Official due date: Friday, Oct. 24 by 11:59 pm.
The truth: Please post your comments before class time on Monday, Oct. 27.
Some questions to consider:
- In this chapter, Rogers outlines some specific teaching techniques in a numbered list. Which of these resonates the most with you, and why? Perhaps there's something on the list that an influential teacher did/does, or something that you aspire to do as a teacher yourself.
- In point #1, Rogers talks about the "spiral learning" approach. Can you think of a piece of music that might lend itself to this approach? (That is, a piece that you could return to again and again to teach multiple concepts.)
- In point #5 (starting at the bottom of p. 154), Rogers talks about the different situations that can give rise to student errors. If you were a person who had trouble in theory or aural skills, can you point to any of these reasons for your difficulty?
- The passage on Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) is kind of dated. (For example, substitute "computer lab" for "tape lab"!) Do you think significant progress has been made in the area of computer-assisted drill? If so, how? Which, if any, of Rogers' points still ring true?
- Again, considering that this book was originally written in 1984, consider the passage on 162-3 about general attitudes toward teaching as a profession, an avocation, an art. Do you think attitudes have improved since the 80's? Why or why not?
Spiral learning in some shape or form is something that I have mentioned in class but also in blog posts on a regular basis. In my teaching, it is a device that I have used extensively. I believe in using what students already know to expand and further their knowledge with this existing framework. It also provided for the least anxiety, which is something that is very useful in an intimidating subject like music theory. Every time I learn a new piece, I personally draw on what I have done both on the trumpet or when conducting, gesturally, to help make learning the piece smoother and more complete.
ReplyDeleteI was always decent at theory, but my biggest problems came from either working too fast or not quite getting the concept right away. I think using small chunks and teaching students HOW to work on theory exercises as well as how to self-correct is a great way to reach students at all ability levels get on the same page.
There are many points Rogers makes that still ring true, the most notable is that CAI is an ADJUNCT to proper classroom instruction, and I will go to the grave with that same philosophy!! Despite this, I think the usefulness of CAI has greatly improved over the last 30 years. One of the limitations that I know I was faced with in 2004 was using programs based on MIDI because I believe I hear harmony using the overtones within sound. MIDI can NOT reproduce this “ringing” effect and therefore the timbre is static and lifeless. I had a hell of a time with MacGamut (lovingly referred to as “MacDamnitt!” in many music schools around the country) because of the MIDI sounds. Thank goodness, the audio quality has improved by a ridiculous amount in even the last 10 years with CAI applications, which means they are ever more useful. With that being said, NOTHING can replace a real human being to explain and discuss the connections that sound makes.
Communication and delivery are most definitely a practiced and refined art. Everybody sucks the first time that they are in front of a class, but can improve to be quite effective with practice and attention to detail. I think teachers who do not work on this aspect of teaching lose students quickly and are ineffective at their art. Someone could be the smartest person in the world in their field, even be the most respected theorist ever in music, yet, if s/he cannot deliver the information in such a way to grab an audience of students, they may as well be spewing information at a brick wall. It is imperative that a teacher not only know WHAT s/he is talking about, but how to communicate that information accurately and passionately to students so that it “sticks” with the student forever.
Spiral learning: Let's talk about this in class. :-)
DeleteAs for CAI, I think the biggest thing it's done for me is to do what I've always done, better and more efficiently. I can't imagine that it will ever replace a human...but then, 10 years ago I couldn't imagine driverless cars either.
