Conclusions and implications
The goals of this project were to look at ways to support deliberate practice, mastery and joy within the band ensemble classes. When I started this project I focused on the student’s experience with practice within the classroom to see what I could learn from it. I was wondering how my students experienced practice? What works for my students? After talking with students, it was apparent that it wasn’t about getting them to practice more, but instead about creating an environment and community that was worth practicing for. The more time that I invested in meaningful conversations about bettering our classroom community the more students I saw stepping forward, offering suggestions, becoming leaders and putting more effort into their individual practice and group rehearsals.
Throughout the action research I collected feedback from my students through the use of computer surveys. I was struck by the sheer volume of responses (over 45 pages total of single line text) I had collected from students. I compiled all of the text and created a word cloud or wordle. Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you copy and paste into a text box. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. The wordle below is a compiling of every bit of electronic data I collected from my students over the course of the action research. The results are awesome.
Analyzing the responses in this way made me think that these topics or words are what mattered most to band students. It struck me that many of the words included are positive and uplifting, which speaks to how students feel and experience band classes. It was an inspiring reminder to see that words like “practice” and “play” have prominence in the wordle as they are key parts of what students do in a band class. I would have liked to see words like sectionals and motivate take up a bigger part of the wordle, as they were also a big part of what we focused on throughout the year.
Openly sharing what I was learning and gathering about our class and my own teaching throughout this process to sparked student’s interest in practicing more and began to build a community of students that spoke up and discussed ways to improve our practice. When I heard feedback from my students that I could immediately act upon or try out, I usually tried to work it into the classes immediately and then talk to students about what I heard, what I tried, the results I saw, and then discuss their observations or responses to what was changed. I gave students opportunity to voice their opinions and make choices about what music we performed and their motivation and focus improved. Students came together to solve problems that they thought would make a difference in the class. When they had an opportunity to fix something themselves it created ownership. I learned that “letting go” and allowing students to have autonomy led to students becoming more engaged and excited about their experience in band. Student feedback played a vital role in highlighting areas of my teaching that I needed to reinforce, like focusing on teaching students “How-to” practice and listen. The process taught me the most about the importance of making every student feel valuable by closely listening to students to understand who they are, what they like and what they needed most from me.
Performing arts classes have always been places where students can feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Ideally, all classrooms should feel this way. Performing music takes a large group of individuals, each using their whole body and all of their senses, working together in sync to produce a beautiful sound. Students rarely experience this kind of collective effort and achievement in schools. But, what if schools and classrooms were designed to operate more like an instrumental music ensemble, where students rely on each other to contribute to each person’s learning and success? In the following section I will attempt to answer this question by discussing three of the most powerful take-a-ways from this action research process, take-a-ways that could benefit any classroom.
The Power of Student Autonomy
As I attempted to investigate specific topics related to student practice through surveys and exit cards I began to see more individual engagement from students throughout rehearsals, sectionals, and individual work time. Open-ended questions produced much more meaningful responses from my students. I began with asking students what they thought was working in band class to motivate them to practice. There were several common themes emerging in their responses related to the power of student voice and choice in the classroom. Here is what one student said about what motivates them.
“What motivates me the most is getting a piece of music that I picked and actually want to practice and perform. That makes me excited to share it with my parents or friends. I choose music that is upbeat with lots of dynamics, something that sounds cool and makes the audience think, “Wow they did not sound like a middle school band, that we sounded more advanced”
I allowed students to research and pick songs we were going to focus on for the next concert. It speaks volumes on what students care about. I learned that student’s care deeply about what they play and feel validated and meaningful when I ask for their honest opinions and feedback. Even if they don’t like every piece, it feels like there is an increase of student ownership knowing that their opinion has been heard. I asked so many questions that I really got to know my students on a much deeper level than past years. I feel there has been significant growth in my understanding of what motivates them to play on an individual basis compared to how well I knew them in past years. Actingupon feedback and allowing students to have the power to choose how class works has had a massive impact on both student’s ownership of the class as well as my own role in the classroom. Daniel Pink talks about the importance of autonomy in high-level jobs and cites a clear connection to how we manage our classrooms:
“A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude. According to a cluster of recent behavioral science studies, autonomous motivation produces greater conceptual understanding, better grades, enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout, and greater levels of physiological well-being.” (2010, p. 90)
Daniel Pink also states that, “management is a concept that was invented and works well to make sure specific tasks are completed, but does not promotes engagement” (pg. 110). Allowing students to have autonomy within the class in regards to what songs to play, and how they practiced during class increased student buy in and ownership of the ensemble. When students were included in researching and choosing what music they wanted to perform at their concerts I saw an incredible change in their attitudes and focus throughout rehearsals. Students were making the decisions about what we practiced and worked on. This increased the feeling of ownership in students and they were proud that their contributions were making a positive change in the classroom culture.
Students also came together to create guidelines and expectations for parts of our classes they felt were not as effective as they could be. Together we created and revised a practice record and goal sheet to help students keep track of their assignments and progress. Students created a practice model for others to follow during their individual practice, as well as a sectional critique form and outline to use as a group when rehearsing in sectionals. Students continued to discuss and revise the tools they created together in order to improve the performance of the entire group. As students took ownership and responsibility of their role within the ensemble I saw increased engagement and satisfaction throughout the group.
