Joe,\' a Young Student Whom I Observed

¶ … Joe,' a young student whom I observed while he was engaged in a music lesson. An exciting aspect of music education is that students often have an innate interest in the subject. It is a rare student who does not like some type of music. The challenge of musical education is to use students' love of popular music to motivate the children to practice what can seem like technical, boring exercises like scales. This is the only way students can learn to play more complex and higher-level music. However, this type of challenge is common to every teacher's experience. Teachers must use a student's innate interests to encourage the student to work hard in more formal, technical aspects of learning. For example, students might not enjoy grammar drills right away, but most students love storytelling.

By assigning simplified versions of popular songs to play, music teachers can use the child's base of knowledge enhance his or her learning process. By having students write stories using specific grammatical constructions, English teachers encourage students to use their creativity while still learning basic skills. This is in line with constructivist principles as expressed by theorists like Vygotsky, who believed that the learner was an equally involved participant in shaping the learning experience as the teacher. Vygotsky believed that the learner's inclinations and abilities should be maximized by the teacher, and that the teacher should not force the learning process to conform to a preordained syllabus.

With music, a teacher must be flexible. If a student has not yet mastered a skill, the teacher cannot press on to the next one, according to schedule. Similarly, if the student is very enthusiastic about a particular musical piece or genre, the teacher should use this to the learner's advantage, and encourage him or her to proceed faster than planned. The principle of scaffolding upon past learning experiences is a common technique in all good teaching, particularly subjects like mathematics and foreign languages, which require a certain degree of sequential learning but must be flexible enough to accommodate different learning styles and paces.

Constructivist approaches like Vygotsky's are not a freewheeling 'let the learner do whatever he or she chooses.' The teacher is a very active participant in the process. In fact, it could be argued that the teacher is even more active than in other situations, given that the teacher is constantly reviewing the pace of the student's learning, the students' emotional responses and adapting to those responses. Learners are seen as social creatures according to constructivist approaches to learning, and teachers are seen as facilitators who can enable students to do things they would otherwise not be able to do alone. "It is common in constructing skills check-lists to have columns for 'cannot yet do', 'can do with help', and 'can do alone'…'can do with help" [is not]…a permanent state but…a stage towards being able to do something on your own. The key to 'stretching' the learner is to know…what comes next, for them" (Atherton 2001). All of the teachers I observed seemed to be engaged in this principle of 'stretching.' The most effective were able to reinforce the child's sense of self-esteem and competence in what he or she could do alone while still pushing the child to do more. Being observed by my peers has similarly forced me out of some of my teaching 'comfort zones' and forced me to reassess my approach to every class, so I do not neglect learners' individual needs.

I would like to use my students' natural interests more in my classes, not just classes like music, but even regular academic subjects like social studies and mathematics. Asking students what they think about what is going on in the world, asking them questions about when they use math in their daily life, and using examples from what interests them to illustrate basic principles (like making up word problems with witches and wizards) are all ways to make the learning environment 'fun' and to make students feel included. Teachers are, of course limited to some degree in their creativity as to what they teach by the new requirements of standardized testing. A teacher cannot totally deviate from the list of planned books, just because most of the students would rather read another novel, even if it is grade-appropriate. But finding small ways to incorporate student interests into lesson plans to keep their attention engaged, and to make the children feel personally connected and invested in the subjects of the lessons can be helpful.