Scott Donald is Administrative Director and Senior Faculty at the New School for Music Study in Princeton, NJ. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Dr. Donald received his Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University. He was awarded degrees of Master of Music in applied piano, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education/Piano Pedagogy from The University of Texas at Austin, where he worked under the guidance of Dr. Robert Duke and piano pedagogy with Amanda Vick Lethco and Martha Hilley.
Scott Donald
Francis Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy
PO Box 651
Kingston, NJ 08528
609.921.2900
scottmus@aol.com
How do you recognize expert teaching? Each individual looks for particular qualities in a student's performance to determine the strength of a teacher. How do you determine whether a teacher has done an efficient job preparing a student for the multifaceted requirements of music performance? When observing master teachers, how do you incorporate the positive aspects into your own teaching? As we attempt to develop and improve our own teaching, what are the things that we should strive to emulate? What aspects of instruction make an individual an expert teacher?
Observation of expert teaching is certainly an excellent way to determine what models of instruction to follow. The information we are able to glean from teaching demonstrations is not limited to the insights into a particular piece the student has prepared and performed. The elements of the lesson we should be observing is the overall flow and structure of the learning situation. How are expert teachers able to focus on specific aspects of the student's performance and structure a sequence of events that will successfully bring the student to a better understanding and better performance of the music.
At the 2001 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, attendees were able to observe expert teaching at its best. What was most fascinating is that despite the fact that all these teachers were very different in their own personalities and teaching style and there were different ages and levels of students; the overall structure and approach to teaching was consistently the same. Each expert teacher was able to set the student up for success through a series of carefully planned and executed tasks that were goal oriented. The teaching was student-centered and designed to provide the students with the necessary tools to be independent learners.
Other than direct observation, there is a variety of published works that address effective teaching. Different sources of information offer suggestions on what "works" and what does not "work". There is a fairly substantial body of literature available that addresses teacher effectiveness; however, much of the research literature on the topic is outside of music. In fact, there are several different areas of research on effective teaching strategies.
Fundamental Principles of Proactive Teaching
One effective teaching stategy is the structuring of learning situations by determing the desired outcome and, through the use of successive learning tasks, leads the student to the desired outcome. This technique is refered to as proactive instruction. It is difficult to determine what makes an expert pedagogue due to the complex nature of the observation. Experience does not necessarily guarantee expertise; however, one important aspect noticed in expert teaching is the use of a purposefully structured learning situation that will most likely elicit a correct student response. The learning sequence is arranged specifically to bring about opportunities for student success. As stated previously, this technique is referred to as proactive teaching. The term "proactive" is used because the structure of any learning task is arranged prior to meeting a terminal objective. An ideal application of this in private instruction would be in the presentation of new material. The teacher should analyse the musical score to determine what would be the challenges in the score that could cause difficulty for the student. Determine what the end result should be for each challenge and determine a logical progression from the most basic element of the particular problem. If it is a rhythmic element, then the student should be able to internalize the rhythm before adding the difficulty of finding notes and rhythm. If it is a technical issue, devise a plan for feeling the technic in the hand and fingers before putting together with the entire piece or section.
A proactive teaching approach can also be utilized for diagnostic purposes in a lesson. An application of this in private instruction would be after the student has played, (1) the teacher assess what areas need to be addressed, (2) determines the ideal outcome of the task, (3) and plans a strategy to meet the specific outcome desired. It is important that you are specific about the terminal goal to insure that you are able to break down the task to its most fundamental concept. This is one of the most difficult steps in this process. The teacher needs to be aware of the root of the problem not the "symptoms" of the problem.
One of the most consequential aspects affecting the success of any instructional paradigm is the order in which sequential tasks are presented to the learner. By using successive approximations, the teacher is able to analyze and break down a particular problem or element of performance to its' most basic concept and then increase the difficulty of the task incrementally to meet a desired outcome. In a related study, researchers found that students following an instructional task hierarchy in teaching novice guitar lessons performed accurately 76% of the trials and were better able to perform a simple song without pausing when changing chords than students taught by teachers who were given no instructional sequence (Duke & Madsen). Expert teachers are able to structure the learning environment in a systematic manner that provides a series of tasks leading to a terminal goal. Frequent successful performance trials provide opportunities for students to recognize their own accomplishments and progress. Proactive teachers are able to structure a sequence of tasks that shape successful or correct student responses. The outcome may be reinforced contingently and specifically by the teacher. Students' self-perceptions of success are greatly enhanced and become more apparent.
