The evaluation of questioning strategies of educators in conservatory solfege lesson examinations and approach suggestions

Solfege education, as a very important field in conservatories, is a course in which the basic skills of all sub-disciplines are given. The knowledge and skills acquired by the students in the solfege course form the basis for their other lessons. The knowledge and skills are given in terms of playing and singing, deciphering and analyzing the works they will perform provide very important opportunities. This research was carried out in order to evaluate the exam approaches of the educators of the conservatory solfege course, to determine the questioning strategies, to analyze the content of the theoretical and practical exams and to present the approaches suggested by the researcher. The research is limited to solfege trainers and exams of state conservatories that provide Western music education. The study is qualitative research and was carried out based on descriptive methods. Data within the scope of research limitations; The data were collected by conducting structured interviews with 36 solfege trainers from 21 conservatories that could be reached, and by making content analyses in the fields of solfege, theory and dictation of the questions of 10 conservatories (5 of which are secondary schools, 5 of which are conservatories providing undergraduate education) that give solfege exam questions. The data obtained from the structured interview form were analyzed and interpreted in accordance with qualitative research methods. The exam questions of the solfege course of the conservatories providing secondary education were first divided as "solfege-theory-dictation". solfege and dictation questions were examined one by one and analyzed according to their tones, units of measurement, number of measures, and note values used. Theory exam questions (questions of the conservatories giving secondary school education) were first divided according to the classes, and then the classes were divided into four headings: basic music writing rules, intervals, tonality-modality-modality and chords. The theory exam question samples obtained only from conservatories providing undergraduate education are divided into four headings only, since there is no class information in the sample questions given by some educators. As a result of the data processed in detail according to the sub-problems, the approaches of the educators in the conservatory solfege exams, the exam content, the questioning strategies were determined, and the findings were interpreted and approach suggestions were made. It is thought that the research will make a great contribution to the field as it is the first study on solfege course exams in conservatories in Turkey and will be a source for future studies in this field. Keywords: Conservatory, solfege education, solfege exams, approach, assessment and evaluation.