My philosophy of teaching
"Your business is to make music with the people in front of you. Doesn't matter who they are, it's the people in front of you that you make music with. Might be the Cleveland Orchestra, might be a junior high school that's just been together for 3 months. You make music with the people in front of you. That's been my philosophy." - Frederick Fennell
"I don't teach oboe, I teach people," - Richard Killmer, Professor of Oboe, Eastman School of Music
When I started my journey into music education, 14 years ago, my first Teacher Preparation class required us to articulate, in essay format, our teaching philosophy at the time, drawing on both our personal thoughts and the works of educational psychologists. Since then, I've had many experiences with the education of young people, and those experiences have shaped my thinking accordingly. Teacher Preparation instills a reverence of theory and pedagogy and reflective practice. The field experience that follows shows the young educator the opposite end of the spectrum - the gamut of possible outcomes, both good and bad, that require more practical and utilitarian solutions. My personal belief is that a teacher must have a strong knowledge of educational theory and pedagogy, but the flexibility to apply those concepts in a practical manner to the classroom.
In my junior year of college, I wrote: "I feel that it is important to utilize culturally relevant teaching techniques, along the lines of Ladson-Billings, using cultural experiences as a lens or foil for discussing individual and dominant canons. Students in these times are the complex sums of holistic life experiences that are influenced by family upbringing, socioeconomic status, culture, race, religion, politics, and more. It may be difficult to engage in culturally relevant teaching techniques, simply because of the sheer diversity in children. The next best solution is to teach not to a cultural experience but to the individual, assessing authentic learning styles, habits, and life experiences to craft an individualized instructional approach." While I advocated individualized instruction, I have very strong feelings now that a clear and uniform classroom culture is critical to an effective educational experience. Regardless of the social backgrounds of a class' students, it is the teacher's job to establish and maintain levels of respect, decorum, and procedure that allow the process of learning to occur freely and safely. I believe that even if these standards are higher than students are used to, if a teacher holds him or herself to those standards as well as the students, there will be substantial buy-in to that classroom culture. This culture is not secondary to music education, but a necessary and interconnected requirement of learning. Music education, especially large ensembles, should promote personal growth along any number of dimensions not limited to music. Students may grow as musicians, but they may also grow as citizens of an organization, members of a group, as friends, or as leaders.
One of the large questions in educational philosophy is what to teach and why. I feel that balance is highly important in this area. Educational theorist E.D. Hirsch advocates that all students be taught a basic cultural canon - one that is specific to the predominant culture, Western art music in our case. Marva Collins, a pioneer in teaching the the Western literary canon to underprivileged minority students. There are works that many prominent teachers and directors would agree should be experienced and performed by musicians at each level - works of artistic and historic merit that have shaped and defined the band, orchestral, and choral genres. On the other end of the spectrum, students need to be taught the skills necessary to perform these musical masterworks. Psychologists Gardner and Bruner suggest the use of structured and scaffolded introduction of skills and concepts. In the musical world, this is represented by appropriate method books and so-called "educational" compositions as produced by publishers such as Alfred Music and C.L. Barnhouse. While some educators argue that this type of repertoire is fluff, I argue that as pedagogical pieces, they are designed to reinforce certain concepts at a lower skill level while being qualitatively exciting enough to encourage students to practice and want to play. It is then the teacher's job to correctly balance the canonical high art music with the pedagogical pieces to ensure a wide range of useful and enjoyable musical experiences for each student. I also think it is important when discussing content and curriculum to have non-traditional, cultural, and popular elements represented in a student's repertoire. These alternative repertoires are less familiar to students because of their cultural distance or more familiar to certain students because it is the music of their culture, ethnicity, generation, etc. Both can play to a teacher's advantage, if framed correctly. If an nontraditional piece is part of a student's prior experience, the teacher can connect the piece to prior knowledge and use that as a bridge for learning. If the piece's style or technique is unfamiliar, it can be a reason to learn a new style and a motivation to perfect it. It is the teacher's job to identify familiar and unfamiliar elements in those nontraditional pieces and to maximize their pedagogical benefits.
In addressing how to teach, there is the dichotomy between the traditional teacher-centric approach versus the student-centered approach. Again, my philosophy is that the teacher must use discretion in using both approaches. Current trends in Teacher Preparation de-emphasize the role of the teacher in controlling the classroom. More research-based best practices involve multi-modal project-based learning and a model of teacher-as-facilitator. This has led many music educators to find new ways to teach to replace the traditional conductor-centric model. I believe it's not possible to be an effective music teacher and conductor without sometimes lecturing, directing class, and being the sage-on-the-stage. Etudes, technical exercises, drills, and method books are all a critical part of forming a music student's core repertoire of skills. That being said, project-based and inquiry-based learning can greatly augment students' understanding of music and the musical process. Again, it is the teacher's role as expert educator to selectively guide students to projects and avenues of inquiry that will maximize the relevance and rigor of their learning. Then, it is their job to tie that experience back to prior knowledge that they can use in the future.