DeleteAural training in music theory is an important aspect for music students. It allows the students to hear and identify different aspects of music while performing or listening to music. However, some students can have trouble with different tasks asked of them in the classroom. As someone who had trouble with the aural training in music theory, there are multiple reasons for my struggle. Rogers states that an important aspect of music theory aural training is to be teach the students that they have to learn to identify the mistakes they make and fix them. Personally, I believe my problem was that I constantly made careless or silly mistakes, double checking my work and questioning if my answers were correct then changing them if I think they are wrong, forgetting to think of alternatives, and working to slow and not allowing the connections to jell. Most of these problems are what students should be able to identify in their aural training. In my opinion, out of the many things Rogers listed, this is one of the most important aspects of music theory. I believe that once the student is able to identify their own problems, they will be able to do better in tests, and also to teach it. This is one of those classes that the more the teacher struggled in the class that can help benefit them if they teach it. They will be able to help their students by telling them what to look and listen for when they are taking tests or quizzes and ways to help double check their work.
ReplyDeleteI think that being able to help the students identify what their problems are will help them throughout their learning process altogether. Personally, my clarinet professor always asks me what I heard when I played a passage of music and how can I make it better. It forces me to pay attention to my playing and be able to tell her what I did wrong and how to fix it. It also forces me to show how much I understand about the mistake and how to fix it so that I can help a student if they have the problem once I start teaching. This aspect is something I want to be able to do as a teacher and to help my students help themselves and others.
SB: "This is one of those classes that the more the teacher struggled in the class that can help benefit them if they teach it. They will be able to help their students by telling them what to look and listen for when they are taking tests or quizzes and ways to help double check their work."
DeleteJR: I can't say I agree with this. It's virtually impossible to teach something you haven't mastered yourself. And in any case, I'm not sure this if such a thing is even measurable, since the dataset (i.e. the people who teach aural skills) is skewed toward those with a highly-developed skill set--because those are the ones who will be hired for those jobs.
I never realized how many of these aspects of teaching I have used myself, maybe not in a “classroom,” but one-on-one. First and foremost when I am teaching new material I immediately think back to when I first learned it to try to remember how my teacher set it up. I feel like a lot of my instruction was connecting new material to old so the spiral learning technique is how I first go about teaching new material. More times than not, this approach works best for me and my student and if that doesn't work, I try to explain it as many different ways as I can that is most suiting to that particular student. I must admit though I am not the best at setting up a topic to have an easy transition to the next, Rogers point no. 4.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with theory tremendously when I began music school. I feel like it was the lack of any previous instruction before I got to college that was my biggest set back. It was like my brain couldn't figure out how to process this information because it had never thought of it before. Because I was not use to thinking of these certain things, I did my work super slow, trying to remember all my options for a potential answer. I feel like a lot of Rogers “error types” are exactly what I had went through. When he talks about working too fast or too slow, I feel that is a fine line to stay on top of. I know sometimes when my student is getting new information really well it makes me excited and then I might start to rush into other topics too soon. I find myself rushing into new information more than staying on one topic for too long. But finding that balance can be rough sometimes.
When it comes to learning from CAI, I can only imagine that programs have come a long way considering I never was on a music theory website until I was in college. I can say that some of these websites were able to help me out a lot. After getting instruction from my teacher, I was able to practice the information given to me on these sites. Even though it might only be able to “test” me, it was still able to teach me to a certain extent. If I got a wrong answer, yes it gave me the correct answer, but it didn't tell me why I was wrong. That made me use my brain a little bit more to figure out why I was wrong and took me through different ways of thinking about that certain topic, I think that helped me understand that topic better.
I feel attitudes on teaching are still the same. It is unfortunate that students will still run into the “mono toned” professor whose class is awfully boring but there are still really good teachers out there coming up with new ideas to help keep the classroom fun!
Your "theory journey"--with which I am quite familiar!--reminds me of something I was told in grad school, and have probably shared with you before. It's the idea that, when you're in the middle of university studies, things get REALLY intense and you get bombarded with new and exciting and wonderful and terrifying information in large amounts, from all sides, in a very condensed period of time. It takes your mind a long time to sort through it all and apply it to everyday situations. You'll be sitting there, practicing your clarinet (or analyzing a piece, or whatever), and suddenly something your teacher said to you sixths month ago clicks into place. It's a great feeling, and well worth the wait.