Teacher Presentation
Not only is the organization of proactive teaching important, but also the manner in which material is presented. There are so many facets to teacher presentation it is hard to know where to begin when you look at expert teachers. It is relatively easy for expert pedagogues to agree on inefficient aspects of teaching but disagree sometimes on the good things. There are several techniques for teacher presentation that appear to be most beneficial and present in expert teaching.
Make sure instructions or directions are concise, direct, and clear. Teacher presentation can benefit greatly from simply being more specific in directions or corrections and responses to student performances. Instruction or "talking time" is minimized by substituting teacher performance or modeling of the correct playing (Kostka).
Feedback should be specific whether it is approval or disapproval. A large portion of lesson time involves a liberal use of disapproving verbal reinforcement while relatively little time is spent on verbal teacher reinforcement (Speer). The use of teacher praise during this process is important. Be specific. Praise seems to be most effective when it is contingent, specific and credible (Brophy). By structuring the lesson so that there are frequent successive approximations of a terminal goal, you provide an opportunity for more approving feedback and increase the ratio of student success to failure. Be specific in your approval by refering to a particular element, measures, or section of the student performance. Disapproving comments are specific also and intended to provide corrective feedback to a relevant problem.
Most successful teachers are able to structure frequent successful performances (Buckner). Utilizing proactive teaching results in lessons that have been structured to provide frequent, successful performances in which the student is able to observe their progress and is motivated to work in a similar manner during their practice time.
Learning episodes are shorter and more frequent in the lessons of effective teachers than in less effective. Using shorter performance episodes provides nearly twice as many performances that are devoted to the accomplishment of musical or technical goals. The ratio of successful to unsuccessful trials is higher among successful, efficient teachers. The overall structure of a effective lesson is one where progress shifted frequently utilizing simplification of performance task components, repeating the subskill for mastery, and then putting the sub-skill into context or moving on to a new aspect of performance (Siebenaler). Teacher inactivity was negatively related to student success due to longer playing episodes where the student continued in struggling performances of the music.
Summary
In conclusion, be proactive by planning the manner in which the lesson will proceed by devising task analyses to meet a terminal goal through the use of successive approximations. Be specific and provide as many opportunities for success as possible. Through the use of sequential patterns of instruction, present the material in brief segments to provide as much student interaction and opportunities for the student to observe progress being made. By structuring the learning environment in a logical progression of events the student will more than likely have ample opportunities for success and positive feedback from the teacher. It is important that your feedback be specific in approval as well as disapproval and contingent on the student meeting the performance objectives. Use similar tasks that can be transfered to other learning situations or similar pieces. That way the student learns to approach new music in a systematic way and as a result become independent learners.
References
Berliner, D. C. (1986). In pursuit of the expert pedagogue. Educational Researcher, 15, 5-13.
Brophy, J. (1981). Teacher praise: A functional analysis. Review of Educational Research, 51, 5-32.
Buckner, J. L. J. (1997). Assessment of teacher and student behavior in relation to the accomplishment of performance goals in piano lessons. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin.
Duke, R. A., & Madsen, C. K. (1991). Proactive versus reactive teaching. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 108, 1-14.
Kostka, M. J. (1984). An investigation of reinforcements, time use, and student attentiveness in piano lessons. Journal of Research in Music Education, 32, 113-122.
Siebenaler, D. J. (1997). Analysis of teacher-student interactions in the piano lessons of adults and children. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 6-20.
Speer, D. R. (1994). An analysis of sequential patterns of instruction in piano lessons. Journal of Research in Music Education, 42, 14-26.
Yarbrough, C. & Price, H. E. (1989). Sequential patterns of instruction in music. Journal of Research in Music Education, 37, 179-187.
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