teachers requires the integration of thoughts, knowledge and actions in accordance with the values and objectives of the learning process (Scheerens, 2007). Teachers should use an extensive set of strategies and models of action in a specific pedagogical situation. The qualitative pedagogical process requires adaptation skills of the teacher, systematic assessment of his/her professional knowledge and actions in accordance with a number of criteria and professional experience (Hagger, McIntyre, 2006), as well as pedagogical innovations.
The analysis of the above-mentioned conceptions and music education developmental tendencies in 21 st century indicates that at training competent music teachers the attention should be focused on the aspects as follows: positive relationship building, the development of metacognitive awareness, reflecting and adapting practices in a concrete cultural and pedagogical environment, collaboration on different levels, using new technologies, interdisciplinary approach in the music curriculum, experimenting and creating innovations.

Music teaching/learning peculiarities in the 21 st century
According to the Roadmap for Arts Education (UNESCO, 2006), the following approaches can be implemented in arts education: 1. The 'learning through the arts/culture' approach assumes using of contemporary and traditional artistic expressions and cultural resources and practices in the learning process; 2. The 'learning in the arts/culture' approach emphasizes the value of multi-and inter-cultural perspectives as well as language that is culturally sensitive during the learning process. Education in and through the arts is necessary in an increasingly complex and troubled world " for creating good citizens, for promoting a culture of peace and for ensuring a sustainable future" (UNESCO, 2006, 4).
Such education strengthens cognitive development and creative thinking, critical reflection, communication and interpersonal skills: "It also enhances social adaptability and cultural awareness for individuals, enabling them to build personal and collective identities, tolerance and acceptance and the appreciation of others" (Wright, Leong, 2017, 22).
One more aspect is very important in modern music education: learners of the 21 st century differ from the learners of previous years. However, by differing from each other, children today have a number of common characteristics. It should mention minimum of three aspects, which are the major reasons for the change of didactics of music education: • Extensive but unsystematic contemporary children's awareness of virtually any matters, as today through all possible sources children are 'loaded' with information almost by force. It should be noted that the information is often contradictory and sometimes mutually exclusive, that in turn makes children accustom to pluralism and causes them to be anxious and insecure; • The feeling of one's own 'I' in the world, which often turns into self-esteem and self-respect, which results in freer and more independent behaviour than that of the children in the past years; • Contemporary children in their vast majority have ceased to play group games: they were replaced by television and the various kinds of computer games. As a consequence -children come to learn without any communication skills and almost unable to socialise, that is to say, a poor understanding of how to behave in a group of peers, what are the rules of conduct. This perspective makes it difficult to empathise -to understand and share the feelings of members of the other group.
This means that communication, teamwork, and empathy skills are important. In this context activities designed to promote intergroup empathy in the music teaching/ learning process can provide the creation of a positive research learning environment, in which each learner is free to express their emotions and thoughts, as well as develops not only his/her musical culture, but also communicative and collaboration skills.
In modern education, emphasis is placed on the activity of learners: the teacher needs to create conditions for students to be partners in creating information and new ideas. Therefore, 21 st century education is based on three pedagogical principles -personalization, participation, and productivity (McLoughlin, Lee, 2008).
Personalized learning is self-organized learning between peers, during which people perceive the learning material at their own pace and react differently to numerous feedback forms (Hampson, Patton, Shanks, 2011). In the process of collaboration, personalization provides a faster exchange of innovations and best practices, and also allows teacher to collect information about student success and problems. A good music teacher cultivates the learners' individual sense of wonder and inspires them to master and apply their knowledge and skills in different kinds of musical activity.
McLoughlin, Lee (2008, 12) conclude that "the personalized practices that underpin effective, innovative pedagogy will differ according to the subject area, but are likely to emphasize some or all of the following: • digital competencies focusing on individual creativity and performance, • strategies for meta-learning, including learner-designed learning, • inductive and creative modes of reasoning and problem-solving, • learner-driven content creation and collaborative knowledge-building, • horizontal (peer-to-peer) learning, • social tagging, collaborative editing and peer review". In contrast to the teacher-centered paradigm, collaborative learning builds a serious basis for study content understanding, the formation and development of basic skills, prepares learners for real-life social situations and is learner-centered. Group interaction implies different points of view: thus, learners learn to defend their ideas and provide arguments. Collaborative learning also leads to the development of metacognition, the creation of new ideas, and the raising of the level of discussion and debate; it teaches learners themselves and others to identify mistakes and learn to correct their mistakes (especially in joint musical activities). "When teaching people musical skills our goal is to enable them to play together, to express themselves clearly, and to process past and current experiences. The limitation of this description, however, is that it implies a separation of the process of musical education from the process of music. Furthermore, it suggests a clear start and ending to the process of personal and musical learning, rather than a lifelong exploration" (Hassler, Nicholson, 2017, 428).
In the 21 st century, the basic task of music education is no longer the informative acquisition of regularities of music literature, history or music theory as it used to be considered earlier. The basic task is promoting the formation of learners' personal attitude to the world, to self and others, to provide the opportunity for learners to learn music as a new form of communication, especially among the young people. Such interpretation of the subject Music relates to the understanding about the significance of emotional aims of music lessons, about the need to enhance emotionally indirect life experience, about the necessity of positive emotional experience at music lessons and out-of-class activities.
In this context, during the studies at the high education institution, the future music teachers should be given the opportunity to obtain • a wider outlook on the aim and tasks of the Music subject, knowledge and understanding about the nature of emotions, about their role in a human's life, conviction about the specific possibilities of the Music subject at promoting the development of learners' emotions, empathy, attitudes and values based on personal experience of musical-artistic activity; • a skill to manage one's own and other people's emotions, empathic attitude to learners, which would make it possible to achieve the aims set by the Music subject more effectively. After analyzing music teaching/learning peculiarities and tendencies in the 21 st century, the author of this article would like to stress the main aim set for a 21 st century music teacher: to help learners become global citizens and a part of a culture that is empowered to initiate, produce and share their creations in the music field. The change of aim of the Music subject in schools of general education creates the necessity to turn also to the issues of education content of future music teachers, among others bringing to the foreground the problem of emotional intelligence.

Conclusions
The role of music teachers in the twenty-first century must move away from imparting knowledge, towards guiding, discussing and measuring the progress of learners in music education process. A key music teacher's mission is to model confidence, openness, persistence and commitment for learners.
The basis of fundamental teacher's competences is his/her disposition towards democratic values, towards collaboration with colleagues and society for shared educational aims, as well as towards maximising the learning potential of every student through individualized learning, high expectations, etc.
The 21 st century music teacher education has to lay emphasis on instructional design, team-building, skill development in new information technologies, new ways to foster creativity and innovation. Such approaches as personalized, collaborative and project-based learning will be the key to stimulating such growth.