Yeeseon Kwon is Associate Professor of Music at Greenville College. Formerly teaching piano and piano pedagogy at Northwestern University, Ithaca College, and Harper College, Dr. Kwon is active as a workshop clinician, adjudicator, and editor with international solo and collaborative performances with the Mozart Sinfonia, including a concert featuring American pianists at Maly Philharmonia Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. Yeeseon Kwon received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma and holds M.M. and B.M. degrees from Northwestern University. Dr. Kwon has published articles and books in the area of piano pedagogy, including Written For You Collections, Books 1-4 with Teaching and Practice Guides (F.J.H ). She appeared as a panelist at the National Convention of the Music Teachers National Association and has also been featured as a presenter at the Illinois State Music Teachers Association, New York State Music Teachers Association, Northwest District Convention of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and at the University of Oklahoma Seminar for Piano Teachers. Yeeseon Kwon is an author and new music reviewer for Clavier magazine and First Vice-President of the Illinois State Teachers Music Teachers Association.
Yeeseon Kwon
Department of Music
Greenville College
Greenville, IL 62246
618.664.6577
yeeseon.kwon@greenville.edu
Methods of teaching such as visual, or verbal, ways presenting information, personality traits of teachers, all affect learning. No single learning strategy will work equally well for all students, and few, if any, strategies will work optimally on all tasks. The effectiveness of a strategy will change as a skill develops. Regardless of learning styles, students can learn strategies that enable them to be effective. None of the learning styles makes nearly as much difference as the student's prior knowledge, intelligence, and motivation. When students learn in more meaningful ways they are more likely to develop intrinsic motivation for learning rather than being solely focused on tests and grades. Similarly, when students become interested in a topic, they are likely to think more about it. In these ways cognition and motivation are interdependent.
Many students enter higher music education with the perception that they have not been taught how to practice by their teachers. Recent research in music education from Norway by Siw G. Nielsen investigated which strategies used during practice were most relevant to improving performance and whether first-year music students' perceptions of self-efficacy were correlated to these practice strategies. Self-efficacy was defined as “people's judgment of their capabilities to organize and execute the required courses of action to attain designated types of performances” (Nielsen, 2004). This particular study of Norwegian students in six Norwegian institutions of higher music education investigated the ways in which learning and study strategies of advanced vocal and instrumental music students were impacted by their self-efficacy beliefs. Participants were first-year music students in Norwegian higher education between the ages of 18 and 43. The study revealed that a student's level of confidence in his or her ability to practice affects the way he or she practices. It also showed there were significant gender differences between female and male students with regard to self-efficacy, without significant differences regarding instrument groups or degree programs. Lastly, students who perceived themselves as able to learn or able to perform a task by their instrumental practice also reported using more learning and study strategies. These findings may have compelling implications for the field of piano pedagogy as it impacts the development of new teaching approaches for increasing student motivation.
Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning
Strengths-based education identifies talents and strengths to measure achievement and positive outcomes, and individualizes work with students to personalize the learning experience. Positive emotional experience may lead students to pursue their interests more vigorously and think more expansively about subjects of interests. Research evidence indicates that positive affect has been shown to lead to greater creativity, flexible thinking, and increased negotiation and problem-solving skills (Isen, 1987, 2002). Positive affect also seems to encourage intrinsic motivation. A teacher's positive emotions can be contagious and can help others maximize on positive events. Edward “Chip” Anderson, who has conducted extensive research from the Center For Strengths-Based Education, explains the strengths philosophy of individual talents and strength in these ways:
“while each and every person has talents, our most dominant talents provide our greatest opportunity for achieving to levels of excellence. A 'strength' is a personal quality that enables and empowers a person do certain things very well. It is the ability to provide consistent, near perfect performance in a given activity. Talents are transformed into strengths through knowledge, skills, and experiential learning. Specific qualities that are considered strengths include behavior patterns that make you effective, thought patterns that make you efficient, beliefs that empower you to succeed, attitudes that sustain your efforts toward achievement and excellence, and motivations that propel you to take action and maintain the energy needed to achieve.”
Assessing individual strengths on college campuses typically involves the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which has been administered to over 1, 000, 000 people worldwide. The internet-based measurement tool consists of 180 paired comparison items that take about 35 minutes to complete. Upon completion, the respondent receives feedback on the five most dominant of 34 possible themes, referred to as “Signature Themes” of talent, and a description of strategies for capitalizing on their talent and turning them into strengths.
As a strengths-based campus, all entering first-year students at Greenville College take the StrengthsFinder assessment. This facilitates ongoing feedback from professors and advisors during the rest of the college years on cultivating these qualities for nurturing successful academic, social, vocational pursuits. Strengths-based teaching is an approach that capitalizes on the instructor's strengths and deliberately connects students' strengths to strategies for mastering the course content, so that students are more motivated and engaged in the course.