DeleteSpiral learning is probably the closest thing to how I teach my students (private percussion instructor). It is also how I attempted to set up my lesson on intervals - building on information the students already know. Many a time during lessons with Dr. Schaft, he tells me, “Don't forget what I’ve taught you.” It’s a difficult process to get through, but eventually, it is telling the students that they are their own teachers and that they need to continue applying everything they already know to new material; creating a self-learner. I think it’s provided the most success for my students and even with my own learning. In a way, it sets up a solid foundation for people to learn with the least amount of work (or anxiety as Nick mentioned). A piece that I’ve used for all my students is the very first etude from a Mitchell Peters snare drum book. It more than lends itself to this concept of spiral learning. I have my students play it first with buzz rolls then doubles then triples at all dynamic levels and at various tempi. The amount of concepts I could potentially cover with just that single etude is almost dangerous.
ReplyDeleteTheory for me was a difficult task indeed. I was able to pull off mostly B’s and maybe a couple A’s but it wasn’t easy. As a couple people have mentioned above, working too slow and not fully understanding the concepts were my main issues. To this day, I still feel like I’m ‘slow’ at theory. The pacing of nearly all my theory classes seemed rushed and panicked (just the nature of the beast?) and towards the end, I knew there were things I didn’t fully understand, yet I had to keep going. As I mentioned earlier, creating a 'self-learner' is highly effective in these types of situations. After I was "done" with theory, I knew what exactly I had to do in order to be successful. I went back and took the extra time that I needed to iron out certain concepts that I was either too slow with, or just didn't fully understand. Which has helped tremendously.
I would like to think that attitudes toward teaching have improved since the 80’s, however I doubt it’s been much. Teaching really is an art form all by itself and I have seen/experienced younger professors starting here who take what they do very seriously. It’s exciting when you can tell that your teacher really cares about the quality of your education and the manner in which it is received. Fortunately, my theory experience has been great all the way through (rushed…but great), I mainly am referring to the mono-toned professors I know we’ve all experienced more than once. It's very unfortunate and alarming that folks like these are still teaching.
I really don't have much to add; great response. Thanks for citing an actual piece of music. :-)
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ReplyDeletePerhaps one of the most important concepts to me that the author discusses in his list of teaching "techniques and tactics" is the very first number/the "spiral approach" to learning. The power of association to me is a limitless resource for learning. Often students that I consider to have an unusually difficult time with any concept is just not seeing it in a way that is conducive to a firm foundation in understanding. One example may be found in learning another language. If one were to dive into learning another language viewing it as a difficult and complex task, they would fail to recognize the similarities in their first language and the second. This leads to a prescribed set of attitudes, expectations, and actions that inhibit a person to view concepts for what they really are. Instead of viewing the two languages as having different vocabulary but the same structural devices, they are seen as being totally different entities requiring one to attempt to build a database of memory from scratch without reference. It is so important to emphasize the relationship of one concept to another in music theory for the same reason, and in my opinion particularly the relationship of chordal function in harmonic progressions for students beginning to build upon their understanding of musical fundamentals. This is because different chords with different notes in them are often all seen solely as individual chords, rather than a set of chords that, for example, have a pre-dominant function.
ReplyDeleteEven though I think the simile of music::language can often wear thin, in this case you're spot on in regards to arranging new content on an existing structure.
DeleteRemind me to talk more about the spiral-learning concept in class. I think a few people have misunderstood it, if only slightly.
I love and teach by the first technique on the list. Music, in its vastness and deep possible levels of analysis stems from the core fundamentals we’ve previously discussed in class. One thing however that the book doesn’t necessarily talk about but I LOVE to do, is relate musical concepts that you’re teaching to students learning the content for the first time to non-musical ideas. A good example I can think of is using a sandwich for forms, such as rounded binary. ABA, ABBA, etc, all can be stated as bread-filling-filling (optional)--etc- bread. It might be a different kind of bread, such as one piece of wheat and rye, but they’re still bread. The strange metaphors I utilize don’t always make sense, but the most nonsensical ones stick in student’s heads BECAUSE of their bizarre nature.
