Potpourri for Pedagogues

Six "brain targets", as identified in brain research by Dr. Mariale Hardiman and Dr. Charles Limb at Johns Hopkins, can be employed by teachers to inspire more joyous learning that has longer staying power.  I'm "brain-storming" some ways that music teachers can take aim at these research-based brain targets in order to increase our effectiveness?  

WHAT RECENT BRAIN RESEARCH SUGGESTS FOR MUSIC TEACHERS

Brain research exploded in 90’s and continues to enlighten. Technology now allows researchers to identify specific areas within the brain that process and are altered by stimuli. In a quest for more information, I recently discovered the work of Dr. Mariale M. Hardiman, formerly a public school educator in Baltimore MD and now Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education at Johns Hopkins. She has been a leader in applying brain research-based approaches to effective teaching, especially focusing on integration of the arts.

Her collaborator, Dr. Charles Limb, has used MRI imaging to study the brain activity of jazz musicians while playing improvised music.  The research results indicate that no form of art stimulates the brain more than listening or performing music, and that improvisation/creativity actually enhances the stimulation even more.  Supported by this research, Dr. Hardiman encourages integrating the arts with all areas of learning (knowledge plus creativity) to stimulate deeper thinking in students, while making learning more joyful and long-lasting.  She has identified six “brain targets” for teaching which, though they were intended for teachers in school classrooms, can be equally effective for music teachers. (www.braintargetedteaching.org/brief.html ).

Below are short descriptions of her brain targets, along with some questions I am asking myself about how to apply them. I intend to take aim at these “brain targets” in order to refresh and invigorate my teaching in the coming weeks.

Brain Target 1: Emotional Climate -Research indicates that creating a positive learning environment and eliminating stress are essential components for optimal learning.

Can I do a better job of responding to students’ emotional state? Eager or subdued? Fearful or chipper?  Tired or energetic? Proud or ashamed of their work? Can I help strengthen their emotional connection to the music, to the moment, or to our relationship? Can I inspire excellence without creating damaging stress?

Brain Target 2: Physical Environment – Lighting, sound, scent, orderliness are tools for fostering attention in a secure and supportive learning environment.

How do my students experience the studio environment? Maybe I need to serve some of the bread that arriving students often smell baking? Do their feet reach the floor to feel grounded?  Is the lighting reflecting off their music into their eyes? Is it too hot, too chilly, too noisy? And now I recall a student who improved her physical environment for herself by bravely informing me that my foot was touching the leg of the bench, and it bothered her to feel the vibrations when I unconsciously tapped my foot!

Brain Target 3: Learning Design – Give students “big picture” ideas, help them set goals, and benchmarks for their learning, and build new information by connecting to ideas they already know so that patterning can take place.

This requires planning for each student. Apparently I inadvertently touched  this target this fall by having each student create ten goals for themselves, and having them indicate the accomplishment of each goal by moving a “Lego guy”across a “football field” Lego platform. (Thanks to my grandson, Griffin, for loaning his Legos.)  No wonder this gimmick has generated unexpected student enthusiasm – perhaps it is because it related to Target 3.

Brain Target 4: Teaching for Mastery – Passing information from short-term to long-term memory is a process that brain research indicates occurs when neural connections are used more frequently and in varied ways.

Of course, as in practice!  I probably need to be more diligent in following up initial explanations with more diverse and creative presentations of information.  Can I employ or devise more hands-on teaching aids? Do I need to apply the standard “Tell what you are going to say.  Say it.  Tell what you just said” and extend it by a physical or creative activity by the student?

Brain Target 5: Teaching for Application – In order to examine knowledge in a deeper, more analytical way, students need to apply skills and content in active, real-world tasks by investigating, experimenting, and engaging in creative thinking through the visual and performing arts.

What would be an effective answer to “Why do I have to study scales?” Assigning  passages of sonatinas or sonatas that use them?  Suggesting a student composition based on scales and scale variations to create different emotional effects, i.e. major, parallel minor, transposed to new key? Writing notation instead of just reading or memorizing it?  Taking melodic dictation based on a scale? Can I enliven music history with a student-written vignette presented in costume at a recital? Apparently the brain loves variety that branches out from known information.

Brain Target 6: Evaluating Learning – Expand traditional types of assessments to include the use of oral and written probes, rubrics, student portfolios, student-generated products, performance-based assessments, and student self-reflections. Most importantly, the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model emphasizes that relevant and timely evaluation is an ongoing, two-way process that begins almost as soon as the students' first introduction to a learning unit.

Do I remember to ask the student to evaluate what she feels is needed to perfect a piece, rather than simply providing my judgment? Do we consider various aspects of evaluation beyond mere accuracy, i.e. steady pulse, emotional effect, use of articulation and dynamics, voicing, sense of form, no stuttering or starting over from the beginning?