Finally, the use of technology in music education is a rapidly evolving area of study. In its early stages, music technology was adopted with caution and was often seen as a crutch to traditional modes of teaching. I believe that any technology that can clarify a concept or present something in a different modality is beneficial to a student. Technologies that present learning asynchronously allow students to listen to and study music at home. With scheduling conflicts and limited face-to-face time in the classroom, any technique that allows students to interact with the skills and content more on their own time after they have left the classroom is an added benefit.
In my junior year of college, I wrote: "I feel that it is important to utilize culturally relevant teaching techniques, along the lines of Ladson-Billings, using cultural experiences as a lens or foil for discussing individual and dominant canons. Students in these times are the complex sums of holistic life experiences that are influenced by family upbringing, socioeconomic status, culture, race, religion, politics, and more. It may be difficult to engage in culturally relevant teaching techniques, simply because of the sheer diversity in children. The next best solution is to teach not to a cultural experience but to the individual, assessing authentic learning styles, habits, and life experiences to craft an individualized instructional approach." While I advocated individualized instruction, I have very strong feelings now that a clear and uniform classroom culture is critical to an effective educational experience. Regardless of the social backgrounds of a class' students, it is the teacher's job to establish and maintain levels of respect, decorum, and procedure that allow the process of learning to occur freely and safely. I believe that even if these standards are higher than students are used to, if a teacher holds him or herself to those standards as well as the students, there will be substantial buy-in to that classroom culture. This culture is not secondary to music education, but a necessary and interconnected requirement of learning. Music education, especially large ensembles, should promote personal growth along any number of dimensions not limited to music. Students may grow as musicians, but they may also grow as citizens of an organization, members of a group, as friends, or as leaders.
One of the large questions in educational philosophy is what to teach and why. I feel that balance is highly important in this area. Educational theorist E.D. Hirsch advocates that all students be taught a basic cultural canon - one that is specific to the predominant culture, Western art music in our case. Marva Collins, a pioneer in teaching the the Western literary canon to underprivileged minority students. There are works that many prominent teachers and directors would agree should be experienced and performed by musicians at each level - works of artistic and historic merit that have shaped and defined the band, orchestral, and choral genres. On the other end of the spectrum, students need to be taught the skills necessary to perform these musical masterworks. Psychologists Gardner and Bruner suggest the use of structured and scaffolded introduction of skills and concepts. In the musical world, this is represented by appropriate method books and so-called "educational" compositions as produced by publishers such as Alfred Music and C.L. Barnhouse. While some educators argue that this type of repertoire is fluff, I argue that as pedagogical pieces, they are designed to reinforce certain concepts at a lower skill level while being qualitatively exciting enough to encourage students to practice and want to play. It is then the teacher's job to correctly balance the canonical high art music with the pedagogical pieces to ensure a wide range of useful and enjoyable musical experiences for each student. I also think it is important when discussing content and curriculum to have non-traditional, cultural, and popular elements represented in a student's repertoire. These alternative repertoires are less familiar to students because of their cultural distance or more familiar to certain students because it is the music of their culture, ethnicity, generation, etc. Both can play to a teacher's advantage, if framed correctly. If an nontraditional piece is part of a student's prior experience, the teacher can connect the piece to prior knowledge and use that as a bridge for learning. If the piece's style or technique is unfamiliar, it can be a reason to learn a new style and a motivation to perfect it. It is the teacher's job to identify familiar and unfamiliar elements in those nontraditional pieces and to maximize their pedagogical benefits.
In addressing how to teach, there is the dichotomy between the traditional teacher-centric approach versus the student-centered approach. Again, my philosophy is that the teacher must use discretion in using both approaches. Current trends in Teacher Preparation de-emphasize the role of the teacher in controlling the classroom. More research-based best practices involve multi-modal project-based learning and a model of teacher-as-facilitator. This has led many music educators to find new ways to teach to replace the traditional conductor-centric model. I believe it's not possible to be an effective music teacher and conductor without sometimes lecturing, directing class, and being the sage-on-the-stage. Etudes, technical exercises, drills, and method books are all a critical part of forming a music student's core repertoire of skills. That being said, project-based and inquiry-based learning can greatly augment students' understanding of music and the musical process. Again, it is the teacher's role as expert educator to selectively guide students to projects and avenues of inquiry that will maximize the relevance and rigor of their learning. Then, it is their job to tie that experience back to prior knowledge that they can use in the future.
Finally, the use of technology in music education is a rapidly evolving area of study. In its early stages, music technology was adopted with caution and was often seen as a crutch to traditional modes of teaching. I believe that any technology that can clarify a concept or present something in a different modality is beneficial to a student. Technologies that present learning asynchronously allow students to listen to and study music at home. With scheduling conflicts and limited face-to-face time in the classroom, any technique that allows students to interact with the skills and content more on their own time after they have left the classroom is an added benefit.