Teacher Competencies and Professional Learning in Technology-Based Vocational Education and Training Music Education: A Research Review
Keywords:
Music teacher competencies; Digital music education; Professional learning; VETAbstract
This paper discusses teacher competencies and professional development issues in technology-based music education related to Vocational Education and Training (VET) music teaching, focusing on VET colleges in China. Over the past years, VET music programs have undergone tremendous changes in technology and have produced new technology-based music courses, such as music editing and music production with a digital audio workstation. All of these have put some new demands on music teachers in music, pedagogy, and technology knowledge. The integrative literature review method has synthesized the relevant literature. The PRISMA 2020 reporting guidelines guided the search and screening process to make transparent its steps and results. Three structured search engines Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were applied to identify relevant literature published between 2020 and 2025. Of 485 records identified in the initial search, 20 studies were included in the final synthesis after screening their titles, abstracts, and full texts (n = 20). Results show that existing research conceptualizes music teacher competencies through three unintegrated dimensions of musical, pedagogical, and technological competencies. In addition, professional learning was frequently organised as short-term workshops rather than sustained, practice-based development models. The review also reveals limited research on technology integration in VET music pedagogy within the Chinese context. These findings highlight the need for more integrated competency frameworks and sustained professional learning models to support technology-based music education in Chinese VET colleges.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.25.5.40
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