Engaging Multiple Learning Styles in the Choral Classroom
Kylie Shatto
College of Idaho
EDU-597S Intern Seminar
Spring 2014
ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 2
Introduction and Background We teach the way we were taught is an old adage that is often true of inexperienced teachers, such as me. My teaching style is deeply influenced by the way [I] was taught (Gumm 2003). We tend to teach concepts and skills in the same way that those concepts and skills were taught to us rather than the way we were educated to teach (Gumm 2003). While the influence of mentor teachers is undeniable, teaching the way that we have been taught can sometimes ignore best practices which can greatly affect the outcome of student learning. For example, field experience supervisors and cooperating teachers try to get student teachers to teach as they do and often disregard the principles and methods learned in college as unrealistic ivory tower notions (Gumm 2003). As a new music teacher, I know that my teaching borrows many techniques from my music teachersespecially those teachers I encountered during my high school years. While these techniques clearly had an effect on me and my development as a teacher, I have to wonder whether these teaching techniques are best practice or if there are more productive ways to teach the same concepts and skills to my students. One such concept is music theory. When I was in school, music theory was taught in a traditional lecture format: my teacher would explain the concept and draw examples in black marker on the white board. After a week of reviewing the concept, there would be a test. When it came time for me to teach music theory to my high school choir students, I immediately fell into this same teaching model without thought to best practices, including how to engage diverse learners in learning abstract concepts. While several students received high grades on the assessments following these lectures, most did not. In analyzing the assessment data, another adage came to mind: if most students fail a test, it is the fault of the teacher not the students. ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 3
This experience raised important questions: what can I change about my teaching practices that will positively affect my students understanding of abstract music theory concepts? If the method which was used to teach me is not effective for teaching my students, what method will be effective to teach them? After much reflection on these questions, I determined that one possibility of teaching music theory concepts more effectively would be by engaging multiple learning styles during teaching. The issue that my action research seeks to address then, is: how does engaging multiple learning styles during teaching affect student learning of music theory concepts?
Hypothesis and Plan My plan for collecting data in the choral classroom was to teach a group of related music theory concepts in two methods: first using the traditional lecture method, and second engaging multiple learning styles. During each lesson, students were given note sheets that they could fill in and use as notes to help them study for assessments (see Appendix A for the lecture lesson notes, and Appendix B for the multiple learning styles lesson notes). After each method, the same written assessment of student learning would take place to determine the effectiveness of the teaching method (see Appendix C for a copy of this quiz). I planned to take the following steps to complete this data collection: (1) to teach my choir students a group of related music theory concepts using the traditional lecture method; (2) to test student understanding with a written assessment based on the material in the lecture; (3) to review the assessment data to determine the effectiveness of the lecture method based on the number of passing scores on the assessment; (4) to re-teach one week later the same music theory concepts, this time engaging multiple learning styles during the lesson; (5) to review the new assessment data to determine the effectiveness of the multiple learning styles engaged lesson; (6) to compare the assessment data ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 4
of each teaching method to determine if one method was more effective than another; and (7) to revisit my hypothesis and draw conclusions based on the analysis of the data. I hypothesized that the traditional lecture method would result in fewer students who understood the music theory concepts being taught, which would result in fewer students with passing scores on the written assessment. On the other hand, I hypothesized that engaging multiple learning styles in my teaching would result in a greater number of students who understood the music theory concepts being taught which would result in a greater number of students with passing scores on the written assessment. Data Analysis First, I taught my lecture lesson, assessed the students knowledge, and reviewed the initial results. I hypothesized that the lecture lesson would not be as effective overall and that the results of the assessment following the lecture would show a greater number of students who did not receive a passing grade than the second assessment. Unsurprisingly, the traditional teaching approach resulted in a traditional bell curve of scores: a few students received the top score, a few received very low scores, and most were somewhere in between. There were 23 students who took the exam, 15 of whom received a passing score, and 8 of whom did not receive a passing score. Of those 23 students 4 received 100%, 6 received 90-99%, 3 received 80-89%, 2 received 70-79%, 2 received 60-69%, and 5 received 59% or below. In other words, approximately one third of all students who took the exam did not pass. While I expected that a number of students would not receive a passing score, I did not expect that many students to fail. As a teacher, I would prefer all students to receive As and Bs on assessments, and I feel that Im not doing my job properly if all students do not receive at least 80% on assessments. I strongly believe that all students can get at least 80% on ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 5
