Over the duration of
the course, I have learned a number of things of interest to my teaching.
Certain specifics concerning philosophy, aesthetics, sociology, social psychology,
and psychology have stood out as relevant to my personal teaching situation.
They, as well as a few other specifics, will be considered here. Though this
reflection does not cover all I learned, it does consider many of the major
points throughout the course and their relation to my teaching.
My
learning about philosophy has stressed the importance of sticking to a
particular school of thought. To this point, most “Philosophy of Education”
writings I have completed to this point have dealt with specifics and ignored
the important metaphysical and epistemological ideas that form a bedrock of
philosophy. I found that my teaching tends more towards an empiricist
viewpoint. In practice I was certainly more eclectic and discussions with
classmates have made me consider the various viewpoints. Pragmatism certainly
holds a number of strengths, but lacks a strong trust in perceivable truth. As
a teacher, I rely on the advice and opinions of experts and tend towards
practicality. Thoughtfully considering philosophy will improve teaching and I
must continue to revisit my philosophy over time to ensure a strong bond
between belief and practice.
My
learning about aesthetics has been very useful in broadening my thinking in
music. Generally, I have been more concerned with the kinesthetic and cognitive
aspects of music education. Working with middle schools strings often feels far
removed from any sort of aesthetic experience. While this focus has helped to
build strong players from a technical standpoint, it neglects one of the things
that makes music education valuable. Music can educate one about inner feelings
in a way not done by other subjects. Students need to be given opportunities to
explore the aesthetic values of music. In the future I plan to include more
listening opportunities for students and engage string players in developing
the aesthetic qualities of the music they perform. Students need to
thoughtfully engage in aesthetic experience with music and I need to include
aesthetic value in my music advocacy efforts.
My
learning about sociology has been a good reminder of the social factors
involved in music education. I strongly believe in the importance of nurture
over nature in developing the musical child. There are some important genetic
factors involved in musicality, but there is no way I can control the genetic
makeup of a child. I can nurture them through education and I can work to
educate parents about the importance of a musical home. The learning in this
course has also been a good reminder of SES and its impact on musical tastes
and the availability of music for students. I need to try to remove those
barriers when possible and that includes more than just providing instruments
for needy students. The “trappings” of classical music need to be stripped away
and students need opportunity to engage with all types of music over the course
of time. Finding ways to move beyond the social and cultural values typically
found in string education to include all students is a struggle I must continue
to consider. The importance of socialization and enculturation need to be
acknowledged and the effects, both positive and negative, of technology must be
addressed. A lack of close listening to music brought on by its mass
availability means music educators must give students opportunity to listen and
respond to music (response is a national core standard after all).
My
learning about social psychology has been a good reminder of factors like
conformity, cooperation vs. competition, and creativity. The strong desire of
adolescents to “fit in” can be a force in music education. I use conformity to
get students to follow classroom rules and respond in proper ways to instruction.
Students know what is expected and most students conform in a way that helps
instruction. Conformity has been useful in retention as most students follow
their peers by enrolling in orchestra each year. Of course, this could also
work the other way if students begin to quit, but a culture of continuing has
been in place for several years now. The next step would be to improve the
opinion of orchestra school wide for recruitment’s sake. Orchestra is not
necessarily looked upon as a “cool” activity and steps might be taken to
improve the opinion of those students not in orchestra by increasing visibility
of the program and programming songs that appeal to students. My program does
not include much competition outside of auditions for concert master. I encourage
cooperation with “team” oriented language and attendance at state festivals.
Some students desire more competition and it can be a driving force, but it
often leaves some students as the “losers.” For marching band, we try to frame
success or lack of success not as an “us vs. them” mentality but as a
competition with our own performance. A focus on getting better helps to
mitigate the negative aspects of competition. Creativity was explored at
greater depth in a previous course, but this class has been a good reminder of
some of the basics of creativity. I try to get students to utilize both
convergent and divergent thinking from time to time and engage students in
improvisation and composition projects. I’ve used constraints to help students
be creative in the past. They often perform better with fewer options.
Improvisation normally occurs within a particular domain. Having students exercise
creativity while in a system is authentic while providing guidance for creative
decision making. I still struggle with getting high school jazz band members to
improvise, but will certainly continue in my efforts.
My
learning about psychology has included behaviorist verses cognitive viewpoints,
a review of Piaget’s stage theory, and information processing. Developing
lessons based upon behaviorist or cognitivist viewpoints will result in a very
different approach. I tend to focus on the cognitive data storage viewpoint
rather than the stimulus-response viewpoint. As students learn in my class they
add new information to storage and build around particular concepts. I want my
students to have well developed concepts such as tone, intonation, and bowing.
I follow the reception learning model by delivering instruction in a particular
order and manner. Piaget’s stage theory is a good reminder of the way students
process the world. Certain activities are inappropriate for younger students.
In particular, it is important to know when a student has developed the ability
to conserve. For music, student’s comprehension of music generally follows the
order: volume, timbre, tempo, duration, pitch, and harmony. While I don’t teach
the youngest students, I do collaborate with the other district music staff to
develop a district curriculum. I also work to introduce concepts to orchestra
beginners that fits their developmental level. Some have not begun the formal
operational stage and cannot deal in abstraction. As students are learning they
are cognitively processing the information. Scanning and holding programs are
important as I need to help students focus on the relevant information. As a
teacher, I can verbally emphasize the important elements were are learning in
the music so students can scan for those particular elements and work towards
committing them to memory. I also use certain retrieval cues to help students
in retaining important information. Orchestra students use phrases like
“Mississippi river” to help them learn common rhythmic patterns. I also learned
about motivation. My prior understanding focused on intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation with a strong leaning towards intrinsic for its long term benefits.
During this course I
also had an opportunity to discuss ways to design a performance that included
information for the audience about the music and the music program generally,
and learning for students beyond just the notes. I considered a
cross-curricular performance designed with the social studies teacher we had
designed in the past. While I don’t currently teach general music, there are
ways to provide information and learning for performance that go beyond simple
entertainment. For my orchestra concerts, I explain the pedagogical emphasis of
the music as well as provide some things to listen for during the song. This
gives the parents insight into the repertoire selection and helps them
understand that I don’t usually pick songs based on their musical appeal. I
might also include opportunities for students to share why they appreciate the music
program. Having students write short testimonials and read them between songs
would be an interesting way to educate parents about the value of music for
their students. Most importantly, we need to consider how to ensure our
performances are not merely for entertainment. Finding new ways to educate
students about more than just the notes and educate an audience about the music
they will hear or the group on stage has value.
Each of these areas
discussed has a broad scope and carries a great deal of importance for music
education. I have considered the implications of readings and discussions as
much as possible during this course. However, more reflection can be done to
consider historical, philosophical, psychological, and other factors that
influence music education. Other courses in the UF MMMUE program have provided
depth to these topics and more can be done in the future.
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