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Experiential Learning And The Journey
experiential learning, inspiring teaching, learning methods, oboe, wind instruments
Date : 21/01/2016
Author Information
Uploaded by : Maria
Uploaded on : 21/01/2016
Subject : Oboe
The
difference between an oboe student and a flute, clarinet, saxophone or recorder
student is that the oboe student will need much more time in order to produce a
proper sound and to be able to play pieces and melodies. The opening of the oboe
reed is tiny, so the player cannot put a large quantity of air through the
reed, only fast speed of air, which studies show is between 180 and 420
kilometres per hour.[1]
This needs a complicated breathing and support system, with lots of the
diaphragm and the abdominal muscles being involved. There are even more crucial
differences between the oboe and the other winds, making the other winds easier
to produce a sound on: for example, that the oboe player has to breathe in AND
breathe out[2]
and, if he does not learn how to do this, will end up with a feeling of
drowning in the throat, a shortness of breath in the chest and also a very
dangerous hyperventilation in the head.
So it does take time for a student to get familiar with all these issue
and start feeling joy in his playing and his music. It needs patience until the
oboe students reach a level where they will enjoy their sound and feel
comfortable with the instrument and their playing, but they also need
inspiration from the teacher and constant motivation to keep going. One way in
which the teacher might encourage this is to make the students feel that the
journey is more important and valuable than the final result. Students, and
especially oboe students for the above reasons, should enjoy what they are
experiencing through their learning journey, not only waiting for the final
purpose. I could not explain better this than the
Greek poet, Konstantinos Kavafis. He described the adventurous and exciting
journey of Odysseus before he arrived (after thirty years) back home in Ithaki:When you set out on your journey to
Ithaca, pray that the road is long […]Pray that the road is long.That the summer mornings are many,
when,with such pleasure, with such joyyou will enter ports seen for the
first time […]Always keep Ithaca in your mind.To arrive there is your ultimate
goal.But do not hurry the voyage at all.It is better to let it last for many
yearsand to anchor at the island when you
are old,rich with
all you have gained on the way […]”[3]. A journey
definitely includes exploration and discoveries. It is very important for the
student to explore his relationship with the instrument, to discover how he
will use the instrument to express feelings and emotions and how he will use
the technical aspects of the instrument through his body, which is very
different for every musician. This can be achieved with “experiential
learning”: when a student learns through experiences, and discovers and absorbs
knowledge through practical ways and not by just following verbal or written
instructions. It can be very effective and very suitable in music instrumental
education. A
student can explore and find how fascinating the relationship is that he can
have with the air which he passes through the oboe. Breathing gives life to the
wooden instrument in a very engaging way: the student can experiment and
discover how, when he is blowing with an angry way, he will have an angry sound
as a result when he is trying to be sweet and tender with his air, this is
giving a different result, and in similar ways the student realizes that he can
express a variety of emotions through the air and transform them into different
sound qualities. Through this experience, the relationship with the air becomes
very special for the student and this creates the foundation of a future
long-lasting relationship with the instrument. The
high importance of exploration and discovery for the music student is
wonderfully described in The Inner Game
of Music by Barry Green and W. Timothy Gallwey. It starts by suggesting a
teaching approach which allows the student to explore and discover what he has
to do through ‘awareness instructions’, and not ‘do this’ instructions: […] detailed verbal
instructions are seldom as effective as experience.This kind of teaching is quite
different from the ‘do this’ style of instruction with which everything from
tennis to music is usually taught. Instead of the teacher telling a student to
‘change the tempo in the last bar’, for example, they are more likely to ask
questions that focus the student’s attention on the problem areas. This allows
the student to make the necessary corrections without being told exactly what
to do.[4]They continue to discuss the result
of this approach:This approach to teaching and
learning de-emphasizes ‘instruction’ and relies more on the body’s ability to sense
problems and change them without first translating them into words. It’s an
approach that encourages students to be their own teachers. Watching someone else is one of
the ways to learn. But learning can involve more than just visual learning. It
also makes use of hearing, touch and the emotions. In each case, however, the
emphasis is on learning by some form of experience, rather than learning by
following instructions.[5]
This experiential learning has been supported by many pedagogues and psychologists,
such as John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James, Carl Jung, Paulo Freire,
Carl Rogers and others. They “gave experience a central role in their theories
of human learning and development” and they developed “a holistic model of the experiential
learning process”.[6]
The idea of the journey which was introduced at the beginning of this
chapter, and the enjoyment of the process and the experience rather than only
longing for the result, is totally consistent with the principles of experiential
learning formed by these scholars. One of the fundamental propositions of the
theory is that “Learning is best
conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes. The primary focus should be
on engaging students in a process that best enhances their learning - a
process that includes feedback on the effectiveness of their learning efforts”.[7]
Particularly, as Dewey notes, “[E]ducation must be conceived as a continuing
reconstruction of experience: . . . the process and goal of education are one
and the same thing”.[8]
This is exactly what the oboe student needs: achieving the goal by being
engaged in the process.
