Chung-Ha Kim currently teaches applied piano, class piano, and piano pedagogy at Western Illinois University in Macomb. She holds a Bachelor of Music-degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, a Master of Music-degree in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati, and a Doctor of Musical Arts-degree from the University of Cincinnati, with Piano Performance as her main, and Piano Pedagogy as her cognate area. Dr. Kim has published articles in Clavier ("Clementi's Last Piano Sonata," April 2004) and Piano Pedagogy Forum ("Class Management Software: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Blackboard in Group Piano Classes," January 2005). She is an active member of MTNA and ISMTA, and currently serves as a State Competition Coordinator.
Chung-Ha Kim
School of Music
Western Illinois University
1 University Circle
Macomb, IL 61455
309.298.2163
C-Kim@wiu.edu
Developed by Dr. Birch Browning, Cleveland State University and Dr. Ann Porter, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, eMirror is designed to facilitate the observation of group teaching and subsequent evaluation. Dr. Michelle Conda, head of the secondary piano department at the University of Cincinnati, worked with Dr. Porter on a component geared specifically towards group piano teaching, in order to better evaluate her teaching assistants. She summarized the problems that arise with the traditional method of videotaping her teaching assistants, followed by written comments as follows: "I have nine graduate assistants teaching in my department: watching their videotaped classes already takes a minimum of nine hours, with me stopping the tape frequently to write comments. And no matter how careful I am, some of them still get offended once they read my comments. Asking them to watch the tapes themselves also doesn't help: they tend to focus on their appearance rather than their teaching performance, getting distracted by the way their hair looks, their clothes, etc... Getting them to watch themselves in the first place is not an easy task either!"
The videotape and written comments are two entities that Dr. Porter sought to combine with the Interaction Analysis Software. Once the equipment is assembled (a digital/video camera, a computer that will convert the video to QuickTime, and the software itself), everything is in one place, with the observer being able to insert comments directly into the video. At this time, the software is still in a trial phase: it is currently only available as part of a research project and for Mac OS X. However, Drs. Conda and Porter hope to have it available for everyone and compatible with PCs as well in the near future.
Besides the option of inserting individual comments, this software program also has modules that facilitate the evaluation of certain teaching aspects. For example, the current model has four different modules: headphones (on/off), group instruction, individual instruction, and small group instruction. Ideally, teaching assistants should include all of these in their teaching to maximize effective management of class time, and to keep classes interesting. Once an activity, such as small group instruction, is pursued for more than three seconds, the corresponding module is selected and activated by the observer. The module then keeps track of the amount of time spent on this particular activity, converting it into a percentage grade at the end.
The advantages of this program are clear: teaching assistants and pedagogy student teachers can now evaluate their teaching performances themselves, rather than relying on a supervisor. The modules give them clear criteria to focus on while watching the video. Selecting one module at a time, teaching assistants will code the events while watching, and afterwards, print out the results and/or e-mail them to their supervisor - a powerful learning and sharing tool indeed.
Relying on her many years of observing secondary piano teaching assistants, Dr. Conda acknowledged that pianists often have a greater need for self-evaluation when it comes to teaching in a classroom setting: "Sitting behind a keyboard with music in front of them makes it difficult for them to maintain eye contact with the class. My TA's are wonderful pianists who bring a lot of knowledge to the classroom. Yet the delivery of it is often poor." With another module for eye contact almost finished, this software program would help to alleviate this problem as well.
For those who are too impatient to wait for eMirror's completion, there is a similar program available already, called "Scribe." It was developed by Dr. Robert Duke at the University of Texas. Instead of modules, this program lets you choose which behavior you want to evaluate.
If you would like more information on eMirror, or would like to participate in the trial phase of it, please contact Dr. Michelle Conda (condajm@ucmail.uc.edu) or Dr. Ann Porter (porteram@ucmail.uc.edu).
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