Thanks, Dr. Hardiman, for stimulating my teaching brain! The neurons are humming; keep the research coming!

WHAT RECENT BRAIN RESEARCH SUGGESTS FOR MUSIC TEACHERS

Brain research exploded in 90’s and continues to enlighten. Technology now allows researchers to identify specific areas within the brain that process and are altered by stimuli. In a quest for more information, I recently discovered the work of Dr. Mariale M. Hardiman, formerly a public school educator in Baltimore MD and now Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education at Johns Hopkins. She has been a leader in applying brain research-based approaches to effective teaching, especially focusing on integration of the arts.

Her collaborator, Dr. Charles Limb, has used MRI imaging to study the brain activity of jazz musicians while playing improvised music.  The research results indicate that no form of art stimulates the brain more than listening or performing music, and that improvisation/creativity actually enhances the stimulation even more.  Supported by this research, Dr. Hardiman encourages integrating the arts with all areas of learning (knowledge plus creativity) to stimulate deeper thinking in students, while making learning more joyful and long-lasting.  She has identified six “brain targets” for teaching which, though they were intended for teachers in school classrooms, can be equally effective for music teachers. (www.braintargetedteaching.org/brief.html ).

Below are short descriptions of her brain targets, along with some questions I am asking myself about how to apply them. I intend to take aim at these “brain targets” in order to refresh and invigorate my teaching in the coming weeks.

Brain Target 1: Emotional Climate -Research indicates that creating a positive learning environment and eliminating stress are essential components for optimal learning.

Can I do a better job of responding to students’ emotional state? Eager or subdued? Fearful or chipper?  Tired or energetic? Proud or ashamed of their work? Can I help strengthen their emotional connection to the music, to the moment, or to our relationship? Can I inspire excellence without creating damaging stress?

Brain Target 2: Physical Environment – Lighting, sound, scent, orderliness are tools for fostering attention in a secure and supportive learning environment.

How do my students experience the studio environment? Maybe I need to serve some of the bread that arriving students often smell baking? Do their feet reach the floor to feel grounded?  Is the lighting reflecting off their music into their eyes? Is it too hot, too chilly, too noisy? And now I recall a student who improved her physical environment for herself by bravely informing me that my foot was touching the leg of the bench, and it bothered her to feel the vibrations when I unconsciously tapped my foot!

Brain Target 3: Learning Design – Give students “big picture” ideas, help them set goals, and benchmarks for their learning, and build new information by connecting to ideas they already know so that patterning can take place.

This requires planning for each student. Apparently I inadvertently touched  this target this fall by having each student create ten goals for themselves, and having them indicate the accomplishment of each goal by moving a “Lego guy”across a “football field” Lego platform. (Thanks to my grandson, Griffin, for loaning his Legos.)  No wonder this gimmick has generated unexpected student enthusiasm – perhaps it is because it related to Target 3.

Brain Target 4: Teaching for Mastery – Passing information from short-term to long-term memory is a process that brain research indicates occurs when neural connections are used more frequently and in varied ways.

Of course, as in practice!  I probably need to be more diligent in following up initial explanations with more diverse and creative presentations of information.  Can I employ or devise more hands-on teaching aids? Do I need to apply the standard “Tell what you are going to say.  Say it.  Tell what you just said” and extend it by a physical or creative activity by the student?

Brain Target 5: Teaching for Application – In order to examine knowledge in a deeper, more analytical way, students need to apply skills and content in active, real-world tasks by investigating, experimenting, and engaging in creative thinking through the visual and performing arts.

What would be an effective answer to “Why do I have to study scales?” Assigning  passages of sonatinas or sonatas that use them?  Suggesting a student composition based on scales and scale variations to create different emotional effects, i.e. major, parallel minor, transposed to new key? Writing notation instead of just reading or memorizing it?  Taking melodic dictation based on a scale? Can I enliven music history with a student-written vignette presented in costume at a recital? Apparently the brain loves variety that branches out from known information.

Brain Target 6: Evaluating Learning – Expand traditional types of assessments to include the use of oral and written probes, rubrics, student portfolios, student-generated products, performance-based assessments, and student self-reflections. Most importantly, the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model emphasizes that relevant and timely evaluation is an ongoing, two-way process that begins almost as soon as the students' first introduction to a learning unit.

Do I remember to ask the student to evaluate what she feels is needed to perfect a piece, rather than simply providing my judgment? Do we consider various aspects of evaluation beyond mere accuracy, i.e. steady pulse, emotional effect, use of articulation and dynamics, voicing, sense of form, no stuttering or starting over from the beginning?

Thanks, Dr. Hardiman, for stimulating my teaching brain! The neurons are humming; keep the research coming!