One of the most notable of these scholars, Jean Piaget, through his
theory of structuralism and the theory of stages, supported the idea that
children are curious to learn and the teachers should leave them space and time
to play and experiment.[9]
He said that “Whatever we experience, from the simplest natural stimulus to the
most complicated scientific knowledge, can be understood only from within our existing
knowledge”.[10]
This part of his theory was applied to music as well: “It is assumed that the
goal [of musical development research which takes as its model Piaget’s theory]
is to investigate the development of musical cognition or thought as it emerges
through the development of structures, rather than adopt a model of
investigation that emphasizes external learnings as the source of musical
abilities”[11].
A few years earlier (around 1900), Maria Montessori also supported
experiential learning. She said that “The greatest sign of success for a
teacher... is to be able to say, `The children are now working as if I did not
exist’”, a result of a “constructivist or ‘discovery model’”, used in
Montessori education, “where students learn concepts from working with
materials, rather than by direct instruction”.[12]
This is an educational model with great applicability to music instrumental
teaching, where there is a strong focus on individual practicing by the student
at home, where the teacher does not exist. Dewey said that "(There is a)
need of forming a theory of experience in order that education may be
intelligently conducted upon the basis of experience".[13]
This clearly can shape instrumental education, as music (and music playing) is
by definition an experience of creating feelings and emotions which music
students should definitely have the space to explore and discover.
[1] This information comes from the oboe professor Thomas Indermuhle in Corfu Oboe Summercourse in July 2010.[2] Breathing in and out is a very particular process for an oboe player: because of the tiny opening of the reed, he/she cannot put a large quantity of air through the reed, but mostly only speed of air. So most of the times he/she cannot use all the air he breathed in, and before breathing in again to take in even more, he/she has to breathe out first (exhaling the air which is left) in order to avoid the feeling of drowning and dizziness, and tightness in the throat.[3] “[…] Not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches. Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage. Without her you would have never set out on the road. She has nothing more to give you. And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. Wise as you have become, with so much experience, you must already have understood what Ithacas mean”, Cavafy C.P., Ithaka, Collected Poems, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis, revised edition, Princeton University Press, 1992.[4] Green Barry with Timothy W. Gallwey, The Inner Game of Music, MacMillan Publishers, London, 1987, p. 146.[5] Ibid, p. 146.[6] Kolb, Alice Y., Kolb, David A., ‘Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jun., 2005), p. 194.Some of the scholars mentioned here, such as Dewey and Piaget, were cognitivists. “Cognitive interpretations are concerned with the cognitions (perceptions or attitudes or beliefs) that individuals have about their environment and with the ways these cognitions determine behavior. In these interpretations, cognitive learning is the study of the ways in which cognitions are modified by experience”, quoted in Hill F. Winfred, LEARNING a survey of psychological interpretations, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1980, p. 26.In general, cognitivism was in contrast with behaviorism, which will be mentioned in the subsequent chapters, but in this essay elements from both theories are selected and presented, which are not contrasting to each other.[7] Ibid.[8] Ibid.[9] Murphy, Georgina, Research presentation at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 17/02/14, London.[10] Bringuier, Jean-Claude, Sideri, Kastaniotis Publications, Athens, 1978, p. 70. [11] Mary, Serafine L., ‘Piagetian Research in Music’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, No. 62 (Spring, 1980), p. 3.[12] From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education retrieved 25 of March 2014.[13] Kolb & Kolb, Learning Styles and Learning Spaces, p. 193.
This resource was uploaded by: Maria