assessments and recognize that if students do not receive those grades that my instruction is at fault. It was disheartening that less than half of the students received at least an 80%. However, this illustrated quite clearly how lecture-style demonstrationmay only help some of [my] students (Mixon 2004). Additionally, many teachers have been left scratching their heads after discovering that a particular approachis no longer effective (Isbell 2012). This experience confirmed for me the need to change my teaching technique in order to engage more students. If I changed my teaching technique to engage more learning styles, then I hypothesized that more students would receive passing scores on the assessment. There are three learning styles that I wanted to target my second instruction attempt toward: auditory, visual and kinesthetic (Mixon 2004). Each of these three learning styles would present challenges to integrating multiple learning styles into my instruction. Auditory learners approach education experiences effectively through listening (Mixon 2004). I knew that the lecture lesson would appeal to these learners because lecturing engages those who learn primarily through auditory stimulation. I recognized that many of the students who received passing scores on the first assessment were probably auditory learners, whose learning style has traditionally been rewarded in educational settings (Mixon 2004). The challenge then was to continue to keep my auditory learners engaged when my teaching shifted focus to engaging visual and kinesthetic learners as well. While auditory learners may be engaged in a lecture lesson, visual learners benefit from seeing graphic representations, visual models and demonstrations of skills and concepts which may not appeal to auditory learners (Mixon 2004). These students learn best when there is a visual representation, such as a diagram or picture of the sound (Mixon 2004). So, while I still had to present information in a way that would appeal to auditory learners, I now also had to ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 6
consider how to engage visual learners. I decided to visually represent individual note names by writing them on colored construction paper, which was color coded to notes on a staff. For example, if the note C was drawn in pink marker on the staff on the white board, the letter C was written on the pink construction paper. I believed that adding the different elementsthe visual representation of the note on the white board, the visual representation of the note name on the construction paper, and the addition of color to stimulate visual connectionswould appeal to the students who learned visually and engage them in the lesson in multiple ways. Additionally, I allowed students to take notes using colored markers to help them continue to make visual connections even when they had left the classroom. While the color coding may have appealed to the visual learners, the act of taking notes may have appealed to kinesthetic learners, who learn by doing (Mixon 2004). In order to appeal to the kinesthetic learners, I knew that some element of the instruction needed to include student involvement and include physical manipulation of objects. Since I already had note names written on construction paper, I decided the best way to incorporate kinesthetic learning into the lesson would be to create what I called a Human Keyboard. I had student volunteers stand up and make a physical representation of the order of note names while holding the colored construction paper. Throughout the lesson, students could help manipulate the placement of individual students to make a physical representation of the concept being taught. This had the added benefit of keeping those students who had already received passing scores on the last assessment engaged with a fun lesson. Additionally, students were given note paper that they could use to take notes on the material or draw or doodle during the lesson if for some reason they could not be engaged in the Human Keyboard. ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 7
By incorporating these three learning styles, I hypothesized that a greater number of students would receive a passing score on the second assessment than on the assessment following the lecture lesson. Of the 23 students who took the second exam, 4 received 100%, 10 received 90-99%, 7 received 80-89%, and 2 received 70-79%. No one failed the second exam. Approximately three-fourths of the students received a B or better. The results of my research did not surprise me: overall, fewer students received failing grades on the assessment following the multiple learning styles lesson than received failing grades on the assessment following the lecture lesson. My desire was to have all students receive a passing grade on the second assessment, which was achieved. However, my true desire was to have all students receive at least an 80% on the second assessment, in which I was disappointed, but only by one score. While I was disappointed with that result, I thought the results overall were positive and confirmed my hypothesis. While the overall results of my research did not surprise me, there was one surprising result which I did not take into consideration when planning my lessons. There were a handful of students who received scores of 100% on each assessment. I did not take into account that some students knew the material already and would have received 100% regardless of my teaching method. This raises two interesting questions about future practice in my classroom: how can I determine my students prior knowledge and thus determine what needs to be taught? And how can I enhance the learning of students who are more advanced while still teaching relevant material to the rest of the class? I do not have the answers at the moment, but these questions would be interesting topics for future research. Additionally, upon further reflection, I realized the results of the second assessment could be inaccurate. The results from the second assessment could have been positive due to the fact ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 8
that the material was covered for a longer period of time, allowing for more repetition, or due to the fact that the written assessment was the same for both testing periods, allowing for students to memorize the correct answer rather than really understanding the concepts. It is difficult to determine with any certainty whether this was a significant factor in the positive results of the second assessment. Similarly, it is difficult to determine if the changes to my teaching practices were the main factor in raising the test results. Review of the Literature There is much research on the effectiveness of engaging multiple learning styles in the classroom, but there has been less research on multiple learning styles specifically in the music classroom. For the literature I was able to find, there were three areas that should be taken into consideration for future practice: the importance of determining the learning styles present in your classroom, consideration of additional learning styles the three considered for this research, and creating a teaching sequence as a continual process for incorporating multiple learning styles into the classroom. First of all, an important initial step toward utilizing multiple learning styles in instruction is to determine yourstudents learning styles (Gremli 1996). This is an important initial step to incorporating multiple learning styles into instruction because this allows teachers to understand better how their students learn and what methods will be most effective for the students. For example, if a teacher knows that half of her students are kinesthetic learners, the teacher may consider ways that will incorporate more kinesthetic activities while maintaining some visual and auditory instruction. Knowing the learning styles of the students in a particular classroom will allow the teacher to make better instructional decisions. Additionally, many teachers teach students about learning style and multiple intelligences so they can better ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 9
understand themselves as students (Silver, Strong, Perini, 2000). Students who are self-aware of their learning style better understand what kind of learning works best for them and can be proactive in seeking out ways to engage their own learning style. Being aware of their learning style provides students with a lifelong tool that will help them succeed. Teachers can determine the learning styles present in their classroom by having the student complete a Learning Styles Inventory (see Appendix D for an example). While the Learning Styles Inventory can be an effective tool to help reach students of different learning styles, it only takes into account three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Research shows that there may be more learning styles than only these three. In an article entitled Tuned In to Learning Styles, the author promotes paying attention to two additional learning styles: global and analytical. Global learners thrive on discovery through group learning, and learn more easily by obtaining meanings from a broad concept and then focusing on its details (Gremli 1996). Conversely, analytical learners learn through direct teaching and related resources, and learn successively, in small steps leading to understanding. Many teachers structure their instruction so that it is more geared toward the analytical learners. For example, in music, the traditional rehearsal technique is geared to analytic learners while often ignoring the needs of global learners. Research shows that because conventional teaching requires analytic characteristics for academic success, globally oriented children may perform less well than analytically oriented children in traditionally structure classes. While traditional structure may not appeal to globally oriented students, Gremlis article has some suggestions for structuring a classroom to allow a positive learning environment for these students, such as: playing a piece of music as the students enter the classroom; work on [songs] with the group as a whole; and use kinesthetically based ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 10
methods to teach repertoire and music theory concepts. Paying attention to these additional learning styles will allow all students to thrive in the classroom environment. Finally, and additional consideration for future practice is creating a sequence of instruction which incorporates all three learning styles. Incorporating this concept as a procedure which is in place for every lesson will easily allow teachers to engage multiple learning styles on a consistent and regular basis. In the article Three Learning StylesFour Steps to Reach Them, the sequence the author created for a music classroom involves four steps: (1)hear what it sounds like; (2) see what it sounds like; (3) show what it sounds like; and (4) do it on the instrument (Mixon 2004). The first step engages auditory learners through verbal direction, analogy, or class discussion. For this step, it is important to demonstrate the skill or concept with your voice or instrument. The second step engages visual learners by drawing a diagram or model of the concept. The third step engages kinesthetic learners by demonstrating the concept away from the instrument but with the body, or by air playing. The final step puts the learned concept into real-life practice. Utilizing this four step process for teaching all concepts will allow teachers to incorporate multiple learning styles into their instruction on a regular basis. Recommendation and Conclusion My research and assessment results show that when students are afforded the opportunity to learn primarily through their preferred learning stylethey achieve statistically higher test scores (Gremli 1996). Engaging multiple learning styles during instruction means that more students will succeed more often. It is important to be aware of the effect that the way we were taught concepts and skills has on us as educators. While engaging multiple learning styles may or may not have been the way that we were taught, this best practice for teaching is ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 11
essential to creating a positive learning environment. I recommend that we as teachers strive to engage all learning styles into our instruction, whether this comes naturally to us or not. The sequence that Mixon discusses in his article and the Learning Styles Inventory are good places to start. I plan to continue to engage multiple learning styles as I become more and more equipped as a teacher. I hope that my fellow educators do the same.
