This essay is paired with a supporting Mahara page.
Those with access can find it here; https://moodle-portfolio.bcu.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=376257
1.0 Introduction
1.1 What is this research?
For the purpose of this assignment, I was required to identify a learning focus for a class in my second placement school. By drawing on information and trends taken from pupil data I identified a barrier that was inhibiting the learning experience of the class. To target these barriers, I tailored a specific pedagogy and implemented it across a scheme of work lasting 4 weeks, designed to help these pupils engage better in my specialist subject; Music.
I will also discuss multiple pedagogies applied in my specialist subject, and considering the pupil data justify the approach I elected for. The research will finally critically evaluate the outcomes of my practice, and assess the impact it had on the attainment of the pupils within the context of the theme and sub-pedagogy.
1.2 The Focus class and Barriers identified
The focus class selected were 9BMU2, a KS4 music technology class consisting of 13 pupils (10 Male and 3 Female) of primarily African-Caribbean/Asian ethnicity.
The overall musical ability of the class was low, and this was reflected clearly in the student grades. All pupils in the class were below their expected grade, and five pupils were significantly below their target grades, and in danger of being removed from the course. The class had low musical ability, low self-confidence, and because they struggled to relate to the subject, low motivation to engage in the work.
2.0 What is effective teaching and learning?
It is important to acknowledge that the concept is not one single process, but a series of strands, mixing theory and practise. It is only when these different aspects are combined can effective teaching and learning take place in the classroom.
“Good quality teaching will likely involve a combination of these attributes manifested at different times; the very best teachers are those that demonstrate all of these features.” (Coe, Aloisi, Higgins & Major, 2014).
Although there is no official framework on the desired elements of effective teaching and learning the 2014 paper ‘What Makes Great Teaching?’ by educational researchers at Durham University collated together existing underpinning research to present a 6 point ‘starter kit’. (Coe et al., 2014).
| 1.Subject Knowledge | The most effective teachers have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach, and when teachers’ knowledge falls below a certain level it is a significant impediment to students’ learning. As well as a strong understanding of the material being taught, teachers must also understand the ways students think about the content, be able to evaluate the thinking behind students’ own methods and identify students’ common misconceptions. |
| 2.Quality of Instruction | Includes elements such as effective questioning and use of assessment by teachers. Specific practices, like reviewing previous learning, providing model responses for students, giving adequate time for practice to embed skills securely Executive Summary 3 and progressively introducing new learning (scaffolding) are also elements of high-quality instruction. |
| 3.Classroom Climate | Covers quality of interactions between teachers and students, and teacher expectations: the need to create a classroom that is constantly demanding more, but still recognising students’ self-worth. It also involves attributing student success to effort rather than ability and valuing resilience to failure (grit).
Relationship between teacher and pupil, a condition in which students has to relate with the teacher without the support of their classmates. (Concina, 2015) |
| 4.Classroom Management | A teacher’s abilities to make efficient use of lesson time, to coordinate classroom resources and space, and to manage students’ behaviour with clear rules that are consistently enforced, are all relevant to maximising the learning that can take place. These environmental factors are necessary for good learning rather than its direct components. |
| 5.Teacher Beliefs | Why teachers adopt practices, the purposes they aim to achieve, their theories about what learning is and how it happens and their conceptual models of the nature and role of teaching in the learning process all seem to be important. |
| 6.Professional Behaviours | Behaviours exhibited by teachers such as reflecting on and developing professional practice, participation in professional development, supporting colleagues, and liaising and communicating with parents. |
(Coe et al., 2014)
“It is important to analyse the relationships between the elements of effective teaching and the role of the music teacher in the classroom environment, when supporting the individual growth and promoting a positive impact on learning”. (Concina, 2015).
Whilst there are some elements of effective teaching guidance that could be considered as general, there are several features that are relevant mainly to specific subjects, this is the case in music.
These come into focus when addressing point 3 ‘Classroom Climate’ music lessons are often characterised by the relationship between teacher and pupil, “a particular condition in which students have to relate with the teacher without the support of their classmates.” (Concina,2015).
Other elements (1 & 2) are represented by the learning objectives that music education must promote. Theoretical concepts (sight reading) and practical abilities (instrumental) must be pitched, modelled and scaffolded appropriately.
Furthermore, in music, the influence of teacher’s beliefs (5) will lead to different opinions in musical ability and the role of the pupils in the lessons. This will determine the selection of teaching methods, strategies and pedagogy.
2.1 Musical Pedagogies
Considering the demographic and ability of musical learners in the focus class it seemed appropriate to review more informal pedagogies when developing my strategies. The pedagogies discussed below both occupy an informal approach to teaching, however through the application of different principles.
