Current piano education of Turkish Music teacher candidates: Comparisons of Instructors and Students Perceptions

In recent years almost every newly opened government funded university in Turkey has established a music department where future music teachers are educated and piano is compulsory for every single music teacher candidate in Turkey. The aim of this research is to compare piano teaching instructors’ and their students’ perceptions about the current piano education of Turkish music teacher candidates. Quantitative research techniques were used in order to analyze the collected data to know whether they were adjusted in normal dispersion by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test . The Mann-Whitney U test was used for the comparison of the two groups, because the dimensions in this measurement were not from normal dispersion masses. Results from the research showed that both groups agreed that the piano lesson curriculum is not explicit and is deficient in general, one hour piano lesson a week is not enough for the complicated process of piano education, the facilities and equipment are deficient and compulsory piano lessons do not help enough students to improve the functional piano skills which are so vital in the music teaching profession.   Key words: piano, education, music, teacher candidates, instructors.