I couldn't sleep last night and I was mulling various things over in my mind, and one thing that made me think, was how much difference there can be between how someone says and probably thinks they teach, and how they actually DO teach.

I can think of at least two teachers I've had who had qualifications that suggested they must have said and done all the right things in a teaching exam situation, or else who, when they talk about their teaching, give the impression they're probably excellent teachers, whose teaching was definitely lacking and far from lived up to their apparent knowledge of teaching methods etc.

I had a violin teacher at school who was absolutely lovely - she gained her dip during the year she taught me... very sweet person... dreadful teacher. She was really not very good at explaining the hows or whys of what she wanted me to do, and although I liked her very much, I gained little from her teaching.

How much of teaching is innate and how much is learned? How can someone have a diploma and still not actually be very good in a lesson situation?? (Not that, by any stretch, this applies to everyone with a teaching dip, of course)

(It's almost reassuring in a way when a teacher freely admits, "I don't know it all, I'm still learning, I'm not always certain what I am doing" as they do not, hopefully, then fall into the position of thinking they know it all as they know all the stuff, but failing to actually practise what they preach.)

How can I as a teacher safeguard against talking a good lesson and teaching a bad one?

Or is it just me who has had this unfortunate experience?

I think good instrumental teaching is a mixture between knowledge of one's instrument, patience and an understanding of how people learn. The last two are either instinctive on the part of the teacher, consciously learned, or the result of years of experience. On our CTABRSM course we were told: when a student fails to learn, always look to yourself first. We studied different learning styles and grew to recognise that there as as many different ways of learning as there are people. This can present problems in a group teaching situation, obviously!

I can see how an instrumentalist can have a performance diploma but still be lacking in their teaching skills (they may not have the instinct for it or have learned the skills necessary), but with a teaching diploma they should certainly have some idea. However, I've heard from not a few people that the CTABRSM can actually be a better preparation for being an instrument teacher than a teaching diploma (don't ask me why).

In my own experience the skills I learnt on the CTABRSM course for teaching certain detailed aspects of teaching (the finer aspects of the the bow-hold, for example) have been invaluable and I now base my teaching on them constantly. I also do a lot of reading up of various methods and try different things out constantly - what may work for one student may not work for another.

I've also realised that a teacher can be a fantastic player but if they don't know these aspects of teaching, may just teach the way they were taught, which may be a distant memory at best and which may not work for everyone in any case.

You also need to be prepared to go very slowly and go over and over something until it's understood -you need vast amounts of patience for this,and never to show the slightest annoyance even if you feel it (I no longer feel it, thank goodness!). You need to be able to get right into the student's head and understand why they don't understand something that you find perfectly obvious - like the student who hadn't understood that the sticks on the notes going one way or another do it for reasons of space on the stave, not for any other reason. Or that notes aren't randomly placed on the stave but go up like a ladder: space, line, space, line. Or that with the violinthe notes get higher as your fingers get nearer you although you may logically think they're getting lower. A lot of the skill of being a teacher is to be adaptable and to go at their pace, not your preferred pace.

I'm currently astonished by a new pupil who is able to move at a rate of knots - I'm not used to this!!! So I'm having to go against usual practice and move at quite a fast pace to keep her constantly challenged. Example: six days ago she had her first ever violin lesson. I taught her how to hold the violin in banjo position and pluck, first open strings. She managed that immediately, so I showed her how to place first finger. She got that straight away so I showed her second finger, then third. Then 1st, 2nd, 3rd on the A string as well. She came back today able to pluck every tune in the book, perfectly in tune.

So today I showed her how to pluck with the violin on her shoulder and then how to hold the bow (she got it immediately!!!). So then she started bowing the pieces she learned to pluck last week in her practice and before the hour was up she was able to play a tune using all the notes on both strings, with the bow, with a nice tone. I was totally gobsmacked to put it frankly. So she's gone away to practise all those and I can't wait for next week! What an extraordinary student - she seems to have the ability to listen to everything, observe and then put it into practice, completely correctly, or correcting herself immediately if she realises it isn't quite right. She's Swedish - I wonder if their great education system up there has helped? Probably - either that or she's naturally brilliant - or both.

Perhaps some teachers just can't deal with the fact that not all students are like that - in fact the vast majority of students are not like that - and we just have to slow down and be prepared to operate at a much slower pace - little steps all the time, while constantly checking to make sure the student has completely understood everything. It does take time, training, experience and lots of it.

As a teacher yourself, I'd say do a lot of reading up of various teaching methods and keep it all in a file, referring to it often. Try different ideas out and see how they work and always make sure your students feel they can stop you at any moment and ask you to explain something again if they haven't quite understood it.

Oops got to go!

Violinia

I wonder if it's because the teaching dip is testing the skills whereas the CT endeavours to teach them?? Just my impression. I wonder if some people are able to write good essays and teach well in a model student situation, but in the real world lack people skills?? I don't know... I imagine that most people with a teaching dip must have teaching ability, but I know from experience that there's no guarantee.

Thanks, great post, V, I shall be referring back to that as food for thought. And your Swedish student sounds like a dream pupil!!

Must add, Sarah, that having met you and spent a whole afternoon with you I have absolutely no doubt that you have all the patience and intelligence necessary to be an absolutely wonderful teacher. I'm sorry to hear your teachers haven't always been too great - in my experience a lot of teachers do tend to be a bit slapdash, preoccupied or stuck in their ways. I was certainly stuck in my ways and tended to be 'reactive' rather than 'proactive', something the CTABRSM mentors were constantly on the look-out for.

