The establishment of teachers’ professional development is based on the idea that adults need a completely different approach compared to basic vocational training and education of younger students (Collins, 2004). In particular, the training of general education teachers in music is a multidimensional matter. In fact, preschool teachers have limited self-confidence in teaching music (Bautista et al., 2024) and declare themselves inadequate for that role (Theodoridis & Avgitidou, 2012). At the same time there is a dichotomy in literature between the perspective of music teaching by specialized music teachers and by general education teachers (Malotti & Vieira, 2022· Vicente et al., 2023). The present study focuses on the issue of preschool and primary school teachers’ professional development in music teaching. It is a bibliographic research based on published articles of related researches conducted over the last 25 years in Greece and in other countries. The aim of this research is to investigate: a) teachers’ needs regarding professional development training programs in music, as expressed by them, b) the characteristics that teachers require from the training courses in music and c) what characteristics should a training course include in order to effectively influence trainee’s practices. Through the analysis of these elements, an attempt is made to identify how the above parameters are shaped over time, as well as what trends are identified in the Greek and English literature. It will also highlight characteristics and good practices of professional development training programs that effectively alter teachers’ practices.

• Lifelong learning for music educators

Despina Chamali is a kindergarten teacher in public education. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Department of Early Childhood Education at the University of Athens. She graduated from the distance learning master's program in ‘Music Pedagogy’ at the University of Nicosia. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University. She holds a Diploma in Psaltic Art. She has also attended courses in the lyra, individual and choral traditional singing lessons, and Modal Theory (Makam). She has participated in various seminars and conferences regarding music education. She has collaborated with different institutions, designing and implementing music education programs for preschool and school-aged children.  

Zoe Dionyssiou is Professor of Music Education at the Department of Music Studies, Ionian University, Greece. She directs the MA Program “Music Education in school and the community” and coordinates a series of community music education programs. She is co-editor of the journal Musical Pedagogics, author of the book "Teaching Music: Views, approaches, perspectives" (2025), co-author of three other books, editor of many volumes and co-ordinator for two music education repositories: “Euterpe - Digital Music Anthology” and “Singing Greek with Mariza Koch’s songs". She serves as a Commissioner in the Early Childhood Music Education Commission (ECME) of ISME (2022-2028) and vice-head of the National Committee of Greece at the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD).