Transcript Exploring Similarities Between Effective College Teaching and Jazz

Exploring Similarities Between Effective College Teaching
and Jazz Composition
Brett Jones
At first glance, you may see few similarities between effective college teaching
and jazz composition. But good jazz compositions have many of the same
elements as effective college teaching. In this presentation, Dr. Jones will
describe some of these similarities in an effort to help you think about college
teaching a little differently. You don't need to know anything about jazz or
music composition to understand this presentation. You just need an open
mind and the willingness to listen to some jazz. By the end of the presentation,
you will understand the basics of a framework that can help you build on your
strengths and shore-up any weaknesses that you may have in motivating and
engaging students in learning.
Ethical Behavior Is Not a Research Skill:
Employing Music and Metaphor When Talking the Talk Is Not Enough
George Jackson
This session will demonstrate how instructors can complement traditional classroom
instruction with visual, verbal, and musical metaphors. The emphasis is on exploring
instructor and student common interests other than the applicable classroom topic,
and employing those commonalities as instructional accoutrements used to
emphasize critical points rather than primary pedagogical tools. Examples used by
the instructor will include photographs, parables, and music. Attendees will be
encouraged to identify other examples. At the session’s conclusion, to emphasize the
combined impact of surprise, common association, deep learning, and rote as
alternative pedagogical tools, the instructor (and hopefully, some attendees) will
employ musical instruments and jazz improvisation to demonstrate the association
between successfully navigating ethical challenges and mastering the musical blues
scale. In both instances, there is a marked difference between knowing the
applicable rules and effectively using them.
“Teaching is a people-centered profession.
....
One way you learn to teach is by borrowing moves
from the best teachers who stand in front of you –
or beside you.”
Leonard Cassuto
“How do you Measure a Good Teacher, Anyway?”
COHE 11/13/15, A38
NOTE: The Supplemental Readings include four stories about great teachers.
Yech!
Merriam Webster definition:
—used to express rejection or disgust. See yech defined for Englishlanguage learners. Examples of yech. <yech, I hate those bugs!
“A Discussion of American Ethics”
(Toby Groves & Thomas Weirich, CPA Journal, Dec. 2012)
The Why of Ethical Meltdowns? Genetics – No.
Psychological Disorder – No.
Greed – No.
Early Family Environment – No.
Conclusions
(1) Ethical Meltdowns begin with very small steps, then:
(2) You’re out of control – not acting from logic. “Visceral Factors”
(Definition of Visceral - : coming from strong emotions and not from logic or reason)
(3) This is especially problematic in “Americans” (vs. Asians) because of
Americans’ focus on “responsibility & individuality” versus “rules.”
“Conquer Yourself, Conquer the World,”
(Ray Baumeister, Scientific American, April 2015
We can’t control the environment.
So, we need to control ourselves?
Self-control (not self-esteem) is the driver.
Marshmellow study & follow-up.
Conclusions
Our stock of self-control gets depleted with repeated challenges (ego depletion)
We can “exercise” self-control, and get better (task carryover).
It’s not the “big challenge,” but repeated small ones that get us.
EFFECTIVE TEACHING – SOME EXCERPTS FROM EDUCATION & LEARNING THEORY
“If you get their attention, they’ll see the impact.”
(Lenora Jarvis Mackey, President of RCCDC, at Mtg. in Jan. 2016)
A.
DYNAMIC SYSTEMS THEORY – (From “The Faulty Foundation of
American Colleges,” Chron. Of High. Ed. Rev., 01/22/16, B6.
“[A]nalyze, then Aggregate (analyze each subject separately, then combine
individual patterns into collective understanding) rather than “aggregate, then
analyze (derive group statistics based on aggregated data, then use these statistics
to evaluate and understand individuals).”
Dynamic Systems Theory, cont’d.
Three Principles of Individuality
1. The Jaggedness Principle – virtually all human qualities are
multidimensional, and cannot be reduced to a single type.
2. The Context Principle – “Performance and behavior always depend on
the interaction of a specific individual and a specific situation.”
3. The Pathways Principle – “[E]every human learns, grows, and
progresses along a unique and highly dynamic pathway. There are no universal
norms of learning or development.”