Classrooms need to be places where students and teachers are completely engaged in the subject and work together to find what works for each member of the class. For classrooms to get to this, teachers need to create a culture where students feel valued for their input about the tasks and assignments. I’ve heard teachers say that students would do so much better if the students would just take responsibility for their learning. But, I wonder, are we allowing students the room to take ownership of their learning? The pressures of state-required curricula and tests prevent many teachers from providing students with opportunities to guide their own learning, and even to experience meaningful challenge. We should provide students with classrooms where they can approach mastery of different tasks and subjects, and experience what Ericcson (1992) has referred to as deliberate practice in a specific domain.
Daniel Pink offers five steps to move closer to mastery, built on a foundation of deliberate practice:
“Deliberate practice has one objective: to improve performance. People who play tennis once a week for years don’t get any better if they do the same thing each time. Deliberate practice is about changing your performance, setting new goals and straining yourself to reach a bit higher each time.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Repetition matters. Basketball greats don’t shoot ten free throws at the end of team practice; they shoot five hundred.
Seek constant, critical feedback. If you don’t know how you’re doing, you won’t know what to improve.
Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. While many of us work on what we’re already good at, those who get better work on their weaknesses.
Prepare for the process to be mentally and physically exhausting. That’s why so few people commit to it, but that’s why it works.” (2010, p. 159)
Schools and teachers need to give students multiple opportunities to experience deliberate practice and mastery across every subject area. Students also need to have the freedom to choose relevant and meaningful concepts to study. For example, in an English class where students get an opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of persuasive writing, they could practice using persuasive writing to address real issues that are meaningful and connected to their lives. What if students wrote and designed real campaigns lobbying for students rights that were presented to the public and made an impact on the community? What if after it was all over, students had a chance to apply their persuasive writing skills in a new way and examine why they were more or less successful the second, third, or fourth time?
The primary goal or intention of my research study was to find the answer to the question “How can I create a classroom community that supports deliberate practice, mastery, joy? The work of Cushman drove me to directly ask my students how they experienced band classes and what they thought we could do better. It was a challenge to let-go at first, but teaching felt so much better when the student’s were proud of each other’s efforts throughout rehearsals and performances. Allowing students to have a voice in the direction of class was a driving force behind motivation. Pink concludes,
“The science shows that “if-then” rewards not only are ineffective in many situations, but can also crush the high-level, creative, conceptual abilities that are central to current and future economic and social progress. The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive; our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.” (2010, p. 145)
As a middle school teacher, I believe this is vital to consider each day upon entering a classroom full of adolescent youth who desperately want to be in control of their lives. Schools need to be active and engaging communities where kids have opportunities to experience and practice autonomy in a safe supportive environment.
The science confirms what we already know in our hearts. We know that human beings are not merely smaller, slower, better smelling horses galloping after that day’s carrot. We know – if we’ve spent time with young children or remember ourselves at our best that we’re not destined to be passive and compliant. We’re designed to be active and engaged. And we know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice – doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.” (Pink, 2010, p. 145)
So much of school today is learning a concept and memorizing it enough that it can be used on the state standardized tests at the end of the year. By shifting the focus from performance goals to learning goals students are given the opportunity to actually understand how they learn. Every person learns differently and needs to be able to experience learning on their terms. As teachers we sometimes call this differentiation. However, the problem I see is that teachers are still taking responsibility to choose how the students learn best. Students should be the number one voice teachers listen to when considering how to differentiate a lesson. Differentiation has also been a tool that we typically use to address and support low performing or struggling students, but what if schools used differentiation to challenge every student to experience mastery in every subject. Research has shown that students need to be pushed just a little beyond their independence levels for real learning to take place (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If students are passing every class and test effortlessly, then we are failing them just as much as the struggling students. All students need the opportunity to experience mastery and deliberate practice.
The Power of Community: Stepping back and letting go.
Over the course of this research, my idea of my role as a teacher began to shift from being the one and only leader to letting student feedback dictate the direction and focus of the classroom. This was a difficult process. I worried that student feedback would challenge my existing philosophies on how I teach and point out my weaknesses and flaws as an educator. However, my mindset shifted when I realized that I could teach my students much more by sharing my own experiences and thoughts throughout the process. It was an opportunity for students to see me open up and grow as a teacher for their benefit. And it was an opportunity for me to model what it meant to have a growth mindset. Carol Dweck (1999) states that growth mindsets are important because individuals are more likely to continue working hard despite setbacks. This is the essence of what I wanted students to experience from participating in a band. By developing a growth mindset, students understand that failure is part of the process and expected from each member of the group.
This process would also prove to build community within the classes, bringing us closer together. Changing the culture of the classroom took time. I had to start small by talking to two or three students and then including one or two at a time. I kept my conversations/discussions limited to a few students as I started but began to build upon the relationships that students had made throughout the class. I asked students’ questions like “What went well today during class?” and then would follow up with, “What do you think what other students would say? Do you think they feel the same way?” I started to plant ideas about ownership, community and practice. They were just casual conversations at first and I acted as if it was an everyday thing to talk about. I shared stories with my students about my experiences with practice in bands that worked well and in bands that didn’t, as well as my experiences with sports and other hobbies.
