Video Presentation: 

Student Interview/Research

People often learn information or data in two ways, quantitative and qualitative.  The Australian bureau of statistics defines quantitative as “measures of values or counts expressed as numbers. Quantitative data is data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how often).” Likewise, the bureau describes Qualitative data as “measures of ‘types’ and often be represented by a name, symbol, or a number code”. Both are very different; however, they are both effective when used to collect data and to learn. For the teacher interview I felt like it was more qualitative, and I learned lots of very interesting information and issues from Mr. Colwell however, for the student interviews I thought it would be cool and interesting to get a more quantitative information. So, created a survey that was designed to be done by university students who play or played musical instruments. I then sent out the survey to 10 university students that play or played musical instruments.  I will post a link to the survey below and will show some of the results throughout the synopsis.

At the beginning of the survey I asked basic questions about the person such as what instrument they played and whether they were formally trained either from school or private lesson or if they were self-taught. The survey showed that of the 10 people that took the survey, 9 of them were formally taught. My next question was about if they were formally trained did they like there teacher. 100% of them said that they liked their teacher. When asked what about their teacher that they liked the majority of the answers were positive some of which included: “He was very supportive, friendly, and funny!” and “I liked that they were encouraging and always told me I could do better. I also liked that they didn’t make me feel bad when I messed up” and “He was super funny, and friendly. He also always made sure everyone was on the same page.” I think that this information is very interesting and coincides with what Mr. Colwell and I discussed in teacher interview about how Music teachers need to be fun and encouraging. 90% of the people said that Music still plays a big role in their life whether it be with bands within the communities or simply just listening to music while getting ready or studying.

I thought that a next good question would be to figure out that if the person ever would consider studying music. The results where split with half saying yes and half saying no. Following that I wanted to figure what about music people liked and what they didn’t like. I asked the question about what their favourite part of music was. The results to the question are on the diagram on the right. Following that I asked what part about music would they get rid of if they could. 80% of them said they would like to see music theory gone mostly because it was boring and hard to understand. I think that this is some very interesting data especially for myself as a future music educator and for other music educators. Music theory is not something that we can get rid of in music as it is very important. However, if people are not liking it there must be something about the way we are teaching it that is confusing and boring. In order to figure out more about this issue we would need to do a survey on a much larger scale to see if it is just an isolated feeling. Following that if the results are conclusive music educators should get together to revise the curriculum taught in schools so that it is both enjoyable and easier to understand.  My Dad is a former math but now currently works with Texas Instruments in professional development. He said that he would solve this issue on a smaller scale by “going to the students to try and connect it to other things in the real world in terms of skills or knowledge that is useful. If they don’t understand I would try to make it fun like a game or challenge that people would try and solve. Maybe team people up and make a mini competition out of it.” Though my Dad says this is how he would solve a problem in math if students found it boring and/or hard to understand. Although it is about Math it can still be applicable to music theory.

Finally, here is what their responses were when asked If they could say one thing to future music educators to making teaching music better what would it be?:

Music needs to be fun but also professional

Be understanding of the time it takes for students to get better, but don’t let the lazy students drag the class down.

Being engaging and making it fun and interesting.

Keep it fun and pick topics that are relevant to the students to keep them interested!

Allow your students to be flexible and explore what inspires them.

Be patient with the students especially if they are new to playing an instrument

Have fun with your students!

Be happy

Even when it’s discouraging, keep on going!! It’s actually making a huge difference in your students lives, I know it did in mine (again sorry for the cheesiness but it’s true)

Focusing on creating a love for music in the student first before anything else

Always be laid back and have fun with the class!

If the diagram on the page is no clear open this document to see it! Also in this document there is all the charts that were created from this project: file:///C:/Users/Seths/OneDrive/Documents/Charts%20and%20Graphs%20.pdf

Here is the link to the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/6gJannW8vpetLVoa2

Teacher Interview

For my teacher Interview project, I returned to my high school North Park to interview my old music teacher Mr. Sean Colwell. It was a very exciting to be able to return to the place and talk with the teacher that helped to influence my decision to pursue post-secondary in music. I got to sit, observe and play music in several of the classes through out the day. The interview with Mr. Colwell (Mr.C) was very interesting as I learned some new things about his teaching. Some common topics that arose from the interview included teaching music and student attitudes/privileges.

Mr.C is a trumpet player that attended Humber College for music before he attended McMaster University for music. It was at this time at McMaster that he decided that to have a steady income and a way to provide for his family that he would become a Music Educator. Following his time at McMaster he attended teacher’s college at Western University. Mr. C has been teaching music for over 20 years mostly teaching in and around the Brantford area.  He plays in several bands around the Brantford community and has always had a passion for teaching Music.

The most common topic/theme that came up from the interview was different and effective ways to teach music. Mr. Colwell said that teaching Music is very different then a lot of other courses that are taught in schools such as Math and Science. Its not just a straight line with an easy to follow curriculum but more of a crooked line that needs to be adjusted and moved dependent on the student or the time. Often, especially in the Brantford area music programs are not a requirement oppose to different courses like Math and Science which were a requirement for me up until Grade 11. He believes, and I believe as well, that Music and the arts needs to be taught in a different way. One way to go about this would be to make the classes more exciting and inclusive. Mr.C claims that humour is a great way to go about doing this along with playing pieces of music that students will enjoy and perhaps know. However, he does not advocate for a classroom that just teaches popular music but for a classroom that has a good balance between classical musical teaching and more modern popular music. This is something that I struggled with myself, I use to firmly believe that Music in schools should be almost entirely classical. I often grew tired and frustrated with a lot of the pieces that we played in the bands at school but after attending Western for just a couple of months my opinion on that has changed quite a bit. I now agree with Mr.C that a classroom must have a balance of both classical music and popular music teaching. I feel like we live in a time when less and less people are learning to play musical instruments and unfortunately sometimes we must adapt however that does not means to get rid of the parts of music that may not be fun and exciting. I feel that finding a balance between classical and popular music studies is important now more than ever

Another topic that arose from the class was the attitudes and entitlement of students today that Mr. C hasn’t really encountered in his career before. Here is what Mr.C had to say about the attitude and entitlement of some students today:

 “They believe that they deserve something even though they haven’t put the effort in. They complain about not having a high mark but they haven’t showed up for the majority of the class.”

This is something that I have noticed too especially when I took a co-op course in elementary and high school music class. Students were often very rude and felt like they didn’t have to work hard to be successful. I agree with Mr.C that this is a problem in schools today however, I don’t think this is a new problem but one that has been going on for quite some time. It is just maybe today that it may be on a larger scale then it was 20 or 40 years ago.

Overall, I was very pleased with the discussion I had with Mr. Colwell, he was a really great teacher and I think that I have inherited a lot of the same teaching styles and habits from him that I will probably incorporate into a classroom of my own.