Conclusion
Effective teaching requires a variety of approaches.
B. NARRATIVE PSYCHOLOGY – (METAPHOR - SIMILY – ANALOGY)
“How Stories Drive the Stock Market,”
Robert Shiller New York Times, Bu5, 01/24/16)
His argument:
Popular narratives, particularly human interest stories,
are fundamental drivers of motivation.
(citing the work of Jerome Bruner)
Some Effective Narrative Tools
(definitions from online Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Metaphor – The application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally
denote, in order to suggest comparison with another object or concept, as in “A Mighty
Fortress Is Our God.”
Mixed Metaphor – The use in the same expression of two or more metaphors that are
incongruous or illogical in combination, as in “The President will put the ship of state on its
feet.”
Simile – A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared, as in, “She is like a
rose.”
Analogy – A partial similarity between like features of two things, on which as comparison
may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
(GSJ STORY: Teaching SubChapter S (Repeal of the General Utilities doctrine) Story of John Bias.
C: SURPRISE! AS A TEACHING TOOL.
FOUR MASTERS OF THE ART
1. Frisky Merriman (See In Search of History).
2. David Chapman (See “My Life as Socrates”)
3. Domenick Scudera (See “The Professor is a Drag Queen”)
4. John Rassias (See “Foreign Language Expert”)
(All of these articles are in the Supplemental Readings)
D. MUSIC AS A TEACHING TOOL.
“The Science of Why a Song Stick in Your Head”
Melinda Beck (Wall Street Journal, D1, 10/27/15)
“Earworms” (involuntary musical images).
Appear during times of low cognitive load.
“Sonic screen savers” – they keep the mind entertained while
it’s otherwise idling.
“The Music Channel,”
Natalie Angier, New York Times, D1, 02/09/16
Americans listen to music nearly four hours per day.
Music is consistently ranked as one of the supreme sources
of pleasure and emotional power.
Every culture studied has music. Ex: flutes carved from
mammoth date back 43,000 years (24,000 years before cave
paintings).
Current debate: Did language evolve from music?
Music Channel, cont’d.
Study by MIT Neuroscience Professors (ongoing) using FMRI
(Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging).
Music arouses a different region of the brain than other sounds.
Music is similar to sight. Sight elicits several fundamental signals in
specific areas of the brain
( Pleasure - “I see food.” Fear – “I need to run.”)
The brain has six basic categorizing response patterns to sound:
four relate to physical properties (frequency, etc.), and one to
speech.
The mystery is the sixth one that responds only to music.
“How to Build a Better Learner,”
Gary Stix, Scientific American, August, 2011.
Infant response to tones, foretell future problems with language.
and with mathematics. (Cognitive Executive Function)
Can the plasticity (responsiveness to new stimuli) of the brain be
improved by training? Yes, particularly with young persons.
“Cognitive Executive Function” (its primary components).
1.
Ability to be attentive.
2.
Remember what you’ve seen/heard, etc.
3.
Delay gratification. (marshmallow test again)
“How to Build a Better Learner,” cont’d.
New “Four R’s” of Education.
1.
Reading.
2.
Writing.
3.
Arithmetic.
4.
Regulation (of impulses)
Northwestern Univ. Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory Findings.
Playing music (this is not applicable to just listening to music):
1.
Enhances listening skills.
2.
Enhances working memory.
3.
Enhances self-regulation.
CONCLUSION.
Keys to effective teaching in ethics:
1.
2.
3.
Keep their attention.
Give them a reason to remember.
Focus on Contextual Issues, not Rule Memorization.
Each student is unique, so go at it in a number of different ways. Music,
metaphors, pictures, and storytelling can play an important role.
To use a metaphor: It’s just like figuring out where you are –
triangulation.
To use analogy: Learning to behave ethically is like learning the
blues scale. The rules are simple, but execution is difficult. To
borrow from Dr. Johnson, you’ve got to “know it as your own.”
So
LET’S PLAY “C-JAM BLUES!”
Seven notes: C D# F F# G A# C
(and they’re all marked with dots on the piano)