These informal conversations helped me to get inside the heads and hearts of my students. In the beginning I had to work to get students to be comfortable with sharing and speaking up about their thoughts and ideas, but as the year progressed they became more comfortable and shared openly. Students’ ideas started small but completely exploded halfway through the year. This was clear by comparing surveys and exit cards from the beginning and end of the research. I started out by having very clear goals of what I wanted to track and study but quickly realized that would lead to a sterile and boring experience for both my students and myself. I changed how I used questioning within my classroom. Instead of asking specific questions, I asked broad open-ended questions that would reveal a wide range of responses that I could further investigate. I also moved away from using performance goals and instead focused on teaching students about learning and experience goals. Barry Green states,
“Some children love to practice; other’s don’t. The key here is to ensure that each child enjoys the actual experience of making music as much as possible. When students have a good time while they are learning, they not only learn more, they perform better too. Structuring a time during each practice session that is devoted to the student’s delight in learning and playing will strengthen his or her goals in the area of enjoying and feeling the music he or she plays.” (1986, p.186)
Everyone learns differently and needs to be able to experience learning on their terms. By teaching students about performance versus learning goals, they can discover how they learn. As teachers we sometimes refer to this as differentiation, however the problem I see is that teachers are taking responsibility to choose how the students learn best. Students should be directly involved in the process of differentiating a lesson. Differentiation has been a tool that we typically use to address and support low performing or struggling students but what if schools used differentiation to challenge every student to experience growth towards mastery across every subject. Research has shown that students need to be pushed just a little beyond their independence levels for real learning to take place (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If students are passing every class and test effortlessly then we are failing them just as much as the struggling students. All students need the opportunity to experience mastery and deliberate practice
From the beginning I wondered how I could make band a better experience for all students. I have a deeper understanding about the importance of structuring class activities and developing the class culture for all students to experience enjoyment with learning because I asked my students what mattered most to them. Students spoke about being motivated by witnessing other students in the class focusing and working hard.
“Something that motivates me is seeing other students that play better than me in class. This motivates me to try to play as good, if not better than those other people. I am a competitive person and I enjoy the challenge.”
“What motivates me is seeing other players playing so well and then telling myself I want to be able to play like them”
Students also identified things that annoyed them and made them enjoy playing less.
“If you’re the only one who is putting out an effort for the group, it does not matter how hard you work at it. Your time effort is wasted.
I shared students’ anonymous responses with the rest of the class and together we discussed possible solutions. Students realized that their effort mattered to other members of the class, regardless of their ability. This was a major shift in the existing culture of the classroom. We took time as a class to discuss how students were experiencing band. We focused and reflected upon rehearsals that students felt really good about as well as rehearsals where students felt we completely failed. One student made the comparison to playing on a baseball team.
“You may not be the strongest or best player on the team, but your team counts on you to try your best regardless of the position you play.”
What struck me the most from this process was how honest and meaningful the conversations became when we talked about how other students perceived each member’s participation in class. The more we reflected upon participation and effort throughout rehearsals the more students felt obligated to work hard for each other. To strengthen our community within the classroom, we had shifted the mindset of the entire group from focusing on performance goals to focusing on learning goals, without even really intending to.
Carol Dweck (1999) distinguishes between these two types of goals, and notes that a focus on learning goals is important to designing a positive classroom culture that values effort, hard work and mastery:
“Performance goals are about winning positive judgments of your competence and avoiding negative ones. In other words, when students pursue performance goals they’re concerned with their level of intelligence: They want to look smart (to themselves or others) and avoid looking dumb. A person usually does this by playing it safe… Learning goals are ones that are about increasing your competence. It reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things—a desire to get smarter.” (p. 33)
Both types of goals can help motivate students to work hard, but Dweck (1999) found that an overemphasis of performance goals could start to produce a helpless response in students. I found Dweck’s work to connect directly with what I had experienced trying to motivate students to work hard in past years. The work I did this year with students to create meaningful practice guidelines focused on the student’s experience and learning. Students enjoyed this change and felt like they were more in control of the learning process as we rehearsed and practiced. Green (1986) reinforces the importance of focusing on the learning process as opposed to judging each performance:
“Letting your students know you accept them the way they are will allow them to explore without feeling constantly under pressure to measure up to some standard. You can help students to develop and retain their own understanding of their progress by remaining calm and confident before and during a performance; avoiding judgment, asking students about their own experience: how did you feel about the music? Expressing your own experience and feelings and acknowledging growth that you see from performance to performance.” (p. 145)
I also found the following statement by Green to be true,
"The best way to acknowledge what a student has learned in practice and performance is by asking them what they felt they accomplished. Students who verbalize what they have learned reaffirm and strengthen their new knowledge in the process, and become more confident and trusting as a result.” (p. 146)
I was stepping back and giving students space to work on the music on their terms, but I was also trusting students to hold each other accountable for our progress. Students became more comfortable throughout the year sharing honest feedback about the effectiveness and success of each rehearsal and shared their ideas openly in front of their peers. When students made these suggestions, their peers took notice of the leadership and appreciated the effort. As the year progressed, my students were less concerned with looking smart or proficient in front their peers, and instead focused on the progress we were making as a group. Students spoke about each other’s effort and leadership within their sectional rehearsals with a growing sense of pride. Everyone else was doing their part and working towards the same goals.
Finding a balance between supporting students autonomy and building a community focused on learning goals was a monumental step for the band program. It completely reshaped my approach as a teacher, and our approach as a group, to practicing, working together, and ultimately performing.
