Ages and stages: what do you see? The young child and elementary-aged students. (Pedagogy Saturday VI).

Martha Baker-Jordan, moderator 

This panel discussed video clips of lessons taught to young and elementary-aged students. The excerpts were reviewed, in advance, by Martha Baker-Jordan, panel moderator, as well as Kenneth Guilmartin and Donna Brink Fox, speakers who explored the "Ages and Stages" of these age groups during the morning sessions. Keith Golay; Guilmartin and Fox served as specialists on the panel. Serving as panelists who had not reviewed the video clips and offered spontaneous reactions were Alice Hammel, woodwinds, University of Richmond; Susan Milligan, strings, Princeton City Schools; and Carol Gingerich, piano, State University of West Georgia.

The clips served as examples of "Ages and Stages" for young and elementary-aged groups. Moderator Martha Baker-Jordan, California State University-Fullerton, facilitated a discussion focusing on the panelists' reactions to the video clips. Audience members were encouraged to join the panelists in reacting to the video clips.

Martha Baker-Jordan is a professor of piano, class piano and piano pedagogy at California State University, Fullerton. Through her expertise and guidance, many teachers at U.S. colleges and universities are her former students.

Carol Gingerich, panelist 

This panel presented a variety of paradigms for considering a student's learning style. Moderator Martha Baker-Jordan suggested that the panel consider whether the lesson was teacher-centered--that is, focused on the teacher's point of view and particular teaching style--or whether it was student-centered and met the individual student's learning style. Keith Golay broadened the discussion by commenting not only on the student's learning style, but also on the teacher's teaching style. He analyzed both by describing their temperaments as being either an ape ("doers"), an owl (focused on skills and "know how"), a dolphin (feeling oriented rather than technically oriented) or a bear (likes routine and "skill and drill"). Kenneth K. Guilmartin viewed the video clips through the Dalcroze lens of the importance of large, as opposed to small, body movements for young children. He considered Michael Grinder's neuro-linguistic model that observes a student's propensity for aural, visual or tactile learning, and the importance of all three, or multi-modal learning.

The panel seemed to agree that the clip of a group pre-piano class of kindergarteners was not student-centered. During this class, a girl wanted to get up from her place in the floor circle and move and point in a tactile manner to the requested note on the large floor keyboard. Instead, the teacher requested that she not move, but rather give a verbal answer to the question. The panel agreed that another clip was student-centered because the teacher taught using a variety of methods that would meet all the various learning styles in the class. A third clip also demonstrated student-centered teaching, since each of the five boys in a piano ensemble rehearsal was designated as the "leader" and made decisions regarding rehearsal strategies and interpretation.

Alice M. Hammel, panelist

When teaching preschool and elementary school students, it is crucial for teachers to be aware of developmental issues. Young students vary greatly in their abilities to attend, respond and learn in a private or group studio lesson situation. Teachers can create environments that promote or negate the learning process for young children.

One important consideration when creating a positive learning environment for young children is the issue of learning styles. All students learn best when their individual needs are considered. An awareness of the learning styles of both the student and teacher can lead to a successful student-teacher relationship.

One philosophy of learning styles includes temperament issues that are a part of each person's personality. Competence regarding temperament styles can lead to a greater awareness of learning styles of both teachers and students. The method of temperament discussed at the Pedagogy Saturday VI is an extension of a theory first promoted by Carl Jung. Myers-Briggs created a method of testing temperament that was further used by Keirsey-Bates. Keith Golay extended this by creating animals that can be used to describe the four basic temperaments.

Knowledge of these temperament styles can help teachers understand the various personality issues involved in teaching. Temperament can greatly affect the success or failure of a student-teacher relationship. Teachers who are willing to understand the temperament of their students and/or alter their own temperament for the sake of their students may create a more successful student-teacher relationship.

Due to the great variance in cognitive and behavioral abilities of young students, developmental issues are an important key to the successful student-teacher relationship. Students between the ages of 3 and 12 vary greatly in their cognitive, emotional and behavioral capacities.

Teachers who consider temperament and learning style, as well as cognitive, emotional and behavioral stages of young students, will be treasured by parents who trust them with the music education of their most precious possessions: their children.

Alice M. Hammel teaches music education and music appreciation at the University of Richmond in Virginia. She has published articles regarding special learners, learning styles and teacher education and is a frequent adjudicator and clinician.

Joan M. Reist, commentator

If the purpose of this session was to point out how the videotaped lessons demonstrated teachers' responses to students' learning styles, I'm somewhat uncertain that this goal was achieved. The panel enthusiastically complimented each teacher (albeit a little over-effusively!), pointed out numerous strengths and positive aspects of each lesson viewed and offered excellent suggestions for improvement. However, many of the observations and comments were not especially relevant to the stated purpose of the session.

