Well, here we are! We are approaching our “final destination” for the year. It is hard to believe that it is already April!
Here, now, I find myself reflecting on my Cohort 21 Action Plan. When reflecting of this task, my initial feeling is that of concern. Concern that I didn’t accomplish anything relevant and/or significant. Concern that I won’t be able to clearly articulate myself during our final Face2Face session. Digging a little bit deeper, reflecting on my plan and what I have accomplished, alas, pixels being to emerge and combine in my mind. While the path on which I have travelled here has been anything but direct, I have arrived.
My Action Plan centred on the central HMW statement: How might we preserve ownership for students over their learning experiences in Music, so as to enhance overall engagement and authenticity in learning? Upon sharing this question with my Grade 11/12 class, the responses that developed were very much in line with my expectations. When asked about “ownership” in an educational context, many students cited “choice,” “experiential excursions,” and “independent study” as important elements in the process of preserving ownership. I wasn’t satisfied with this. I felt that I already knew that these experiences were essential for authentic ownership in learning. With this, I knew that this was as about as deep in this sort of reflection that these students were willing to go during this particular session. So, I let it be.
Fast forward to late March and there I was reflecting again on the developments of my Action Plan. There it was, a new development that had emerged gradually, right “under my nose.” Over the course of this year, I have really struggled with overall engagement and motivation in my Grade 9 class. Whether it can be simply attributed to their unique age group, combination of personalities or cohort, the fact was that they very rarely displayed any enthusiasm for music, even when I worked to design innovated, self-directed projects that ( I thought) would be completely engaging. And then, after a long week of rehearsing a two pieces for our spring concert, a new realization emerged.
Profile: Student A – I taught her last year in Social Studies. She was always a very motivated students with the ability to excel in various subject areas when she worked to ignore the social pressures and influence that can often surface in Grade 8 & 9. Her motivation throughout the year this year had been gradually decreasing, to the point where a phone call home in January was needed. From there, no matter what I tried to use as a means of engaging her was met with an apathetic *sigh.* Feeling completely defeated, during the March Break, I embraced the role of “keyboard crusader,” on a mission to design a project that would, at the very least, satisfy the essential “ownership” criteria that my Grade 11/12’s outlined earlier in the year (e.g. choice, experiential opportunities, etc.) I decided to design a project where the girls would create a “How To” Instructional Video that addressed specific technical and theoretical elements in our selected pieces with the intention of having the girls adopt the role of teacher/facilitator in their video. While my expectations for this project were quite low based on previous experience, this turned out to be a valuable positive checkpoint in my action plan, allowing me to expand my understanding of what contributes to “ownership” in learning for students: the ability to develop proficiency as a means of teaching/sharing their knowledge and understandings with others.
Upon further reflection, it seems that, very much in the same way, we strive for ownership in our own practice as teachers, students endeavour to “own” what they learn when they prepare to share specific techniques and concepts to one another. They own what they learn, so as to teach. Connecting back to my “sales” analogy” in a previous blog post, in order to authentically “sell” a product to someone, you are expected to have the knowledge and understanding of the product as an owner would. Reflecting on my own practice as a teacher, the significance of the performative aspect of our profession carries a lot of weight here. Realistically, when we are expected to perform for others, the stakes become higher. We need to prepare thoroughly as a means of meeting both our own expectations and those of our audience. And at the risk identifying fear as a primary motivating factor here, the pursuit of excellence in performance is quite important here. So, this begs the question: what is “excellence in performance” for a teacher? And, does this equate directly with authenticity in learning and ownership?
A simple statement from Student A was what prompted this development. A statement that we all hope to hear from time to time, especially from those students who have struggled to engage: “I’m really looking forward to starting this project.” To me, this statement, while simple, is a valuable indicator in the process of unpacking student “ownership” and authenticity in learning. While completely acknowledging my bias as an Arts teacher, I feel that this stems directly from excitement for and an eagerness to prepare for performance.
Anxiety & Performance: The Processing Efficiency Theory https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699939208409696 “Anxiety characteristically impairs efficiency more than effectiveness.”
And so, the journey continues…