The Power of Audience as Purpose
Performing for an audience plays an enormous role in motivating students to work hard in music classes. Music is meant to be performed. Without an audience a performer does not have a purpose. I wonder what schools would look like if this were the expectation for all subjects. Authentic performances are meaningful for students and increase engagement, participation, motivation, purpose and fun. Throughout the year I observed an increased focus and participation throughout rehearsals when there was an upcoming performance that students were excited about.
Outside of sports and music, students rarely get opportunities to perform together as a group for an authentic audience. The power of working as a team towards a specific goal motivated my students to work hard and focus their efforts on improving their skills. There were difficult passages that students struggled with until a week before the concert. Students talked about how they knew that they were going to have to work on certain parts more intensely than others, but that sometimes they put those aside because it was difficult and frustrating. However, when students knew there was a concert coming up, they asked for more sectional time and extra help to specifically focus on the areas that needed work. In past years, I would have probably spent many frustrating rehearsals drilling the troubled areas until they were mastered. This year, my students made it clear that they would take responsibility to fix those areas. This was another area of my teaching where I had to let go and let students take over and practice the difficult passages on their terms. During rehearsals, we would all take notes and mark difficult parts in our music. After we had a clear list of specific measures to work on, the students would take on the responsibility of learning those parts, often in their student- led sectional groups.
This year, students had several more performance opportunities than in years past. I chose to take on more performances after I realized that students would work harder when they felt like they had something to work for. Students noticed others’ efforts change as we approached concerts.
“With all the concerts coming up people, seem to be more focused because we all want to do our very best at concerts and festivals.”
“When we play our best the audience can really feel the music and we can share our emotions with them.”
“I like concerts because it is our chance to inspire our audience with our playing.”
As a class we shared why students enjoyed performing and this strengthened students’ purpose for working hard for one another. Students agreed that they wouldn’t ever want to ruin someone else’s performance by not being able to play their part their best.
Performances were important to students, and the discussions and feedback surrounding them also led to changes in how we thought of them. Instead of focusing on the performance and judging if it was good or bad we focused on the experience of the concert. Students shared moments and snapshots that they remembered most from the concerts and talked about why they were important to them. This shift in thinking from performance to experience allowed students to relax and enjoy the performances more, and come up with ideas for how to improve future performances.
A group of students got the opportunity to perform for our neighboring elementary schools later in the year. Students were excited to visit their old schools and teachers. After the performances were over, we hosted a question and answer session for elementary students to ask the middle school students questions about band. I was struck by the pride and ownership my students demonstrated when they had an opportunity to talk about why music was important to them.
Students also had a very unique opportunity to talk about what music means to them as part of a radio advertisement for San Diego’s Jazz 88.3 radio station. Every year the station hosts a donation drive to collect old or unused instruments which are then refurbished, repaired and loaned out to schools and students in need. I told all of my students about the opportunity and asked for volunteers to participate. I ended up having eight students participate. The program manager and few interns came by to record student’s voices one day after school. The interviews/conversations lasted about one to three minutes each. The program manager then took the audio and arranged them into one-minute advertisement spots.
These experiences were special for my students because they were real. We performed for elementary school students who might choose to play an instrument because they were inspired by our performance. Their interviews and words were played on jazz 88.3 multiple times during the station’s donation drive. Students were excited to participate because they knew that their effort in these special events had a real purpose that would affect and inspire others.
Final Thoughts
Like all research studies, this one had its limitations. Throughout this project, I focused my analysis on two specific classes. I used the techniques and data collection process with all of my students, but chose two classes specifically based on how meaningful I thought the experience would be for students. I wanted to include eighth grade students as they had the most experience in the program, but also wanted to include seventh graders to help carry the ideas and methods we learned into the next year. There is a volume of literature on how studying music is linked to improving academic performance. However, this study was not about that. It was more about the structures and support systems that were in the classroom and how changing them affected students’ experiences. The study was also done with the full intention to learn as much as I could directly from my students by including them in the process. My goal was not to simply implement changes that I thought would improve the class, but instead to see and hear what students really wanted from their experience. I believe that performing arts have value in and of themselves, and I wanted to find ways to develop a strong music community and better understand how to support students as growing musicians.
Being present in a school’s culture is a crucial part of building positive relationships between staff members, students, and parents. Teachers could be the best transmitters of knowledge of their subject and as a result their students would score the highest on tests and be able to synthesize and create work that add value and meaning to their lives. However, that is not enough! Teachers who believe that the most important work they do is in classroom are wrong. None of the work they do will have a lasting effect on students if they don’t give them something more to connect the work to. Schools and teachers that are not aware of this are headed for disaster. Getting teachers and students to work hard for one another is tough. But if positive coach/mentor/teammate relationships can be built where students and teachers feel real responsibility for each other’s success and failures, maybe we might start to see huge gains in what is possible in our schools. How can we create environments for these relationships to thrive? As we move forward in education, we must stop pretending that success is exclusively a matter of individual merit. Success is a direct result of the relationships, environments, and the process of learning that we create for our students to experience.
Middle school is a time of transition for students on many levels. When students understood that their progress and eventual success was linked to the amount of focused effort from each member, a sense of power and pride developed throughout the group. Students understood that their ability or talent was a direct result of their hard work and effort. Some students pick up new things faster than others, but practice is the only way to progress. Creating a classroom environment that honored mastery and effort changed how students participated in class. Instead of sitting back passively, students were active and engaged in the process. Middle school students are at an age where they are learning how to manage the power of becoming an individual part of a community. Schools should be a place where students can experiment with individual power and responsibility in a safe and supportive environment. By designing classroom environments that incorporate mastery and student choice we can hopefully create reflective students that are engaged and active in their own learning.
