What future for education, week 2. My reflection. Part 2

How to become a better learner? First, to have opportunities to do many things (Bill Gates as an example).

Schools have straight curriculum and often ignore kids interests. Such boredom kills desire to learn in some children. It does not mean they are bad learners. It means the teacher hasn't found something his student is good at, hasn't made connections between the subject he/she teaches and the real world, hasn't kindled interest. The film Cares is a good example of this.

What opportunities do I give to children? They can choose the songs we sing. Sometimes they offer new rules for games. I ask them to compose melodies so they can explore the opportunities themselves. But I also should give more examples of using particular material in music than I do. Also, we sing romances of famous composers, and children love it.

I should ask them to pick up their favorite melodies by ear more often. It would also be fun to add beatbox to rhythmics lessons :). At the same time, the curriculum is straight enough and I have to follow it.

I should advise music events or music compositions to listen to. I should play the music to them more often, encourage them to find examples.

What opportunities do I have as a learner? I guess too much. Just to name a few I have chosen:

• sing in a choir;
• play the piano in ensembles;
• teach;
• program using Max MSP;
• learn music history, harmony, polyphony etc.
• learn English.

What I have discarded: learning German, learning to play bass-guitar, working as a software developer. Stop.

How can we as parents help a kid to become better learners?

1. Find our what he/she actually know. Ask questions that might show any misunderstanding. And if there is, ask where did this misunderstanding come from?

2. Give them a bigger picture.

3. Constant feedback.

4. Expand vocabulary.

5. Ask hypothetical questions rather than factual.

Feedback should not be empty. Good feedback is very task-focused and specific. 

What feedback? Btw, some music teachers give very painful feedbacks. I don't think it's correct. For me it won't work. I will loose interest to the subject, get upset and give up. It will not motivate me. I am motivated by new ideas, new look on an old things, by team work, by understanding of importance and (more crucial) practical use of the new information or the exercise.

Teacher must have a good picture of progression in his subject. 

It is a matter of experience. I must admit that my picture hasn't yet become clear. 

Sing a tone, sing some music elements, understand the concept of a scale, interval, chords, apply them from one pitch, then from another etc. Connect these elements together. I use the picture of our school's curriculum, the picture of the books I 've read.

As for my progression in music... I write it down almost every week. My biggest recent achievement is a better understanding of music expression.

A teacher should explain children why they are doing something. They should understand their progression. What it would be like if I am successful? Ask open-ended questions.

The statistics about questioning is bad: 60% recall questions, 20% procedural questions. The answer usually requires 3 words.

The word "Ability" is about teachers' reputation, about their work but not about a kid. It's about the way teacher treats him. So it's a label. 

Expert teacher demands a high cognitive work, expects children to do deep learning work, make sense of it for themselves, really put in some personal views into it.

Reflection tasks

During your own education, how has your "intelligence" been assessed?
How has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?
What judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment of your "intelligence"?
Do you consider yourself to be a "learner"? why?

What future for education, week 2. My reflection

Week 2: What is intelligence and does it matter?

The week started with the interview with Professor Gordon Stobart, an author of the book called "Expert learner". 

He expresses the idea that I come up with when I started to learn how to learn. He says that we exaggerate the importance of intelligence and abilities. The ability itself is a skill that can be developed, and it dramatically depends on the environment. A person from a privileged background usually has bigger vocabulary, more diverse experience, rather than a person from disadvantaged background. So one could say his/her abilities are higher.

So what actually matters most when you learn are your background (or the environment you create to your students as a teacher) and deliberate practice.

The rule of 10'000 hours is actually about hours of deliberate practice (10 years of 3 hours a day).

It's a practice when you intentionally do something that you are not good at.

What is deliberate practice for me? What am I not good at?

• Harmony. T goes to S. D'oh!
• Creating melodies. Thinking of melody as a complete thought with a beginning and an end.
• Polyphonic music. It is difficult for me to listen to the dialog of several voices that I play.
• Singing. My music intonation is not precise.
• Grasping the whole piece I am going to perform. To see its structure as a building, an architecture.
• In teaching: maintain a long-term interest to the subject I teach to children.

So how should I practice it?

Analyze pieces I play in terms of its harmonic language and voicing. Maybe I should draw a structure of my pieces. I must create melodies, improvise, sing every day.

Such kind of practice is quite painful, cause you fail 50/50 times. Otherwise it's not a deliberate practice.

This statement made me to think about today's practice. Was it deliberate? Considering that I had only 50% of success in my actions, yes :D I tried to memorize 4 pieces from Tchaikovsky "Album for children" (or how it is translated into English). I played, analyzed (mentally) and repeated without the book. I hope such kind of exercises will give a wider framework, I will memorize quicker, hold more details, connections and changes in mind.

What can I improve in my practice? I want to learn to listen to my play in real time, to have an absolute control over the sound. I should train more without an instrument. I should create a clear image of desirable sound, clear image of my movements (precise, flexible and relaxed). And I MUST sleep more.

What can I practice as a teacher? First of all, I should keep track of the students' progress. And since there are many students, I should write it down in order not to forget. It will motivate children to become better than yesterday, I hope. I need to take a video of myself teaching and see what kills an interest and why. I will do it tomorrow.

I want to write down some teaching principles to the paper and read them each day before classes begin. And at the end of the day analyze what when good and what was against that principles, why and what could I do differently.

Another reflection. The professor mentions the books I've read or heard about: "The peak", "Little book of talent". "The peak" is a must-read book.

... to be continued as I have watchced only 2/4 videos this week and haven't done a week assessment yet.