Artful, Tuneful, Beatful

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!

In the past five years I have taught a great variety of ages (pre-K through 12th grade) in a variety of locations from an upper class high school in the suburbs to a rural middle school to my current location at a preschool serving at-risk children in an urban setting.  Through all of these different experiences I have learned tons about teaching and music and children, but mostly I have learned that the most important element in the success or failure of my classroom is classroom management.

It’s no secret that it doesn’t matter how much you know or how brilliantly you communicate it if you can’t get the kids to shut up and listen.  Even though the motivation of misbehavior varies widely between students of different ages and the effectiveness of various punishers or reinforcers also varies, there is one motto that seems to apply to every age of kid:  Have a system, work the system.

It sometimes surprises me how many of my colleagues throughout the years have struggled with discipline in their classrooms and yet do not have an explicit classroom management system.  By “explicit system” I mean a specific set of rules paired with a specific set of consequences.  It is a psychological fact (as much as anything in psychology can be classified as a ‘fact’ I suppose) that elementary and some middle school students see “the rules” as written in stone and delivered from on high.  You and I know that “don’t chew gum” is an arbitrary regulation that we invented and we can just as easily bypass, but the children do not necessarily know that! If you have a set of rules and you stick to them, following them with a consistent set of consequences you can maintain the illusion that you are all subject to some sort of higher power.  This is an excellent classroom management technique because it puts an end to arguments, negative feelings directed at you and complaints that things are not fair.  It is in your best interest as a teacher of young children to promote the illusion that the rules are the rules and the consequences are the consequences, it is not up to you.

Some middle school and almost all high school students are too clever (or morally developed) to fall for this trick, of course.  Even so, if you have an explicit, fair, consistent system adolescents and teenagers will respond to it.  There’s nothing worse to an adolescent student than the perception that discipline is applied unfairly or inconsistently.  Teenagers will, in general, respond positively to rules if they make sense and are applied fairly.  Once again it is in your best interest to have a system, work the system.

Teaching preschool as I do I like 123 Magic for Teachers.  It is simple, and I strongly agree with the idea that behavior management should be implemented without emotion and with as little talking as possible.  I have learned first hand while I was teaching middle school band that yelling, begging and pleading are not only ineffective they are also damaging to the classroom community.  There are a million and one effective classroom management strategies out there and every individual has to find one that suits her personality.  The important thing is to establish specific rules and pair them with specific consequences, then work through those consequences as misbehavior dictates.  Promote the illusion that you are all subject to a higher moral authority that imposes “the rules” and demands “the consequences” when they are broken.