MENC: The National Association for Music Education is advocating School Tube, a website similar to YouTube that features educational videos. I was checking it out tonight when I found this amazing video of the PS22 Chorus singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth”. Absolutely incredible.
Even as a music educator I sometimes forget the amazing things young children are capable of. Shame on me and let this serve as a reminder of what they can do!
The performances are over, the tree is decorate and we only have four days of school left!! I for one will be pushing forward and keeping my students as BUSY AS POSSIBLE during this last week before break. I don’t think right before vacation is anytime to slow down if you value your sanity!!
Whatever holiday it is at your house I hope you have a good one (or just a nice, well-deserved break!)
A recent (and ongoing) conversation on the MENC chatboards leads me to discuss ways to motivate children in the music classroom. From an ed psych perspective people are motivated in two ways: extrinsic and intrinsic. I’m sure most of us remember from our undergrad days that extrinsic motivators are the things that come from outside the student (like rewards) and intrinsic motivators are internal to the student (for example the satisfaction that comes with accomplishment.)
Intrinsic motivation is obviously ideal, and music teachers are fortunate that students seem to be more intrinsically motivated in our classes than they are in others. Still, the reality is that not every student is going to feel intrinsically motivated to follow the rules, rehearse with diligence or practice their instrument at home. It would be nice if we could rely on intrinsic motivation completely and certainly we should foster it as much as possible, but at the end of the day we have to find a way to do our jobs and accomplish our objectives, whether the kids are feeling intrinsically motivated or not. This is where extrinsic motivation comes in and I don’t think that its wrong to use it.
There are a lot of different kinds of external motivators, for the purpose of this post I will call them reinforcers. Its important to remember to use the simplest type of reinforcer that will work. If smiles and praise work don’t use stickers, if stickers work don’t use candy, etc. Are any of us really going to assert that we think external reinforcers like praise, smiles, high-fives and hugs don’t have a place in a healthy, well-run classroom? These types of things certainly are extrinsic motivation. Furthermore the “high expectations” that we all know do so much good are external motivations as well! I have to disagree strongly with anyone who condemns the use of rewards in the classroom and instead insist that we need to use appropriate rewards and not go overboard.
Teaching preschool I have learned that young children have to be trained to do the right thing. Some of them get trained at home, which is terrific but some of them don’t, and that means it falls to us. Is that fair? of course not, but we are faced with the task of meeting our students where they are. Expecting a child to behave when no one has ever taught him what that means or given him a reason to want to will not do us a lick of good! I’m not sure how we can hope to foster and instill intrinsic motivation if we don’t use external motivators, within reason, to help us get off the ground.
I absolutely agree with the idea that some teachers are going too far with external motivators and their use of prizes is undermining intrinsic motivation to do a good job for its own sake. I also want to point out though that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and paint all reinforcers or external motivators as bad!
I went to a demonstration this afternoon about some Promethean equipment, including the interactive white board, student response systems and sound amplification. I have to say, I was impressed. Here is a short list of my random thoughts about Promethean equipment after the demo:
