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Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

For the last four weeks, I have been immersed in all things Music Learning Theory: teaching Professional Development Learning Courses, and sharing thoughts, reflections, and ideas with music educators from all over US and around the world. This year marks my 20th year of studying MLT, and I still have many questions and wonders. While I know there is much more to uncover, here are this year's top three take-aways.

1. The Value of Acculturation

We are never too advanced or too old to listen to and experience music. Regardless of our students' chronological age, we must remember to sing, chant, play, and move for our students. It is up to us as educators to make meaningful and engaging experiences for our students, weather it is elementary or secondary school chorus, band, orchestra, general music, or college level setting. 

2. Making Connections: It's More Than Rote Before Note

How many times have you heard or read, "we learn music in a similar way we learn language"? When we draw music-language parallels, we discuss listening, speaking, thinking, reading, and writing vocabularies; rote before note, sound before sight, practice before theory. But there's is so much more to language learning and music learning than building vocabularies. A clever joke can make you laugh, and a kind word can help you feel better about yourself. You can say the same thing with a different expression, and change the intention of the message. 

In my view, music, like language, exists to help us communicate. Often when guiding student teachers, I am asked the following question: "Why didn't my plan work? I was doing exactly what you were doing." My answer is always, "it's about connecting with the students". Children and young adults are very sensitive to emotional auras of others. They can sense whether we are genuine in our music interactions as we sing, chant, improvise, and move. We are most effective in the classroom when we focus our intentions on our students’ needs and adjust our carefully planned lessons accordingly. When we guide our students’ music development and learning, and lead them to their independent musicianship, we do more than teach them to sing particular songs, play particular rhythm games, all in particular sequences. We create trust, build bridges, and develop relationships with and among our students.

3. The Meaning of Education, or "You Can't Teach Anybody Anything" 

If you were one of the lucky few attending two invigorating GIML PDLC weeks in South Carolina, you may have heard Dr. Wendy Valerio say with passion and conviction, "You can't teach anybody anything". This phrase kept reverberating in my mind. I remember Dr. Beth Bolton follow Dr. Valerio's statement with a discussion focusing on the root meaning of the word "to teach". I started searching for articles that discuss the meaning of education. One of the articles I found was "Educare and Educere: Is a Balance Possible in the Educational System?" by Bass and Good. In this article, the authors discuss the etymological meaning of the word education and its implications in modern day.

The root meaning of the word education stems from 'educatum', meaning 'to train', as well as 'educere', meaning 'to draw out', 'to lead out'. In the abstract, the authors point to the connection between the two meaning and the dichotomy in education narrative today: "One calls for rote memorization and becoming good workers. The other requires questioning, thinking, and creating."

Looking closer at this important debate, Dr. Valerio's bold statement, "you can't teach anybody anything", makes perfect sense. We can train students to memorize, and even create within strict guidelines, but we cannot train students to understand. As educators, our view should always be clear: we are facilitators, guides, and partners. That's the meaning of teaching to me.

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