Conceptions of learning and teaching in music education as voiced by pre-service student teachers

The article presents the findings of a small-scale study investigating the student's conceptions and approaches to learning within the space of a pre-service teacher education program in music education. The data was generated in the academic year 2009/2010 in a Romanian institution of higher education in an exploratory attempt to understand how students position themselves in reference to the competences and skills proposed to them through the curriculum of their bachelor degree in Music and Level 1 in the National Curriculum for pre-service teacher education. Approaches to learning and individual estimations of the time-resources invested in studying different subjects in the curriculum are studied in relation to their quantitative estimations of the importance various competencies carry for their development as musicians and music teachers.