Perhaps the teachers on the teaching dip courses need to spend a bit of time from the teachers on the CTABRSM - sounds like they could learn from them....

Yes this Swedish girl is amazing - I hope I can keep up with her!!!

Violinia

thanks *

I'm not sure if it's a plus or a minus that I only have one student at the moment to experiment on try to help, but she seems to be doing OK!


* (I'll pay you later! )

In my experience in life in general, being confident in what you do whilst at the same time aware that you might not be quite as good as you think and are therefore constantly working to improve is a large part of the battle. I expect this applies to music teaching as well as other things.

Sarah Flute, on that basis, the fact that you are considering how well you actually teach is probably an indication that you are doing fine.

That's exactly my sentiments! Many of you will remember me tearing my hair out about my youngest's Flute Teacher. Well she's at it again with my eldest on Sax. If this woman thought about what she was doing in the way you have she'd know getting her to blow single notes with the parent sitting outside might cause questions to be asked.

Sarah I'm sure you're doing a fine job, from your posts you really care about your students and have their best intrests at heart, that's half the battle to being a good teacher.

I think there are two things that are fundamental to good teaching. One has to be knowing what you're on about (obviously ), which can be learnt - in some cases, as you go along, which I think is fine, as long as you're prepared to keep learning. (Which is why I don't think qualifications are always strictly neccessary.)

But the other is a bit more undefined, and it's an ability to relate to people as individuals and respond accordingly. In individual tuition it's not so much to do with being in control/planning/structuring. It's more to to do with reacting to the moment, whilst still seeing the Big Picture, being able to motivate without pressurising, and knowing when to lead and when to follow.

Who ever said it was easy?

Very well put, Dulciana. Perhaps the tuition on the teaching diplomas isn't as good as on the CTABRSM? Could be it's far more technical, whereas with the CT you learn a lot of the more human stuff - how to deal with learning difficulties and all the varying learning styles etc etc. Anybody with a teaching diploma prepared to talk about it? Especially if you've done the CT as well?

Violinia

I'm going to say something a bit controversial here:

Teaching is more of a mission, a vocation, not a simple job. and you can only learn it to a certain intent if you don't have the right personality. And if you have it or not has NOTHING to do with having any kind of teaching diploma. What you learn there is basically craftmanship, but it doesn't get you anywhere if you don't know how to use it. And you will never know it if you don't have a certain mental disposition, and that's something that can't be learned.

Many teachers (not the majority of course, but a reasonable amount) are frustrated musicians who can't make a living of their own musicianship. This doesn't mean they're bad musicians, since we all know that is is a highly competitive field. So they use the teaching as a "second hand choice" to earn money. Dangerous thing ...

Well! I can only react on personal experience. One of our teachers is a Musician, he teaches to supplement Orchestral work. One of the others I suspect choose teaching from the outset.

The Musician knows his stuff, he uses all the techniques required for his instrument and happens to be great at putting them across. He's never held my daughter back, is extreamly honest and supportive, doesn't have fixed preconceptions, thus allowing my daughter to progress at her own speed. The other focuses on technique all the time but hinders progress, my youngest ended up teaching herself and the eldest is demotativated. she didn't like teaching my second child as she took control of her own learning. she likes the eldest as she's compliant and dependant. Of course we know other people who choose teaching that are good at it and nothing like this person, but I'm not under the impression that Musicians make worse teachers than those who pick that profession at the outset.

I think that some people have the talent and skills to teach and it's not really about being qualified but more to do with personality, subject knowledge and as someone else said the ability to learn as they go along. Sarah stop worrying I'm sure you're doing a good job!

True

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I wonder if anyone else has come across similar teachers/had similar experiences, where apparent knowledge/qualifications have been backed up by lacklustre teaching?

Most of the jazz musicians I know supplement their playing with teaching. Many of them do this because they have families and aren't prepared to spend their whole time going up and down the country doing gigs! One jazz band I used to know spent their whole time performing all over the place, and all their marriages broke up over the years - even the band members ended up not speaking to each other.

Going into teaching as a 'second-hand choice' doesn't always turn out to be a bad thing - I went into it as a 'second-hand choice' and have grown to absolutely love it, to the extent that it's begnning to take over a bit.. blink: - it's quite hard to get the balance right at times. The lead guitarist in my band has also grown to love teaching - it's the utter pleasure of watching students grow and thrive and the fact you're able to pass on what you know. Of course if you really hate teaching you shouldn't be doing it, and I do know a few teachers who feel that way - it's a shame. But I suspect the majority enjoy it otherwise they'd find something else to do, surely.

Violinia

Do people who teach music as their full time job not also consider themselves musicians? This is something I have wondered about a lot...

You know Sarah I think in life people like this exist. It's not that they intend it, or set out to become that way more they are victims of circumstance as much as anything else.

The particular teacher I'm refering to seems to have issues with higher grades, so maybe she is outside her comfort zone. Believe me I didn't make a judgement without considering everyone's situation. I thought initially it was my lack of understanding of Music and that I was judging unfairly. However parents talk and I know one other family who had similar issues (their child gave up). My eldest is still happy with her on a personal level, but isn't making any progress, at nearly 15 she thinks it's her choice. They are both going to be in for a shock!!

I would be very suprised if you were in the same situation with your pupil. To start with questioning your ability shows you care and secondly none of your posts indicates that you are doing anything but trying your best to deliver a good service.

Certainly have - not confined to music or instrumental teaching either.



Hmm. Before I started to teach piano I was a science teacher (and considered myself a proper scientist) so what does that make me, a musical scientist???