FINAL REFLECTION
BACK TO HOME
Throughout the action research I collected feedback from my students through the use of computer surveys. I was struck by the sheer volume of responses (over 45 pages total of single line text) I had collected from students. I compiled all of the text and created a word cloud or wordle. Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you copy and paste into a text box. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. The wordle below is a compiling of every bit of electronic data I collected from my students over the course of the action research. The results are awesome.
Analyzing the responses in this way made me think that these topics or words are what mattered most to band students. It struck me that many of the words included are positive and uplifting, which speaks to how students feel and experience band classes. It was an inspiring reminder to see that words like “practice” and “play” have prominence in the wordle as they are key parts of what students do in a band class. I would have liked to see words like sectionals and motivate take up a bigger part of the wordle, as they were also a big part of what we focused on throughout the year.
Openly sharing what I was learning and gathering about our class and my own teaching throughout this process to sparked student’s interest in practicing more and began to build a community of students that spoke up and discussed ways to improve our practice. When I heard feedback from my students that I could immediately act upon or try out, I usually tried to work it into the classes immediately and then talk to students about what I heard, what I tried, the results I saw, and then discuss their observations or responses to what was changed. I gave students opportunity to voice their opinions and make choices about what music we performed and their motivation and focus improved. Students came together to solve problems that they thought would make a difference in the class. When they had an opportunity to fix something themselves it created ownership. I learned that “letting go” and allowing students to have autonomy led to students becoming more engaged and excited about their experience in band. Student feedback played a vital role in highlighting areas of my teaching that I needed to reinforce, like focusing on teaching students “How-to” practice and listen. The process taught me the most about the importance of making every student feel valuable by closely listening to students to understand who they are, what they like and what they needed most from me.
Performing arts classes have always been places where students can feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Ideally, all classrooms should feel this way. Performing music takes a large group of individuals, each using their whole body and all of their senses, working together in sync to produce a beautiful sound. Students rarely experience this kind of collective effort and achievement in schools. But, what if schools and classrooms were designed to operate more like an instrumental music ensemble, where students rely on each other to contribute to each person’s learning and success? In the following section I will attempt to answer this question by discussing three of the most powerful take-a-ways from this action research process, take-a-ways that could benefit any classroom.
The Power of Student Autonomy
As I attempted to investigate specific topics related to student practice through surveys and exit cards I began to see more individual engagement from students throughout rehearsals, sectionals, and individual work time. Open-ended questions produced much more meaningful responses from my students. I began with asking students what they thought was working in band class to motivate them to practice. There were several common themes emerging in their responses related to the power of student voice and choice in the classroom. Here is what one student said about what motivates them.
“What motivates me the most is getting a piece of music that I picked and actually want to practice and perform. That makes me excited to share it with my parents or friends. I choose music that is upbeat with lots of dynamics, something that sounds cool and makes the audience think, “Wow they did not sound like a middle school band, that we sounded more advanced”
I allowed students to research and pick songs we were going to focus on for the next concert. It speaks volumes on what students care about. I learned that student’s care deeply about what they play and feel validated and meaningful when I ask for their honest opinions and feedback. Even if they don’t like every piece, it feels like there is an increase of student ownership knowing that their opinion has been heard. I asked so many questions that I really got to know my students on a much deeper level than past years. I feel there has been significant growth in my understanding of what motivates them to play on an individual basis compared to how well I knew them in past years. Actingupon feedback and allowing students to have the power to choose how class works has had a massive impact on both student’s ownership of the class as well as my own role in the classroom. Daniel Pink talks about the importance of autonomy in high-level jobs and cites a clear connection to how we manage our classrooms:
“A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude. According to a cluster of recent behavioral science studies, autonomous motivation produces greater conceptual understanding, better grades, enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout, and greater levels of physiological well-being.” (2010, p. 90)
Daniel Pink also states that, “management is a concept that was invented and works well to make sure specific tasks are completed, but does not promotes engagement” (pg. 110). Allowing students to have autonomy within the class in regards to what songs to play, and how they practiced during class increased student buy in and ownership of the ensemble. When students were included in researching and choosing what music they wanted to perform at their concerts I saw an incredible change in their attitudes and focus throughout rehearsals. Students were making the decisions about what we practiced and worked on. This increased the feeling of ownership in students and they were proud that their contributions were making a positive change in the classroom culture.
Students also came together to create guidelines and expectations for parts of our classes they felt were not as effective as they could be. Together we created and revised a practice record and goal sheet to help students keep track of their assignments and progress. Students created a practice model for others to follow during their individual practice, as well as a sectional critique form and outline to use as a group when rehearsing in sectionals. Students continued to discuss and revise the tools they created together in order to improve the performance of the entire group. As students took ownership and responsibility of their role within the ensemble I saw increased engagement and satisfaction throughout the group.
Classrooms need to be places where students and teachers are completely engaged in the subject and work together to find what works for each member of the class. For classrooms to get to this, teachers need to create a culture where students feel valued for their input about the tasks and assignments. I’ve heard teachers say that students would do so much better if the students would just take responsibility for their learning. But, I wonder, are we allowing students the room to take ownership of their learning? The pressures of state-required curricula and tests prevent many teachers from providing students with opportunities to guide their own learning, and even to experience meaningful challenge. We should provide students with classrooms where they can approach mastery of different tasks and subjects, and experience what Ericcson (1992) has referred to as deliberate practice in a specific domain.