ReplyDeleteOne piece I can see used for this spiral method is Ich Grolle Nicht, by Robert Schumann. It stays in one key, has a returning section, uses mode mixture, and is a good model for the Romantic period itself.
My thoughts in regards to the group dynamic is that it is a double edged sword. In some ways, this pedagogy class has been one of the most beneficial in that the discussions are driven, intelligent, and thoroughly moderated by Dr. Root; on the other hand, classes that offer no group interaction or those that the collective group is full of apathy, nothing productive occurs and this might be detrimental to the class. My analytical techniques class, while extremely informative and rewarding, could have been much more beneficial to me personally if everyone contributed, not just the same one third of us. I feel as if educators are less pessimistic about the things mentioned in the reading (except caring for students and self performance), because we’re so worried about job security and our student’s phsyical well beings in regards to illness and mental health.
I've said this in preceding comments, but I bring it up again here, just to be sure that *I* don't forget -- remind me to talk more about spiral learning in class.
DeleteI don't want to sound like I'm deflating your bubble here, but pretty much everyone uses metaphors in teaching--because pretty much everyone uses metaphors in conversation, and that's really all good teaching is--an engaging conversation. The trick is getting students to remember what they actually MEAN. Sure, they'll remember the sandwich, but will they remember form? (By the way, rounded binary is |:|A:||: BA :|| not ABBA.)
I have run into this problem time and again in my teaching. Remind me to tell the class about the "hot fudge rule."
The techniques that I connect with most are numbers 5 and 12. The shift in responsibilities is very important in my opinion. Students in the current collegiate generation are so used to standardized tests and computerized assessment that they are not used to looking for their own mistakes. Students expect to be graded right or wrong, and rarely look back over their work to double-check, even though they’ve been told their whole lives that double-checking is an important step to completing work. The different types of mistakes listed in #5 really speak to the classroom experiences I have had, as a student and as an instructor. It’s one thing to not understand material, but to make careless errors, spelling errors, or clef errors is frustrating. For example, this semester I’ve graded assignments of the brightest students in Musicianship 1, but they’ve missed note identification questions because they don’t pay attention to the clef. I’m not even talking about a whole line, which would be careless, but more excusable than one single question in a large group of exercises. Students don’t check their work and they don’t seem to care if they make careless mistakes as long as their grade is still an A.
ReplyDeleteNumber 12, the use of students as teachers, is something I had experience with in my undergraduate career and I am a big advocate for. It is certainly an expansion of #5 in my opinion, and can help students on both ends. I was an undergraduate teaching assistant when I completed my theory curriculum at Appalachian, and it was extremely helpful. I had the chance to teach topics that I felt strongly about and the chance to re-visit topics that I struggled with. I was also a big help to the students. I was their friend, but also someone they could go to with questions, creative ideas, or to practice skills.
I definitely think we have progressed in CAI. The three times I’ve been to CMS conference, I have participated in a CAI discussion group on aural skills. This is probably my favorite part of the conference, when professors share their techniques and new software and also complain about old software. The one thing that bothers me, though, is that instructors want an online system that will create their sight-singing tests, administer them, grade them, and report the grades. This is questionable to me. I think the awkward office time with students to hear them sing is important. They are stressed and terrified, but we as their instructors can get a better idea of what is challenging them and how they deal with stressful situations. Roger’s point about how CAI is good for practice, but not teaching, I think is very important. Relying on online exercises to teach our students is a bad idea, but they are phenomenal for practice. Either way, I think we’ve come a long way. There are so many resources to practice ear training, and many are free and advocated for by university faculty around the country. These programs give students the opportunity to practice on their own and test themselves, and the students who utilize these resources are sure to progress more efficiently than the students who do not.