Teaching Philosophy

As a music teacher, my aim is to prepare students every day for the rest of their lives.  I use the following four questions to guide my teaching and preparations:

Are students being taught or are they learning?

Is every student learning?

Is what is being learned being applied now?

Do students have a framework to apply what is being learned in the future?

These questions help me to focus what I am doing on developing student’s understanding and skills in ways that are beneficial in the short- and long-term, in and out of the music classroom, and in and out of the walls of a school.

Are students being taught or are they learning?

Learning does not occur when one person states facts while other people listen—that is, at best, teaching.  Students learn through their experiences, through discovery, and through interactions.  My role, as teacher, is that of a guide.  I am there to help students work through familiar and foreign material, not merely as a presenter of information with the expectation of recitation.  

In practice, this occurs through series of logically-sequenced material in which students are challenged to use what they know to make informed decisions about unfamiliar topics.  Their learning is not only assessed on whether they have reached the correct answer, but also if they have reasons to support their understanding.  The question at the core is: why?  If students are able to answer “why” in a coherent fashion, they have proven their basic understanding and that they have a framework to make future decisions.
 

Is every student learning?

As a teacher, I am tasked with helping every student to learn.  In order to monitor student learning, I employ a variety of informal and formal assessment systems.  Informally, students are questioned about their decisions and knowledge throughout lessons.  This allows me to assess the understanding of individuals and the group while continually reinforcing the learning occurring.  Students who are more advanced are able to lead the group through their reasoning and understanding allowing them to challenge their own understanding and explain it to their peers while those peers learn not only the material which is being taught, but also the process in which they can come to the same conclusion.  Formal assessments are based upon a class-wide set of benchmarks designed to ensure a unified, general understanding of material.  Grading is individualized to challenge each student and continue growth based upon their past experiences (time in program, age), present achievement, and future goals.  These assessments may include playing tests, written assignments, written tests and quizzes, and short- or long-term individual or group projects.

Is what is being learned being applied now?

Because students learn through their experiences, it is mandatory that students put the theory and understandings that they develop into practice.  It is not enough to understand the notes in a scale, students must play that scale and its many variations.  Similarly, it is not enough to only play scales and scalar exercises, students must also prepare and perform music which utilizes that scale.  In doing so, students give meaning to the information which they have learned and thus have an understanding of the importance of the information and the applicability of it to real-world situations.  

Do students have a framework to apply what is being learned in the future?

Non scholae sed vitae discimus—we learn not for school, but for life.  Not every student will pursue every subject which they study in school in their professional career or adult life; however, there is still much learning that can be done in every class that is meaningful and applicable to students’ lives beyond the walls of a school.  Again, the question “why?” is at the heart of the conversation.  

Using Socratic questioning, students develop logical processes in which they can validate what is known and to provide a framework to understand the unknown.  Asking students why a composer would write music that sounds the way it does is only partially a question about music.  It requires students to understand, synthesize, and evaluate the historical and artistic context in which a work was written.  It requires students to analyze what salient features make the piece sound the way it does and the effect which those features have on the audience.  It requires research.  It requires the formulation of an argument supported by outside sources.  These are not music-class skills, they are real-world skills.  Asking students to interpret graphic notation does start out as a question about music.  It requires students to break down the unknown into component parts and analyze each of those parts against what they already understand before unifying those understandings into one, coherent interpretation.  This question, initially about music, highlights a logical process in which students are able to consider anything unknown they are confronted with, and extrapolate a well-founded understanding—an answer to many “why?” questions—which holds water.  These are life-long skills.  They are applicable every day in the music room.  They are applicable every day in every other classroom.  Most importantly, they are important every day in every student’s life.