Based upon Nielsen's findings on motivation and students' learning strategies in music education and ongoing research on a strengths-based educational approach, there may be a compelling link to increasing motivation and self-efficacy through strengths-based strategies in piano study. The development of strengths-based pedagogical strategies may provide new insights on how best to affect and improve motivation and practice in first-year non-keyboard music majors in class piano, and piano majors in applied study. The learning strategies section of Nielsen's study assessed 50 items from the Norwegian adaptation of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ-inventory) and categorized into the following three general types of scales (Pintrich et al., 1991).
Cognitive Strategies: Rehearsal, Elaboration, Organization and Critical Thinking
Rehearsal relates to what extent students use strategies to repeat parts of the material to master the task. For example, 'I select important technical and musical parts, repeating these over and over again.' Elaboration addresses to what extent students use strategies to integrate new information with existing knowledge. For example, 'I try to develop musical ideas by making connections between alternative interpretations from listening to music and from lecturers.' Organizational scale addresses to what extent the students use strategies to select appropriate information and to construct connections within the information. For example, 'When I practice, I go through the music and try to find the most important musical ideas.' Critical thinking addresses to what extent the students make critical evaluations with respect to standards of excellence. For example, 'I often find myself questioning technical solutions and interpretations on my main instrument to decide if they work.'
Metacognitive Strategies: metacognitive self-regulation addresses to what extent students plan, monitor and regulate their problem solving during practice. For example, 'When practicing, I set goals for myself to direct my practicing.'
Resource Management Strategies: time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning and help seeking. These four scales relate to students' regulatory strategies for controlling other resources besides their cognition. Examples of time and study environment: 'I find it hard to stick to a practice schedule.' Effort regulation: 'I often feel so lazy or bored when I practice, that I quit before I finish what I planned to do.' Peer learning: 'When practicing repertoire, I often try to perform the piece for a classmate or a friend.' Help seeking: 'Even if I have trouble learning the music, I try to work on my own, without help from anyone.'
Nielsen's Results/ Strengths-based Applications in Piano Pedagogy
Strengths-based Application for Class Piano
Strengths-based instruction increases students' perceived sense of self-efficacy, or confidence in their ability to learn or perform a task on the piano.
In spite of the fact that practicing is an individual activity, students will find it constructive and improve learning during instrumental practice to be greater users of peer-learning and help-seeking strategies, in other words, employ more group strategies!
Strengths-based Application for Applied Piano
Based upon findings that show that first-year music students do not use fellow students to help and support their individual learning on the instrument, instructors could help students
Other resource management strategies for both class piano and applied piano students to engage in practice planning could include having students turn in practice logs or schedules that set aside blocks of time to practice, ensuring effective use of that practice time. Having individuals organize the study environment and committing oneself to completing practice goals are important aspects of piano practice.
It is a shared responsibility of instrumental teachers and the institutions to increase their students' competence and confidence as they progress through higher music education. Educational programs that seek to empower students must not only cultivate the skills to succeed but must endeavor to maximize the will for success by nurturing the belief that one can indeed succeed and encouraging the self-regulatory strategies required to help bring about that success (Pajares, 2002). Students' awareness of strengths builds self-efficacy because their strengths reflect their abilities and their ability to achieve maximum success. Among the future developments in piano pedagogy helping students cultivate and apply their strengths could provide the impetus that will have tremendous impact on student motivation and promote effective practice and achievement.
References
Anderson, Edward, C. (2005) “What is Strengths-Based Educating?” Strengths Summit, The Gallup Organization.
Anderson, Edward, C., Cantwell, Linda, and Shreiner, Laurie. (2004). 'Strengths-Based Teaching.” Center for Strengths-Based Education, Azusa Pacific University.
Bong, M. and Skaalvik, E. M. (2003). “Academic Self-concept and Self-Efficacy: How Different Are they Really?” Educational Psychology Review 15(1): 1-40.
Buckingham, Marcus, and Clifton, Donald. (2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: Free Press.
Clifton, D.O. and Anderson, Edward, C. (2001). StrengthsQuest. Washington D. C.: Gallup Organziation.
McCormick, J. and McPherson, G.E. (2003). “The Role of Self-Efficacy in a Musical Performance Examination: An Exploratory Structural Equation Analysis.” Psychology of Music. 31: 29-48.
McPherson, G. E. (1997). “Cognitive Strategies and Skills Acquisition in Musical Performance.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 133: 64-71.
McPherson, G. E. and McCormick, J. (2000). “The Contribution of Motivational Factors in Instrumental Performance in a Music Examination.” Research Studies in Music Education 15: 31-9.
Hallam, S. (1998). “The Predictors of Achievement and Dropout in Instrumental Tuition.” Psychology of Music 26 (2): 116-32.
Nielsen, Siw G. (2004). “Strategies and Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Instrumental and Vocal Individual Practice: A Study of Students in Higher Music Education.” Psychology of Music 32: 4, 418-431.
Pajares, F. (2002).”Gender and Perceived Self-Efficacy in Self-Regulated Learning,” Theory into Practice 41(2): 116-25.
Pintrich, P.R. (1999). “The Role of Motivation in Promoting and Sustaining Self- Regulated Learning.” International Journal of Educational Research 31 (6): 459-470.
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