2.2 Musical Futures
Musical Futures is a movement to reshape music education driven by teachers for teachers. At its heart is a set of pedagogies that bring non-formal teaching and informal learning approaches into more formal contexts, to provide engaging, sustainable and relevant music making activities for all young people. Our core aim is to promote, support and develop innovative and high-quality teaching and learning of music through MF approaches in schools across the UK. (Musical Futures, 2019).
A Musical Futures learning situation is not sequenced beforehand; the principal is that the activity steers the learning by the interaction of the participants. This style of informal teaching is also described as “self-chosen and voluntary learning” (Folkestad, 2006) and will aim to give agency and voice to the pupils to increase the likelihood of engagement with the activity.
The five main principles of the Musical Futures pedagogy are as following
- Pupils work with music chosen by themselves that they enjoy and identify with.
- Pupils work in the main aurally through listening and copying.
- Pupils work with peers in groups chosen by themselves.
- Skills and knowledge are gained in a rather haphazard fashion with whole ‘real’ pieces.
- Listening, performing and composing are integrated throughout the learning process.
(Phillphot, 2009).
2.3 Active Music making / Whole Class
The primary theory behind active music making is that pupils learn from musical discourse before learning the theory or context. Musical is a practical subject, however in a curriculum built upon western-classical traditional it can become easy to diverge into theory heavy activities. Active music making practitioners believe that the priority should be the sound, and that pupils should learn in a way where “internalization and improvisation”, rather than notation, becomes key in a dominant musical discourse” (Axtell, Fautley & Davey Nicklin, 2017).
What differs to the musical futures approach is that, although it is still informal, the lessons are still led by the teacher. The learning materials are usually fixed, and differentiation is achieved by pupils fulfilling roles parallel to their ability level to insure inclusion (Miracle, 2018).
This form of music pedagogy may not work for all music teachers, or at least not come natural to all music teachers. In the current teaching climate, there is a colourful variety of music teachers training and working in schools across the UK and beyond. This includes ‘formally’ trained teachers who may not have come from trajectories that have allowed them to experience this less formal approach to music teaching. Many specialist may have trained in conservatoire based classical western backgrounds, in which music is dominated by “professional performance” that may be deemed inappropriate for the mainstream secondary school teaching environment. (Axtell et al., 2017)
2.4 Theme and sub-pedagogy approach
One of the key issues faced when developing my sub-pedagogy was the low motivation of my pupils, and it could be considered that the other issues I identified derived from this. If a group of pupils feel they can not relate to the work, they will see little value in the course and content. (Carnegie Mellon University, 2019) As a result motivation to learn will be low, and if the pupils are not learning this affects their ability, attention, behaviour etc…
“People just don’t learn as well if they don’t control their own learning.” (Collier, 2015).
In became clear that should the opportunity arise for these pupils to be given ownership of their work; they may be more motivated to do it. It is possible to suggest that the current music curriculum can be somewhat alienating or dissatisfying to pupils, and a way to combat this could be through the application of ‘student voice and agency’, in which pupils feel their thoughts being heard, and are shaping their learning experiences. (Spruce, 2015).
“This dissatisfaction is somewhat ironic given that many initiatives and developments in music education over the last forty years have been directed towards engaging the interest of more young people in school music. Approaches have tended to focus on increasing the diversity of musical styles and particularly the greater inclusion of ‘pop’ music.” (Spruce, 2015). Despite the greater inclusion of more relatable content in the curriculum there are still a small minority of pupils that feel ‘left out’ by the musical repertoire available to them. By exploring the theme of the ‘Student voice’ I was able to hold an informal meeting with the pupils in which we discussed their musical interests, and together designed a scheme of work based around pieces of music they had suggested.
3.0 Analysing Practice
3.1 Lesson outline
The lessons took place across two 50 minute back to back sessions and part of my scheme of work meant dividing up the double lesson to have two separate learning environments. The first half of the was spent in a practical classroom environment, where pupils would spend the first 50 minutes learning and practicing the parts they would be later recording in the second half of the lesson.
The pupils were able to choose their own working groups or elect to work individually. They were then able to choose between two songs to re-record for this project. (These were songs suggested by the pupils.) Over the course of 4 weeks pupils would learn the; drums, bassline, chords & melody, then record the parts into Reason 9, creating a simple multi-track recording.
3.2 Lesson observation
The first lesson of the unit was in fact the first time I had taught the class. It was clear elements of my teaching approach would be subject to change following my first experience with them and receiving feedback after the lesson from my mentor.
