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Sophia Fang Ying Lai

ID:936611
Critique of Practice

For this two-week teaching research unit teaching plans were prepared for two 25-30 minute

lessons to be undertaken at King George’s School over consecutive weeks. I was paired up

with my peer Hannes Lackman, a drummer from the Performance Teaching course and we

observed each other’s lessons while giving constructive feedback for further improvements.

My own teaching background began very early on before tertiary level and developed into a

studio from home where I taught piano, violin and theory as well as group keyboard lessons

at a music school for over four years. This prior experience I believe was helpful for this

project in structuring detailed lessons with specific goals for the student. We were assigned to

Avraham, a very bright, musical fifteen-year-old male student with a musical background and

I planned my lessons with his age group and estimated level in mind accordingly.

A two-week study with two lesson plans was designed to focus on specific musical goals and

chosen repertoire which could be used to show the demonstrated musical concepts. The first

lesson took the form of an introductory format of the geography of the piano, dynamics,

rhythm and hand positions. The second lesson was more catered to the student after personal

reflection and feedback from my peer which provided clearer goals surrounding appropriate

repertoire, specific musical techniques as well as developing other musical skills he could

implement into musicianship in general. Observing how my peer taught also provided insight

into different approaches to teaching. Although short, the two weeks provided valuable ideas

into possible improvements as well as providing new avenues for further investigation.

Upon discussion with my peer, there were points in my first lesson plan which needed to be

refined for this student with a focus on having clearer and simpler objectives which were

achievable in the short half hour. The first lesson’s goals centred around scaffolding,

introducing the geography of the piano as well as playing simple repertoire. I believe that the
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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
overall objectives of the lesson were obtained and this was reinforced by my peer’s

comments stating that a good range of topics were covered as well as good use of scaffolding.

By the end of the lesson the student had successfully setup a good correct posture at the piano

and combined with his prior knowledge of note-reading managed to find and play simple

melodies confidently in different positions on the piano. Dynamics, rhythmic and melodic

improvisation as well as aural exercises were also covered in the second half of the lesson.

However, it was clear my lesson’s objectives needed to be clearer to the student as at times

there was confusion over my intentions. This could have been improved by setting smaller

more achievable goals at a time and communicating with the student more often by asking

him questions and observing his reactions after each step rather than a one-sided discussion

led by the teacher.

The second session was more successful with learning objectives achieved and higher

enjoyment from the student as critical feedback from my peer assisted greatly in the

improvements I made to the lesson plan as well as implementing key processes from the

Positive Instruction in Music Studios (PIMS) model (Patson and Waters, 2015). My peer’s

comments reinforced the need to cut down on the number of concepts I introduced and

instead take certain topics deeper while asking the student questions and engaging him

actively in each exercise. Positive priming questions were asked after techniques were

attempted such as “What Went Well?” (WWW) a technique from (Seligman et al., 2005 as

cited in Patson and Waters, 2015). Positive pauses were used when the student did something

well (Kirschenbaum et al., 1982 as cited in Patson and Waters, 2015) and my peer noted that

I provided good positive process-related feedback on his effort and musicality in each

exercise such as “good reading” or “just keep a steady beat”. With the use of these processes

the student showed improved response as compared to the first lesson and actively asked

questions as well as taking the initiative in sight-reading the new repertoire.

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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
Use of improvisation was specifically chosen to end the second lesson on an enjoyable note,

review musical techniques and to gauge whether it could improve the student’s engagement

in the lesson. A well-known piece of repertoire Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was chosen

to interest the student as well as allow him to have the confidence to improvise different

rhythms with a familiar melody. As McMillan (2009) stated, learning to improvise should be

implemented into music lessons as it is likely to enhance students’ music technique in the

format of exciting musical experiences. My peer noted that it was an effective exercise which

successfully engaged the student and provided an enjoyable way of showing different musical

concepts. The student also showed that he enjoyed the freedom of improvising with evident

enthusiasm and unknowingly incorporated subtle elements of dynamics, pitch and rhythm

without being instructed to. Duet playing with the teacher during the improvisation allowed

for a greater sense of achievement on the student’s part and a well-rounded musical structure.