Perhaps the goal of the panel discussion was to provide "grist for the Golay mill," that it's to offer the guest clinicians multiple observations to synthesize and relate directly to the question at hand; if so, then the project's success could be considered greater. After almost every discussion, Keith questioned what kind of student would learn from a particular type of teaching, helped identify specific personality traits and offered further insights into dealing with students who exhibit such traits. In addition, he frequently asked what type of student would respond best to this type of teaching. I'm not sure these questions were fully answered, but they certainly provided food for continuing thought and discussion.

Despite the fact that "one picture is worth a thousand words," there may be some flaws in the entire process behind this session. As helpful and enlightening as a videotape may be, a single episode doesn't always tell the whole story; can we really observe in a single lesson a student's true learning style--or combinations thereof and how a teacher reacts to it (them)? Perhaps it would be more effective to have multiple videos of the same student or class on a continuum--to see how a teacher, over time, builds a relationship with a student based on how that student accepts and absorbs facts and concepts--and responds to the teacher's strategies. This is more difficult logistically but probably more effective from the observer's point of view.

It was stated at the beginning of the session that observers were to determine if the lesson/class was student-oriented. To me, this means student responses and opinions are as important to the session as the teacher's words and actions. Again, this is difficult to determine in a single video of a single lesson; in one totally teacher-oriented video, for example, tapes of subsequent lessons might have demonstrated the teacher's ability--or lack thereof--to question the student and ascertain her understanding of the concepts presented during the single taped lesson. A videotape of multiple lessons also might point out when teacher-oriented lessons are appropriate and when the alternative is a better solution.

The final video of the session proved to be the best example of a student-centered lesson and showed that this teacher was able to respond, at least momentarily, to the personality traits of her students. The panel reacted positively to the class: They loved the fact that the kids behaved responsibly, that the teacher asked empowering questions, that the kids discovered the trouble spots and made decisions on how to fix them, and that all kids were involved in the entire lesson.

To me, the real success of this session just might be the emergence of some very important realities:

* There is probably nothing more dreary than an entire class of dolphins, or more hair-raising than an entire class of apes; therefore, the most successful grouping of students might just be the judicious combining of a variety of personalities. And as Golay stated in his wrap-up: Grouping students helps make it easier to identify various personality types.

* To fully enjoy this variety, as teachers, whether we teach in groups or privately, we must be equipped to engage in multi-modal teaching; having at our fingertips a pocketful of teaching strategies to deal successfully with multiple learning styles.

* Finally, while any defined "learning style" can be interesting, enlightening and a catalyst for discovery of traits that our students might display, it's important for us to keep in mind--as we deal with those multiple personalities who populate our studios--a couple of caveats: There's probably no person who is totally a "dolphin," and some "apes" may occasionally exhibit "bear" characteristics, so perhaps our best strategy simply is to be watchful, to know our students and to avoid affixing hard and fast labels to anyone.

Joan M. Reist is associate professor emerita at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is immediate past president of MTNA and a member of the Classical Artistic Advisory Board of the American Pianists Association.

Brenda Wristen, commentator

It seems highly appropriate that pedagogues are turning more attention toward understanding learning style differences and tailoring instruction for each student. Until the mid- to late-twentieth century, most musicians were trained according to a method, usually designed by the teacher. If that approach did not work, the student either discontinued study or sought another teacher. However, as the roles of music in our culture change and expand, there are more opportunities for active participation in music by musicians of all ability levels. Our student populations are becoming more diverse, and our need to meet our students' unique needs as individuals is greater than ever before.

As we viewed the video clips of teachers working with their students, the central question posed by Martha Baker-Jordan was, "What constitutes student-centered teaching?" In addressing this question, panelists commented on teaching strategies, delivery styles and methodology. The panelists noted such qualities as enthusiasm and passion for music, giving students highly specific feedback, lesson pacing, and continual assessment of student progress as positive teacher attributes. One consensus among panelists was that developing learner independence is an important objective in student-centered instruction.

Interestingly, discussion seemed to center on the attributes and strategies employed by the teacher more than the teacher's response to the student, or vice versa. This brings to the fore a third dimension of teaching that deserves consideration. The relational dynamics between the teacher and student heavily influences instruction. The teacher-student relationship fluctuates constantly and may impose very different parameters from one year, or even from one lesson, to the next. These relational nuances potently influence decisions about lesson content and sequencing as well as our communication patterns. Given this observation, Carol Gingrich's comment that sometimes teacher-centered instruction may be appropriate was noteworthy. Instruction is not always dictated from one pole (the teacher) or the other (the student). The interplay between the two is a rich and integral facet that should not be neglected in our discussions regarding instructional content, quality and delivery.