Daniel Pink offers five steps to move closer to mastery, built on a foundation of deliberate practice:
“Deliberate practice has one objective: to improve performance. People who play tennis once a week for years don’t get any better if they do the same thing each time. Deliberate practice is about changing your performance, setting new goals and straining yourself to reach a bit higher each time.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Repetition matters. Basketball greats don’t shoot ten free throws at the end of team practice; they shoot five hundred.
Seek constant, critical feedback. If you don’t know how you’re doing, you won’t know what to improve.
Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. While many of us work on what we’re already good at, those who get better work on their weaknesses.
Prepare for the process to be mentally and physically exhausting. That’s why so few people commit to it, but that’s why it works.” (2010, p. 159)
Schools and teachers need to give students multiple opportunities to experience deliberate practice and mastery across every subject area. Students also need to have the freedom to choose relevant and meaningful concepts to study. For example, in an English class where students get an opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of persuasive writing, they could practice using persuasive writing to address real issues that are meaningful and connected to their lives. What if students wrote and designed real campaigns lobbying for students rights that were presented to the public and made an impact on the community? What if after it was all over, students had a chance to apply their persuasive writing skills in a new way and examine why they were more or less successful the second, third, or fourth time?
The primary goal or intention of my research study was to find the answer to the question “How can I create a classroom community that supports deliberate practice, mastery, joy? The work of Cushman drove me to directly ask my students how they experienced band classes and what they thought we could do better. It was a challenge to let-go at first, but teaching felt so much better when the student’s were proud of each other’s efforts throughout rehearsals and performances. Allowing students to have a voice in the direction of class was a driving force behind motivation. Pink concludes,
“The science shows that “if-then” rewards not only are ineffective in many situations, but can also crush the high-level, creative, conceptual abilities that are central to current and future economic and social progress. The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive; our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.” (2010, p. 145)
As a middle school teacher, I believe this is vital to consider each day upon entering a classroom full of adolescent youth who desperately want to be in control of their lives. Schools need to be active and engaging communities where kids have opportunities to experience and practice autonomy in a safe supportive environment.
The science confirms what we already know in our hearts. We know that human beings are not merely smaller, slower, better smelling horses galloping after that day’s carrot. We know – if we’ve spent time with young children or remember ourselves at our best that we’re not destined to be passive and compliant. We’re designed to be active and engaged. And we know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice – doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.” (Pink, 2010, p. 145)
So much of school today is learning a concept and memorizing it enough that it can be used on the state standardized tests at the end of the year. By shifting the focus from performance goals to learning goals students are given the opportunity to actually understand how they learn. Every person learns differently and needs to be able to experience learning on their terms. As teachers we sometimes call this differentiation. However, the problem I see is that teachers are still taking responsibility to choose how the students learn best. Students should be the number one voice teachers listen to when considering how to differentiate a lesson. Differentiation has also been a tool that we typically use to address and support low performing or struggling students, but what if schools used differentiation to challenge every student to experience mastery in every subject. Research has shown that students need to be pushed just a little beyond their independence levels for real learning to take place (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If students are passing every class and test effortlessly, then we are failing them just as much as the struggling students. All students need the opportunity to experience mastery and deliberate practice.
The Power of Community: Stepping back and letting go.
Over the course of this research, my idea of my role as a teacher began to shift from being the one and only leader to letting student feedback dictate the direction and focus of the classroom. This was a difficult process. I worried that student feedback would challenge my existing philosophies on how I teach and point out my weaknesses and flaws as an educator. However, my mindset shifted when I realized that I could teach my students much more by sharing my own experiences and thoughts throughout the process. It was an opportunity for students to see me open up and grow as a teacher for their benefit. And it was an opportunity for me to model what it meant to have a growth mindset. Carol Dweck (1999) states that growth mindsets are important because individuals are more likely to continue working hard despite setbacks. This is the essence of what I wanted students to experience from participating in a band. By developing a growth mindset, students understand that failure is part of the process and expected from each member of the group.
This process would also prove to build community within the classes, bringing us closer together. Changing the culture of the classroom took time. I had to start small by talking to two or three students and then including one or two at a time. I kept my conversations/discussions limited to a few students as I started but began to build upon the relationships that students had made throughout the class. I asked students’ questions like “What went well today during class?” and then would follow up with, “What do you think what other students would say? Do you think they feel the same way?” I started to plant ideas about ownership, community and practice. They were just casual conversations at first and I acted as if it was an everyday thing to talk about. I shared stories with my students about my experiences with practice in bands that worked well and in bands that didn’t, as well as my experiences with sports and other hobbies.