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WORKS CITED
Gremli, Jack. (1996, November). Tuned in to Learning Styles. Music Educators Journal, 86(3). Pp. 24-27
Gumm, Alan. (2003, June 1). Music Teaching Style: Moving Beyond Tradition. Meredith Music Press. Galesville, MD. Pp. 131.
Isbell, Dan. (2012, January). Learning Theories: Insights for Music Educators. General Music Today, 25(2). Pp. 19-23.
Mixon, Kevin. (2004, February). Three Learning StylesFour Steps to Reach Them. Teaching Music, 11(4). Pp. 48-49.
Silver, Strong, Perini. (2000). So Each May Learn. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria VA.
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APPENDIX A Music Theory Notes Week 2
Note Names Please list all the possible note names (not including sharps or flats): ______________________
On the staff below, please mark the correct note names on each line and space.
Trick to help you remember the order of the note names for Treble Clef lines: _______________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Trick to help you remember the order of the note names for Treble Clef spaces: _____________ ______________________________________________________________________________
On the staff below, please mark the correct note names on each line and space.
Trick to help you remember the order of the note names for Treble Clef lines: _______________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Trick to help you remember the order of the note names for Treble Clef spaces: _____________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Vocabulary For the following vocab words, please write a definition of the word (for words marked * please draw a picture which illustrates the word).
How do you determine the name of the scale? ______________________________________
List the types of scales: _________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Major Scale: __________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Please draw a C Major Scale on the staff below.
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APPENDIX B Music Theory Notes 4 Note Names NOTES: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Scales NOTES: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ C MAJOR SCALE:
This is a _____________________ This is a ______________________
These are all ______________________________
Specific Steps: Half Steps and Whole Steps
Sharp
Flat Half step
Whole step ENGAGING MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES 17
APPENDIX C High School Choir Music Theory Quiz 2 (50 pts.) NAME: ______________________________
1. List all of the possible note names (1 pt.): _____________________________________
2. Order of Treble clef lines (1 pt.): ____________________________________________
3. Order of Treble clef spaces (1 pt.): ___________________________________________
4. Order of Bass clef lines (1 pt.): ______________________________________________
5. Order of Bass clef spaces (1 pt.): ____________________________________________
6. Please write a definition for each of the following vocabulary. For the vocab marked (*), please also draw a representation of the vocab word (1 pt. each). *Note head *Stem Key Signature Moveable Do Fixed Do Ledger line Accidental *Sharp *Flat *Natural Whole step Half step 7. What is a scale? (1 pt.) ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ 8. Name at least 3 scales that we will be learning about over the semester (3 pts.): ________ ______________________________________________________________________________ 9. List the order of half steps and whole steps for a major scale (1 pt.): _________________ 10. What are the 2 ways you can move between notes? (1 pt.) _________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ 11. What is an interval? (1 pt.) _________________________________________________ 12. How big is an octave interval? (1 pt.) _________________________________________ 13. How big is a unison interval? (1 pt.) __________________________________________ 14. A rest is (1 pt.) __________________________________________________________
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15. For each of the following rests, please indicate how long the last (1 pt. each):