No dumb students: teaching the non-intuitive student. (Pedagogy Saturday VI).

Opening Session Report Peter Jarjisian, commentator

As director of choral activities at Ohio University and a church choir director as well, I work most often with groups--ensembles of singers and instrumentalists--but also one-to-one, coaching conductors, soloists and future music teachers. Every week I teach more than 200 people who range in age from 17 to 75. Now--thanks to Earl Oremus--I teach differently.

Here's some of what Oremus presented that continues to influence my teaching.

Brain Research: Each person's brain "adapts its function according to its circumstances, that is, according to each individual's experiences." When we're working with students and find that "what works with one, may not work with another, the reason may not be the child's fault." Although this may be overly simplified, it provides some scientific justification for our recognition that no two students are exactly alike.

"If they learn differently, I must teach differently."

Will Rogers once said, "We are all ignorant, only in different areas." Earl Oremus paraphrases, "We are all non-intuitive, only in different areas."

Characteristics of Intuitive Learners: affinity for the activity; motivated by challenge; able to persist despite setbacks; self-supporting; able to intuit sytax, the inner structure, the mechanics of the discipline effortlessly and/or unconsciously; less instruction is needed to achieve mastery; progresses rapidly; extraordinary retention.

Characteristic of Non-Intuitive Learners: distaste for the activity; defeated by high levels of challenge; unable to persist through failure; needs supportive environment/teacher; unable to intuit the internal structure; can't deduce next step; must be taught each fragment overtly; intensive, detailed, carefully sequenced instruction required; unable to "reorder" or use elements taught out of developmental sequence; progresses slowly; constant practice and review necessary; rapid forgetting.

I know, you're already thinking of your most and/or least intuitive students. Is there any facet of their musical intuition that seems especially lacking?

Do they love making music?

Affect is paramount. How a student feels about the activity makes all the difference. If the experience is pleasurable, the learning will occur more easily. The power that "affect" plays was emphasized for each of us when Oremus asked us to recall a "nightmare experience," an activity about which we had felt uncomfortable, incapable, embarrassed, fearful and non-intuitive--feeling what you and I might describe as "performance anxiety." (I remember that just thinking about it led my muscles to tighten and my pulse to rise.) On the other hand, we could designate activities that come easily for us, those that provide the kind of challenges we yearn for. I smiled broadly when Oremus described how it can feel to engage in an intuited activity. He said, "It's not only that you love it, but it feels as though it loves you." Oh, I know that feeling so well when I make music, don't you?

Teachers make mistakes. Oremus reminded us that standard teaching practice may lead us to faulty conclusions. Teachers may have been taught to value and reward the intuitive learner as a "good" student and the non-intuitive as a "bad" student. We may have developed a desire to work only with intuitive learners. What about a student who appears to be noncompliant? In truth, one who seems to be resistant may just be non-intuitive. I don't think I'll ever forget Oremus's description of John, the seventh-grade boy who could read aloud articulately from The Old Man and the Sea, but who broke down in tears when challenged to explain its meaning to the class. I sat there imagining John's pain, and I started to cry myself. We want to prevent our students from experiencing that kind of pain.

"If they learn differently, I must teach differently."

How can teachers help? Here are some of the many suggestions Oremus offers for working with non-intuitive learners. Allow more time; be patient; work individually; break down learning into segments; don't eliminate any steps and sequence steps carefully; employ direct instruction; teach abstractions through the concrete (For example, in music, teach a sound before symbol.); employ techniques to address retention (multisensory teaching, guided practice time, daily review); practice until "fluency" is attained; time management; effective feedback (clear, simple, fair, frequent); and reward desired behavior frequently.

I'm afraid I've jumped from point to point here, but I hope most of all to have led you to think again about these valuable concepts. If you want to be a more effective teacher, revisit Oremus's handout from the conference or contact Marburn Academy at [phone] for a copy. His many suggestions for how to reach non-intuitive learners are applicable for teachers of all subjects at all levels. And, remember, right from the start, teach them to love it!

Peter Jarjisian is director of choral activities at Ohio University.

Chad Baker, student commentator

As a teacher in the very beginning of my career, the concept of the non-intuitive learner is intimidating. I do not think it is teaching the non-intuitive learner that is so daunting, but it is the actual diagnosis of a non-intuitive learner that intimidates me. Will I be able to tell the difference between the student who is just not putting in the time or energy required to succeed and the student who truly is the non-intuitive learner? If I were to classify a student as a non-intuitive learner too quickly, when in reality they were just not devoting the time and energy required, I could slow the students' learning so much that he or she may become bored and lose all interest in lessons. However, if I wait too long to diagnose a student as a non-intuitive learner, a great deal of damage already could have been done to the student's perception of music and how one could succeed or not succeed by continuing to study. On a more general level, I guess, it really boils down to when to challenge a student with high expectations and when to back off a little.

As I accumulate more teaching experience, it will become much easier for me to do these things, but I still have a responsibility to the students I will have in these early years of my career to make their learning as productive as possible.

I always find it interesting when a well-respected and highly educated pianist tells me that he or she studied organ for a semester or two in college but could never succeed when it came to the pedal division. Did these well-trained musicians just not live up to the challenge by not practicing enough, or were they non-intuitive learners when it came to playing with their feet? I do not have an answer to this question. Maybe if some of them had been taught using the non-intuitive learner concept, we might have a few more organists instead of a large number of pianists who cringe at the thought of having to face an organ pedalboard.

Once we are confident in our decision that we are working with a non-intuitive learner, I believe, we have crossed the biggest hurdle. As Oremus pointed out, we all have been non-intuitive learners in one way, shape or form. It could have been in athletics, math or any other subject or activity. Since no one is perfect, there has to be something we just did not comprehend to its fullest extent. As we grow older, I think, we tend to avoid these areas, but to teach a non-intuitive learner, we have to revisit those places to remember how it felt and we have to think about what would have helped us overcome our weaknesses. How many times have you said, "Well, if you would have told me that in the first place, I would have understood what you meant"? I think a good summary of Oremus's entire session would be to say that nothing is too simple or trivial when we are working with a non-intuitive learner. If we filter our entire method of teaching the non-intuitive learner through that one thought, we hopefully should succeed.

Just as I struggle with knowing when to call a student a non-intuitive learner, I also find myself intimidated by what happens if I do not succeed once I have implemented the non-intuitive learner methodology.

In the academic world, there are obvious proficiencies expected of each and every student. If they are not met, the student does not advance or quits altogether. Yet, what do I do as a private music teacher? Do I continue to let the student struggle? Do I continue to take the student's parents' money when I know we are not getting anywhere? Do I pass the student on to another teacher? Do I say that maybe music just isn't for this student? Do l do nothing and let nature take its course? With experience, I am sure I will get a better grasp on these situations, but I also know that I probably will never have 100 percent correct answers to any of the questions I have just posed.

Chad Baker is at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, studying piano with Rebecca Grooms Johnson and organ with Janet Linker. He also is an accompanist to Capital's Women's Chorus and the All Ohio Youth Choir.