Situated Learning/Cognitive Apprenticeship

As a cynical person who often asks the question, “Why is this important in the real world?”,the articles on Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship really caught my attention.  Most of the methods of music instruction seem to involve Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship.  Perhaps this is why I gravitated toward music at a young age.  I could find the purpose in what was being taught.  You learn to play music so that you can eventually perform the music. 

I see only one problem with both of these theories.  Our notes tell us that meaning is negotiated between teaching and learning.  The video in this week’s lecture uses the example of a reading program in Seattle, Washington where students in one group are supposed to run the discussion.  I don’t see young, inexperienced, or some learning disabled students  leading a discussion successfully.  There are also some students who view teachers as the authority and might have problems with this system because they aren’t constantly being told what to do. To overcome this problem, the teacher can use scaffolding or give cues.  The number of cues given would depend on the age or experience of the students.

I believe this system works perfectly with music education.  I think music teachers use Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship without realizing that what they are doing has a name. I can really relate to the Teaching Strategies of Cognitive Apprenticeship described in the Darling article.  This is how I see these strategies being used in music instruction:

Modeling-The instructor can play for the student or have a recording of a professional group.   When I was student teaching, I rarely played for the students because I thought instruction was all about the student. My cooperating teacher suggested that I play for the students so they could get a concept of a good sound.   His theory worked.    I have since discovered that words just don’t adequately describe what you want the student to do, but if you play for them, they get the right idea. Sometimes I even play something the right way and the wrong way so the students can hear the difference.

Scaffolding-If I am going to teach a piece of music, I make sure the students understand all the rhythms and key signatures so they will be able to play them when they encounter them in a piece of music.  If we are playing a piece of music in a different key, I make sure we play that scale first.  I go through the parts of each instrument and look over any fingerings that might be difficult.  Sometimes I create exercises based on those fingering patterns.

Coaching-Most of music education is coaching and providing feedback on the students’ performance.  The students can even critique one another. I could even have guest artists come to help the students.  Since I am a clarinet player and was told never to play trumpet in public by my college brass teacher, I would invite a friend who is a trumpet expert to come in and coach.  In return, I would coach my trumpet-playing friend’s clarinet players, if needed.

Making Students’ Thinking Visible-I had a clarinet teacher in high school who was very good at this so I try to incorporate it into my teaching.  This teacher would explain how to play something correctly to me. Then, I would play it correctly and she would ask what I did to change my playing.  She really got me to think about what I was doing so that I could play the music correctly, even when she wasn’t supervising me.

The possibilities are endless as far as the utilization of technology in this system.   Skype and Elluminate are two programs that will help facilitate the learning process and communication necessary for Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship.  Even though music is a perfect fit for this type of learning, I don’t see a lot of music classes being taught online because of the performance aspects involved.  .  The music theory and ear training classes would be perfect for the online environment, but you can’t play in a musical ensemble online.   Private music lessons are technically possible, but I see a lot of technological problems with the online music lesson.  Perhaps in the next ten years, new advances will make online music lessons a possibility.  I feel that online lessons could help students in remote locations.

Problem-Based Learning

My initial reaction to Problem-Based learning was, “Isn’t this the same as Guided Design?” It took me a little while to understand the difference between the two theories as they are quite similar.  I now understand how to apply each theory to different training situations as needed.

Most of the training I give in the army doesn’t require me to give a paper and pencil test to the trainees.  For this reason, it’s very hard to keep the class engaged and motivated and to evaluate whether or not learning has taken place.  Problem-Based learning is useful in these situations because I can give the class, give the problem, and then have the band members brainstorm (based on information given in class) and come up with a possible solution.  At the end of the class, we can discuss what went right or wrong in the situation and how we can best apply the knowledge gained to the real-world problem.

I see some limitations in the traditional classroom, though.  I can see some students being so focused on getting a high grade and the “right” answer that they get frustrated with a system that could have several correct answers.  Or sometimes, attempts to solve the problems are a complete failure and such students don’t understand that a lot can be learned from failure.  I am not sure the best solution for this problem, but I believe the instructor can help the students to see the importance of Problem-Based learning and clearly state the goals and expectations before the training is presented.

I will definitely use Problem-Based learning in the future.  I can see it best being used in a leadership course.  The class can go over leadership techniques and resources to use to help soldiers.  Then, the class could be presented with a scenario that involves a problem soldier.  For example:

You are in charge of a soldier who is new to the army.  This soldier shows up late every day and has abused their government credit card.  They have also failed a pt (physical training) test.

Each student in the leadership class could act out a scenario and take turns being the soldier’s squad leader.  Then the class can critique the actions of the squad leader.  This helps the future leaders to “practice” dealing with soldier issues. 

I can see Problem-Based learning using skype or some other kind of communication software.  I can see Problem-Based Learning best being used with some kind of interactive media.  I imagine this type of media could be expensive and time-consuming, though.  One of the best army training modules that I have had to endure was an interactive DVD on suicide prevention.  A situation was presented and a decision had to be selected at certain points in the DVD.  The situation progressed based on the decisions of the class.  The class ended up making every “right” decision that was presented in the training, but, in the end, the person in the case study still committed suicide.  This was a powerful learning experience.

Cooperative Learning

I have always had positive thoughts about Cooperative Learning because I support any method of teaching that does not involve students sitting in a lecture.  I believe that Cooperative Learning is as close as you can get to replicating the work environment.  Students need to learn to work collaboratively as they would in their future workplace.

 As much as I enjoy Cooperative Learning, I do believe this method has barriers.  I feel that some student personality types will not work well with this system.  Some will want to “run the show” while others will be content to sit back and let others finish their work for them.  The in instructor can prevent any Cooperative Learning disasters by clearly stating the rules and expectations before the lesson.  Specific roles should be assigned to each student.  A grading rubric will also help the students to understand their roles in the Cooperative Learning and the teacher’s expectations.

Another problem mentioned in one of the articles is that the high achieving students’ performance diminished because of such activities.  Perhaps the instructor can help prevent this from happening by giving such students more control over decisions or more responsibility.

I used Cooperative Learning the most in my elementary school general music student teaching days.  I have even used Cooperative Learning to teach concepts to grumpy, middle-aged army bandspersons.  I once had to find a way to teach map reading to a band.  This is something that is an army requirement, but we don’t do it in our job every day.   There is little motivation when you aren’t actually graded on the material.   I decided to present the information and break into five groups to construct a map with all the army symbols.  To my amazement, even the most cynical of my peers seemed to be engaged in the training.   I will definitely use Cooperative Learning again in the future.

I can see cooperative learning being best used in the online environment.  Students could collaborate to create a website or Wikispace with information.  They could use the jigsaw method where each student does research on a topic and posts their portion of the information.   This method could be challenging to use online because most online students seem to be busy professionals.  They could be in different time zones or work different shifts so “getting together” online could be a challenge.