These informal conversations helped me to get inside the heads and hearts of my students. In the beginning I had to work to get students to be comfortable with sharing and speaking up about their thoughts and ideas, but as the year progressed they became more comfortable and shared openly. Students’ ideas started small but completely exploded halfway through the year. This was clear by comparing surveys and exit cards from the beginning and end of the research. I started out by having very clear goals of what I wanted to track and study but quickly realized that would lead to a sterile and boring experience for both my students and myself. I changed how I used questioning within my classroom. Instead of asking specific questions, I asked broad open-ended questions that would reveal a wide range of responses that I could further investigate. I also moved away from using performance goals and instead focused on teaching students about learning and experience goals. Barry Green states,
“Some children love to practice; other’s don’t. The key here is to ensure that each child enjoys the actual experience of making music as much as possible. When students have a good time while they are learning, they not only learn more, they perform better too. Structuring a time during each practice session that is devoted to the student’s delight in learning and playing will strengthen his or her goals in the area of enjoying and feeling the music he or she plays.” (1986, p.186)
Everyone learns differently and needs to be able to experience learning on their terms. By teaching students about performance versus learning goals, they can discover how they learn. As teachers we sometimes refer to this as differentiation, however the problem I see is that teachers are taking responsibility to choose how the students learn best. Students should be directly involved in the process of differentiating a lesson. Differentiation has been a tool that we typically use to address and support low performing or struggling students but what if schools used differentiation to challenge every student to experience growth towards mastery across every subject. Research has shown that students need to be pushed just a little beyond their independence levels for real learning to take place (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If students are passing every class and test effortlessly then we are failing them just as much as the struggling students. All students need the opportunity to experience mastery and deliberate practice
From the beginning I wondered how I could make band a better experience for all students. I have a deeper understanding about the importance of structuring class activities and developing the class culture for all students to experience enjoyment with learning because I asked my students what mattered most to them. Students spoke about being motivated by witnessing other students in the class focusing and working hard.
“Something that motivates me is seeing other students that play better than me in class. This motivates me to try to play as good, if not better than those other people. I am a competitive person and I enjoy the challenge.”
“What motivates me is seeing other players playing so well and then telling myself I want to be able to play like them”
Students also identified things that annoyed them and made them enjoy playing less.
“If you’re the only one who is putting out an effort for the group, it does not matter how hard you work at it. Your time effort is wasted.
I shared students’ anonymous responses with the rest of the class and together we discussed possible solutions. Students realized that their effort mattered to other members of the class, regardless of their ability. This was a major shift in the existing culture of the classroom. We took time as a class to discuss how students were experiencing band. We focused and reflected upon rehearsals that students felt really good about as well as rehearsals where students felt we completely failed. One student made the comparison to playing on a baseball team.
“You may not be the strongest or best player on the team, but your team counts on you to try your best regardless of the position you play.”
What struck me the most from this process was how honest and meaningful the conversations became when we talked about how other students perceived each member’s participation in class. The more we reflected upon participation and effort throughout rehearsals the more students felt obligated to work hard for each other. To strengthen our community within the classroom, we had shifted the mindset of the entire group from focusing on performance goals to focusing on learning goals, without even really intending to.
Carol Dweck (1999) distinguishes between these two types of goals, and notes that a focus on learning goals is important to designing a positive classroom culture that values effort, hard work and mastery:
“Performance goals are about winning positive judgments of your competence and avoiding negative ones. In other words, when students pursue performance goals they’re concerned with their level of intelligence: They want to look smart (to themselves or others) and avoid looking dumb. A person usually does this by playing it safe… Learning goals are ones that are about increasing your competence. It reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things—a desire to get smarter.” (p. 33)
Both types of goals can help motivate students to work hard, but Dweck (1999) found that an overemphasis of performance goals could start to produce a helpless response in students. I found Dweck’s work to connect directly with what I had experienced trying to motivate students to work hard in past years. The work I did this year with students to create meaningful practice guidelines focused on the student’s experience and learning. Students enjoyed this change and felt like they were more in control of the learning process as we rehearsed and practiced. Green (1986) reinforces the importance of focusing on the learning process as opposed to judging each performance:
“Letting your students know you accept them the way they are will allow them to explore without feeling constantly under pressure to measure up to some standard. You can help students to develop and retain their own understanding of their progress by remaining calm and confident before and during a performance; avoiding judgment, asking students about their own experience: how did you feel about the music? Expressing your own experience and feelings and acknowledging growth that you see from performance to performance.” (p. 145)
I also found the following statement by Green to be true,
"The best way to acknowledge what a student has learned in practice and performance is by asking them what they felt they accomplished. Students who verbalize what they have learned reaffirm and strengthen their new knowledge in the process, and become more confident and trusting as a result.” (p. 146)
I was stepping back and giving students space to work on the music on their terms, but I was also trusting students to hold each other accountable for our progress. Students became more comfortable throughout the year sharing honest feedback about the effectiveness and success of each rehearsal and shared their ideas openly in front of their peers. When students made these suggestions, their peers took notice of the leadership and appreciated the effort. As the year progressed, my students were less concerned with looking smart or proficient in front their peers, and instead focused on the progress we were making as a group. Students spoke about each other’s effort and leadership within their sectional rehearsals with a growing sense of pride. Everyone else was doing their part and working towards the same goals.
Finding a balance between supporting students autonomy and building a community focused on learning goals was a monumental step for the band program. It completely reshaped my approach as a teacher, and our approach as a group, to practicing, working together, and ultimately performing.
The Power of Audience as Purpose
Performing for an audience plays an enormous role in motivating students to work hard in music classes. Music is meant to be performed. Without an audience a performer does not have a purpose. I wonder what schools would look like if this were the expectation for all subjects. Authentic performances are meaningful for students and increase engagement, participation, motivation, purpose and fun. Throughout the year I observed an increased focus and participation throughout rehearsals when there was an upcoming performance that students were excited about.