My mentor conducted a formal observation during first lesson and highlighted both the positive aspects, and the areas that could be improved on in the next lessons. The Learning observation record highlighted the following;
Strengths –
- “Students clearly have respect for Benjamin and are keen to learn. Resources have been differentiated well through the options of songs and then again through resources (which both stretch and challenge students but also support students who are of a lower ability.) “
- “The worksheet allows for the students to work at their own pace and demonstrate independence.”
- “The students were working independently, and we’re engaged with the activities given. The students we’re excited to share what they had learnt and showed pride in it. When students arrived at the second part of the lesson, the students were excited to record into reason 9.”
Despite this only being the first lesson of the unit, it appeared that students had reacted well to starting a scheme of work they had direct involvement in creating and were “keen” & “excited” to start working.
Considerations –
- “Timer on the board for students to allow them”
- “Starter (Do now) activity”
- Students may benefit from a learning passport, something to monitor progress, or a checklist, will learn to take responsibility of motivating himself.
3.3 Lesson changes
Taking into consideration the feedback from my mentor I made it a priority to implement the considerations in the immediate lesson.
It is visible in my supporting lesson slides attached to the Maharah page how I responded to the feedback. As well as introducing ‘do it now’ activities that helped the initial engagement at the start of the lessons, I also introduced timers, this helped dramatically.
Without any sort of time constraint there was very little urgency from the pupils to complete tasks and move onto the next part. However, by having this constant reminder of how long a certain activity would last, the lessons had a greater sense of pace and development.
A criticism of my own teaching would be that sometimes I do not always make the professional judgements to decide when a task has run for too long and if pupils have started to lose interest. By implementing the timers, it allowed me to monitor the changes of engagement throughout a task and know when to move on.
One of next considerations I implemented into the lessons was the use of the google form. My mentor suggested using a ‘learning passport’ or something the pupils could use as a checklist to track their own progress. The idea of this was quite appealing to me and I implemented it with an additional level. The Google Forms were used at two checkpoints during the unit. They allowed pupils to share not just their progress with me, but also comment on how confident they felt at certain activities. The Google Form offered a safe and anonymous platform for pupils to ask for more support.
4.0 Outcomes
When analysing the outcomes of this assignment, and the impact on the attainment of the pupils, it is important to seat these findings within the context of the theme and circumstances of the focus class.
The aim of this research was to identify a barrier that was inhibiting the learning of a chosen class and design a scheme work delivered through a tailored sub-pedagogy to help the pupils overcome it. Through analysing data, it became apparent the biggest issue was low motivation, and through research I was able to explore the theme of student voice to help give ownership and relevance to the pupils work and re-motivate them.
Although the final recordings were not of a high standard, when you consider the musical ability of the class, it is still a success that the pupils were able to engage with the topic and create a product that was their own. This unit of work has helped the pupils develop skills that have allowed them to learn music independently and eternalise their achievements within a multitrack recording.
5.0 References
Axtell, I., Faultley, M. and Davey Nicklin, K. (2019). Popular music meta-pedagogy in music education. In: G. Smith, Z. Moir, M. Brennan, S. Rambarran and P. Kirkman, ed., The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, 1st ed. Oxford: Routledge, p.362.
Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S. and Major, L. (2014). What Makes A Great Teacher? A review of the underpinning research. pp.2-3
Collier, A. (2015). The benefits of agency, choice, and student-centered learning – NetFamilyNews.org. [online] NetFamilyNews.org. Available at: https://www.netfamilynews.org/the-benefits-of-agency-choice-and-student-centered-learning [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019]..
Concina, E. (2015). Music Education and Effective Teaching: Perspectives from a Critical Review. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 6(2), pp.1892-1895.
Evans, J. and Philpott, C. (2009). A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
Folkestad, G. (2006). Formal and informal learning situations or practices vs formal and informal ways of learning. British Journal of Music Education, 23, pp 135-145 doi:10.1017/S0265051706006887
Miracle, A. (2018). Differentiation in the Music Classroom. [online] Mrsmiraclesmusicroom.com. Available at: http://www.mrsmiraclesmusicroom.com/2018/11/differentiation-in-music-classroom.html [Accessed 17 Apr. 2019].
Musical Futures. (2019). Who we are – Musical Futures. [online] Available at: https://www.musicalfutures.org/who-we-are [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019].
Spruce, G. (2015). Music Education, Social Justice, and the ‘Student Voice’: Addressing Student Alienation through a Dialogical Conception of Music Education. In: C. Benedict, P. Schmidt, G. Spruce and P. Woodford, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.288.
University, C. (2019). Students Lack Interest or Motivation – Eberly Center – Carnegie Mellon University. [online] Cmu.edu. Available at: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-lackmotivation/index.html [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019].
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