Determining which of the four personality types the students and teachers exemplified was of seemingly prime interest to several panelists. Keith Golay asserted that while our basic "core" personality does not change over time, our strategies of accepting and digesting new information and skills broaden with experience. I found myself pondering how music instruction might contribute to broadening experience and, perhaps, modes of learning. So long as we consider personality theory as only a point of departure for understanding our individual students, it may help us to recognize the individuality of our students. However, it is important to remember that theories of personality are but one means of describing differences between people. There are many tools to help us understand how people learn, including other developmental, behavioral and cognitive/educational theories such as Howard Gardner's.

Surprisingly, there was no discussion about whether customizing the traditional goals of music study to fit the needs of individual students is warranted. This is surely one of the most important questions to ask when considering whether instruction is student-centered. Some students undertake lessons with the goal of becoming proficient church musicians, while others want to play the "classics." Many adults merely want to be able to play well-loved tunes at parties. Of course, some students begin lessons with no definitive goals, other than wanting to "learn to play." What does each of these goals entail in terms of lesson content? When making our instruction student-centered, to what extent should we be willing to challenge or change the traditional content and/or goals of music instruction? How much value should be placed on the process of learning and milestones reached along the way versus the end result of study?

Good pedagogy involves continually adding to a "toolkit" of strategies, fostering the ability to borrow from many different approaches in order to understand and reach a student. Even though we each have our own dominant teaching style, we can learn to gear our instruction more toward an individual student's needs by addressing and clarifying their unique goals for music study and by identifying methods and strategies that will help that student learn best. Additionally, we must not overlook the relational aspect of our teaching. Learning to be attuned and appropriately respond to student reaction is a vital part of successful teaching. Fundamentally, we must' not only learn to recognize and address learner differences, we must grow to respect them.

Brenda Wristen is assistant professor and directs the piano pedagogy and keyboard skills programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has presented papers and sessions on prevention of music-related injuries and biomechanics of piano technique.

Rhonda Mizok-Taylor, student commentator

This session examined and discussed different teaching and learning styles and the merits or problems associated with them. During the presentation, six different video clips were shown, demonstrating teaching styles of four teachers; these teachers were featured in different teaching/learning situations, including a private lesson, a group of young students and a group of five young boys. Each video clip was reviewed by a panel of experts.

Before the clips were played, the importance of student-centered teaching was discussed. This includes teaching to the learning style of the student, and asking questions rather than just telling the student what to do. The issue was presented to the audience that teaching must always be student-centered, so the teacher takes into account student's learning styles and the student can understand new concepts in a way in which he or she is most comfortable. Each clip took into account what seemed to be the learning style of each student to see if the teacher applied this style to teaching.

The first dip involved a teacher showing a young student proper hand position while playing the piano. The teacher used hands-on modeling and many metaphors such as raindrops falling to describe what it feels like to push down the keys. The reviewers made many positive comments, noting a teaching style that includes modeling is appropriate for a very young student. Suggestions for improvement included using the whole body to show movements instead of just the hand, offering more specific encouragement for the student and letting the child notice whether or not the specific goal was reached.

The second and third clips involved teaching a group of young children to relate finger number to keys and to associate musical pitches to scale degree numbers using the "Pussy Willow Song." In all, this teacher was praised for her enthusiastic teaching and her involvement of the whole body in her teaching. The teacher handled the children well throughout the clips and incorporated activities using many different learning styles: visual, aural and tactile. For the first part of the lesson, the teacher was teaching the children to relate finger numbers to keys to play a song. This brought about some criticism because the students were not involving their entire bodies, and with the children being so young, it was feared by panelists that the students would get bored. During the second part of the lesson, the students were asked to sing the "Pussy Willow Song" using the notes of the scale. This was criticized by some panelists because of the lack of musicality associated with a scale song.

The fourth clip, a private lesson, featured a series of teacher questions and student responses. The student was working on her skill of sight reading a piece at the piano. While the student and teacher had a very comfortable working relationship, by making the student think about hand position, rhythm and notes all at once, the panelists felt that the teacher was asking the student to do too many things at one time.

The fifth and sixth clips involved a teacher instructing a group of five adolescent boys. Since they were playing a piece for piano duet, the teacher had two students at each piano, with the remaining boy being her "special helper." Since this source of encouragement was very important for the remaining child, the teacher rotated the role of "special helper" throughout the lesson. The students seemed to be enjoying the lesson, and each person involved in the lesson felt his part was important. They realized through their mistakes that if they did not concentrate and play their part correctly, the piece would fall apart, as it did a few times throughout the clip. The teacher kindly pointed out the mistakes and asked the students to try the piece again.

The panelists' comments were helpful and encouraging. The audience was left with many new teaching ideas to try, with the most important idea of all being to teach to the student's learning style so student-centered teaching is the main focus of learning for the lesson.

Rhonda Mizok-Taylor is a second-year doctoral student at West Virginia University (WVU), working on a D.M.A. in piano performance. She is currently teaching at WVU's Community Music School and is a church organist/choir director.