Outside of sports and music, students rarely get opportunities to perform together as a group for an authentic audience. The power of working as a team towards a specific goal motivated my students to work hard and focus their efforts on improving their skills. There were difficult passages that students struggled with until a week before the concert. Students talked about how they knew that they were going to have to work on certain parts more intensely than others, but that sometimes they put those aside because it was difficult and frustrating. However, when students knew there was a concert coming up, they asked for more sectional time and extra help to specifically focus on the areas that needed work. In past years, I would have probably spent many frustrating rehearsals drilling the troubled areas until they were mastered. This year, my students made it clear that they would take responsibility to fix those areas. This was another area of my teaching where I had to let go and let students take over and practice the difficult passages on their terms. During rehearsals, we would all take notes and mark difficult parts in our music. After we had a clear list of specific measures to work on, the students would take on the responsibility of learning those parts, often in their student- led sectional groups.
This year, students had several more performance opportunities than in years past. I chose to take on more performances after I realized that students would work harder when they felt like they had something to work for. Students noticed others’ efforts change as we approached concerts.
“With all the concerts coming up people, seem to be more focused because we all want to do our very best at concerts and festivals.”
“When we play our best the audience can really feel the music and we can share our emotions with them.”
“I like concerts because it is our chance to inspire our audience with our playing.”
As a class we shared why students enjoyed performing and this strengthened students’ purpose for working hard for one another. Students agreed that they wouldn’t ever want to ruin someone else’s performance by not being able to play their part their best.
Performances were important to students, and the discussions and feedback surrounding them also led to changes in how we thought of them. Instead of focusing on the performance and judging if it was good or bad we focused on the experience of the concert. Students shared moments and snapshots that they remembered most from the concerts and talked about why they were important to them. This shift in thinking from performance to experience allowed students to relax and enjoy the performances more, and come up with ideas for how to improve future performances.
A group of students got the opportunity to perform for our neighboring elementary schools later in the year. Students were excited to visit their old schools and teachers. After the performances were over, we hosted a question and answer session for elementary students to ask the middle school students questions about band. I was struck by the pride and ownership my students demonstrated when they had an opportunity to talk about why music was important to them.
Students also had a very unique opportunity to talk about what music means to them as part of a radio advertisement for San Diego’s Jazz 88.3 radio station. Every year the station hosts a donation drive to collect old or unused instruments which are then refurbished, repaired and loaned out to schools and students in need. I told all of my students about the opportunity and asked for volunteers to participate. I ended up having eight students participate. The program manager and few interns came by to record student’s voices one day after school. The interviews/conversations lasted about one to three minutes each. The program manager then took the audio and arranged them into one-minute advertisement spots.
These experiences were special for my students because they were real. We performed for elementary school students who might choose to play an instrument because they were inspired by our performance. Their interviews and words were played on jazz 88.3 multiple times during the station’s donation drive. Students were excited to participate because they knew that their effort in these special events had a real purpose that would affect and inspire others.
Final Thoughts
Like all research studies, this one had its limitations. Throughout this project, I focused my analysis on two specific classes. I used the techniques and data collection process with all of my students, but chose two classes specifically based on how meaningful I thought the experience would be for students. I wanted to include eighth grade students as they had the most experience in the program, but also wanted to include seventh graders to help carry the ideas and methods we learned into the next year. There is a volume of literature on how studying music is linked to improving academic performance. However, this study was not about that. It was more about the structures and support systems that were in the classroom and how changing them affected students’ experiences. The study was also done with the full intention to learn as much as I could directly from my students by including them in the process. My goal was not to simply implement changes that I thought would improve the class, but instead to see and hear what students really wanted from their experience. I believe that performing arts have value in and of themselves, and I wanted to find ways to develop a strong music community and better understand how to support students as growing musicians.
Being present in a school’s culture is a crucial part of building positive relationships between staff members, students, and parents. Teachers could be the best transmitters of knowledge of their subject and as a result their students would score the highest on tests and be able to synthesize and create work that add value and meaning to their lives. However, that is not enough! Teachers who believe that the most important work they do is in classroom are wrong. None of the work they do will have a lasting effect on students if they don’t give them something more to connect the work to. Schools and teachers that are not aware of this are headed for disaster. Getting teachers and students to work hard for one another is tough. But if positive coach/mentor/teammate relationships can be built where students and teachers feel real responsibility for each other’s success and failures, maybe we might start to see huge gains in what is possible in our schools. How can we create environments for these relationships to thrive? As we move forward in education, we must stop pretending that success is exclusively a matter of individual merit. Success is a direct result of the relationships, environments, and the process of learning that we create for our students to experience.
Middle school is a time of transition for students on many levels. When students understood that their progress and eventual success was linked to the amount of focused effort from each member, a sense of power and pride developed throughout the group. Students understood that their ability or talent was a direct result of their hard work and effort. Some students pick up new things faster than others, but practice is the only way to progress. Creating a classroom environment that honored mastery and effort changed how students participated in class. Instead of sitting back passively, students were active and engaged in the process. Middle school students are at an age where they are learning how to manage the power of becoming an individual part of a community. Schools should be a place where students can experiment with individual power and responsibility in a safe and supportive environment. By designing classroom environments that incorporate mastery and student choice we can hopefully create reflective students that are engaged and active in their own learning.
FINAL REFLECTION
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