Observations on my peer Hannes Lackman’s lessons over the two weeks were invaluable due

to the contrasting nature of teaching the drums as compared to the piano, his effective use of

modelling and good use of the PIMS model (Patson and Waters, 2015). The lesson plans

were clearly thought out with distinct objectives with the first lesson focussed on introducing

the names and different functions of the drums, strokes, and the “rock beat”. The main

delivery of the lesson was through modelling with the student imitating and this was effective

as the student could completely concentrate on Hannes without any music in front of him to

distract him. As Haston (2007) wrote, the best use for modelling is to introduce new musical

concepts and performance skills before students see printed music. This proved very effective

as by the end of the lesson the student was confident with the rock beat, improvising on

different drums and able to efficiently play whichever drum Hannes dictated. Positive pauses

and process-related feedback were also inserted into the lesson which served to effectively

bolster the student’s confidence.

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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
Following my peer’s first lesson and after critical discussion, thoughts on areas for

improvement was that as the teacher, Hannes was assisting too much with error correction

and not allowing the student to problem solve and think about the process himself. This was

also a shortcoming in my first lesson where I similarly did not allow sufficient time for the

student to correct himself after repeated demonstrations. This is highlighted by Duke (2012)

who mentions that effective learning is through error correction on the learner’s part and that

teachers tend to fall into the trap of correcting students repeatedly and not allowing for a

successful problem-solving process which creates a lasting change in the learner’s memory.

As Duke (2012) further goes on to describe, skilled teachers can create strategic confusions

by designing tasks that challenge students intellectually and physically. Hannes portrayed

good use of this in his second session where he introduced complex exercises involving two-

way coordination between the hands and feet using a mixture of eighth note and triplet

rhythms. After setting up the process, Hannes allowed the student to work through by himself

even when the student struggled initially as the task was not above the student’s skill level.

The result was the student managing to accomplish the exercise with some trial and error and

our observation of the student’s achievement and improved reception of more complex

exercises.

Observations of my peer’s lessons allowed for comparisons between teaching techniques and

yielded valuable insight into ideas for further improvement and future areas of investigation.

Areas which I needed to improve on involved setting up clearer lesson objectives as well as,

the valuable use of modelling and the need to implementing strategic confusion (Duke, 2012)

to challenge and engage the student’s learning in a more efficient way rather than constant

correction. This would only be improved upon with more experimentation upon a wider

variety of different age groups and students. Possible investigations could be made regarding

the extent learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinaesthetic affect students’ learning.
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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
This would assist towards creating more effective lesson plans with specific games and

activities catering to these styles. The long-term effects of improvisation being implemented

regularly in lessons is also a worthwhile avenue to research as by engaging creativity through

musical activities, the student is improving physically with a positive mental impact of taking

enjoyment out of lessons. In turn, this may assist with the higher probability of students’

continuing with music in the future if they take genuine pleasure out of their music education

whilst continuing to more advanced levels.

As a teacher I am constantly searching for different ways to improve the methods through

which I relay information effectively to students. Through insightful feedback from my peer

many areas have surfaced which could be improved upon to provide a more educational and

enjoyable experience for the student and teacher. As Behesti (2009) noted, in the end the aim

of a successful teacher is to continuously search for a better way to relay “gained” and

“retained” information.
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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
Appendix
Lesson Plans
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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
Appendix
Peer Feedback and Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Lots of topics covered, dynamics, improvisation, rhythm, "geography" of piano, posture, repetoire,

modulating, but I wander whether you could have gone deeper with fewer topics, and had more focus to the

lesson. You adjusted well to his skill level, and increased the difficulty of exercises in response to this. Not a lot

of context was given...Why were you working on any of the exercises? You asked him whether he had any

questions, but this was only right at the end of the lesson. Perhaps if you present more opportunities for the

student to play a more active role in the exercises, would engage him more. I wander whether they were

fun/engaging for the student?

Lesson 2: Again, good use of Modelling and Scaffolding, and building of assumed knowledge (Mozart).. The

warm-up exercises seemed to cover many areas - improvisation, technical and reading - Good process-related

feedback..."Good reading....just keep a steady beat"

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Sophia Fang Ying Lai
ID:936611
References

Beheshti S. (2009). Improving studio music teaching through understanding learning styles.

International Journal of Music Education, 27(2), 107–115.

Duke, R. A. (2012). Their Own Best Teachers: How We Help and Hinder the Development

of Learners' Independence. Music Educators Journal, 99(2), 36-41.

Haston, W. (2007). Teacher Modelling as an Effective Strategy. Music Educators

Journal, 93(4), 26-30.

McMillan, Ros. Creativity in Instrumental Learning and Teaching: Missing in

Action!. Victorian Journal of Music Education, Vol. 2009, No. 1, 2009: 9-12.

Patston, T., & Waters, L. (2015). Positive Instruction in Music Studios: Introducing a New

Model for Teaching Studio Music in Schools Based upon Positive Psychology. Psychology

of Well-Being, 5(1), 10.