The workload in education, particularly in higher education, is significantly high, often exceeding that in other sectors (Hummel et al., 2019; Poortvliet, 2022). This intense workload leaves limited time for music teachers to prepare additional instructional materials, which are crucial for enhancing student learning through active practice, such as retrieval practice. Retrieval practice involves actively recalling information, which improves long-term retention (Agarwal et al., 2008; Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). However, developing high-quality practice materials, including questions, answers, and corrective feedback, is time-consuming and complex (Kang et al., 2007).

The emerging technology of generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI), in this case ChatGPT, has the potential to alleviate some of this burden by generating practice questions and answers efficiently. Despite its advanced natural language processing abilities, the quality of output from ChatGPT heavily depends on the input it receives—known as a "prompt" (Marvin et al., 2023). Therefore, prompt engineering, the process of crafting effective prompts, is crucial for generating useful educational content (Giray, 2023). However, their output needs to be checked on correctness by individuals with content expertise (Cain, 2023).

To address the high workload in education, this practice paper focuses on providing teachers with guidance on prompt engineering to quickly generate accurate and relevant educational materials using ChatGPT. By improving productivity through better prompts, teachers can reduce their workload while improving the quality of education (Wiezer et al., 2012). Based on different models and frameworks (e.g. Fitzpatrick et al., 2023; Korzynski et al., 2023), a new model is constructed, consisting of six steps in two phases. I will present the results of this quantitative research, which will be conducted with staff of a music academy in November and December of 2024 in the Netherlands. These new insights will transform teacher training and shape the future of music education.

The paper addresses the possibilities of utilizing the principles of music semiotics in music education practice to achieve the greatest possible understanding of the meaning and content of music from the perspective of its listeners. It is based on recent research conducted by the Department of Music at Masaryk University, which examined the musical preferences of youth in the Czech Republic, the European Union, and ISME member states. This research utilized a special online listening questionnaire focused on both popular and classical music, involving 2635 respondents from 56 countries. The questionnaire aimed to identify the musical style and genre of 33 musical excerpts and measure the degree of preference. It also tracked the premature termination of listening to an excerpt by the respondent and the reason for termination.

The paper aims to demonstrate, from a semiotic and music sociological perspective, how the degree of preference and understanding of a musical work are interrelated and are crucial factors for music education. The second part of the presentation will provide examples of applying semiotics according to C. S. Peirce to musical works, illustrating how icons, indices, and symbols can be mutually permeable and progressively increase the demands for their understanding within the given semiotic triad. The presented applications were again empirically verified through testing on students of elementary art schools in the Czech Republic. The results of these studies explicitly demonstrate that students cannot imagine life without music, highlighting the importance of music to them. The authors emphasizes the significance of receptive education as a crucial element in modern school music education. As the diversity of musical styles, types, and genres continues to grow, the challenge for contemporary music educators is to enhance listeners’ understanding of musical works through receptive education. In this context, music semiotics can be a valuable tool for educators.

Rhythm learning is a fundamental area of competence in music in many relevant music education models. Following this principle, the presentation focuses on the implications of developing rhythmic-metric competences (e.g., Gordon, 2000) in the context of learning music with VR technologies. The specific characteristics, potentials, and limitations are focused in a didactic design and contextualized through research focused on post-digital teaching-and-learning settings in learning labs and learner-centered spaces (Horst de Cuestas & Ahlers, 2023, Eller & Siedenburg, 2024).

The didactic insights gained emphasize aesthetic perception and engagement with music, self-efficacy, the experience of competence, and motivation from the perspective of teachers and learners. This includes examining the potential for social integration and communication, individual learning paths, learner autonomy, and informal learning practices. This reveals how musical learning is changing in the didactic interplay between learners, educators, technologies, and learning objects. These changes also impact the structural conditions of the education system, transforming the roles of teachers and the nature of learning spaces, including virtual reality environments, through the use of technology.

Following a Design-Based Research approach, we develop, test, and evaluate a teaching-learning design that incorporates digital didactic models e.g. SEPACK.digital (Frederking, 2022) to integrate popular VR rhythm games, such as Moon Rider and Beat Saber, into music lessons. The research builds on studies such as those by Rutkowski et al. (2021) and Keeler (2020) and develops these further with regard to didactic teaching-learning designs. In addition to the didactic research findings, the presentation will provide practical examples of how teachers and students develop an understanding of rhythm learning through VR experiences. As part of LEVIKO-XR (sponsored by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research and funded by the EU), the research examines the potential and limitations of XR, a rapidly growing technology popular among learners, in music lessons.