Reviewing my teaching philosophy

Over the summer I have been reading about learning; about short-term and long-term memory, and about building mental models to acquire skill. In teaching music, my aim is to instil a life-long love and appreciation of music in my students. I also want them to achieve the best possible mark in their examinations. I have been thinking about how to continue to do the former whilst achieving the latter.

The publication of the new GCSE and A level specifications has provided me with an opportunity to revisit teaching methods and to ensure that students are being taught in the best way possible. We know, from educational research, that some teaching methods are more successful than others. Christodoulou (2016) puts forward a compelling argument that the key to success is the ‘deliberate practice’ method as termed by Ericsson (1993). The deliberate practice model responds more accurately to the way our minds work and enables us to make a difference to long-term memory (Christodoulou, 2016). We know too that skill is specific, not generic, and is not easily transferred (Larkin et al. 1980). The type of practice that is most effective at developing skill is very specific and very focused, and is not about engaging in broad and complex activities such as completing past papers. In fact, even if students do well at completing past papers, if no change is made to their long-term memory, they have not truly learned anything from the activity (Kirschner, Sweller and Clark, 2006).

I have been working on a set of resources based on the technique of ‘over-learning’ which is a method intended to strengthen and consolidate the mental models in long term memory as advocated by Bjork (2011). The resources can be used as formative assessments which is an assessment model favoured by my school. The expectation is that, when completing my worksheets, students will get all of the questions right because the aim is to teach to mastery. If they do not score highly then the concept will be revisited immediately to address any misconceptions. This method helps a student to ‘build a firm long-term memory of the concept being taught’ (Christodoulou, 2016).

References:

Bjork, E.L. and Bjork, R.A., 2011. Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creatving desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In Gernsbacher, M.A., Pew, R.W., Hough, L.M. and Pomerantz, J.R. eds. Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society, New York: Worth Publishers

Christodoulou, D.,2016. Making Good Progress? The Future of Assessment for Learning. Oxford University Press.

Ericsson, K.A., Krampe, R.T. and Tesch-Romer, C., 1993. The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review, 100, pp.363-406

Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J. and Clark, R.E., 2006. Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41, pp.75-86

Larkin, J., McDermott, J., Simon, D.P. and Simon, H.A., 1980. Expert and novice performance in solving physics problems. Science, 208(4450), pp.1335-1342

Exexcel/Pearson Publications: Sample Assessment Materials Pearson Edexcel (SAMPE) Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in Music – Sample Assessment Materials – Issue 1 – December 2015. Additional Sample Assessment Materials Pearson Edexcel (ASAMPE) Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in Music – Sample Assessment Materials – Issue 1 – August 2016. (Also referred to as Specimen Paper Version 2) GCSE (9-1) Music Specification (issued 10 December 2015)