INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING AND THE CURRICULUM EXAM

SECTION A

QUESTION 1

Arthur Costa describes 16 habits of mind which are patterns we refer to in order to engage our intelligence.

Some people are persistent. They want to try different ways of problem solving and don't give up easily. If something doesn't work, they will try another solution and will find ways to back up their solutions. They are thorough in their application to problem solving and welcome a task that is not clear cut.

Some people are blessed with listening ears and wish to hear and understand. They pick up auditory and visual cues (reading body language) and show empathy by paraphrasing what they heard in order to understand. From this solid base they can then formulate their own ideas.

People with a flexible habit of mind are adaptable and creative with a sense of humour. They are multi taskers and lateral thinkers with a variety of ideas and options. They are skilled at perceiving the required approach to a task and enjoy employing novel and alternative approaches. They understand relationships and rules and how to work within and around them.

Some people apply their past knowledge to a new situation in order to understand or make it meaningful. They use recalled information to make sense of and experience a new learning event.

Humour and laughter is a habit of mind employed by some. They playfully find the funny, incongruous side of things and have original and interesting perceptions. Sometimes the humour can be inappropriate or imbalanced in relation to the situation.


QUESTION 2

Gardner's nine intelligences include

Visual and Spatial Intelligence
Students who learn by seeing a visual representation of a concept, or whose attention can be gained well visually.
They like artistic, eye catching material. They would respond well to visual cues and materials such as graphs, tables, maps, charts, artwork, cartoons, videos

Bodily an Kinesthetic Intelligence
Students who like to be physical with their bodies by moving, dancing, exercising, active play. They learn by doing and being given opportunities for hands on work

Musical and Rhythmic Intelligence
Students with a natural musical ability who can discern rhythms and patterns and can pick up ideas through songs and playing music

Intrapersonal Intelligence
Students who are self aware and intuitve. They have a good relationship with their inner world, their emotions and ideas and can connect their learning to what is meaningful for them. They may enjoy their own company and prefer working alone.

Interpersonal Intelligence
Socially active students who enjoy interacting and talking with others. They would benefit from groupwork or partner work.

QUESTION 3

Piaget's fundamental contribution to child psychology was to theorise on how children think, learn and act at various stages of their development. He developed the ideas of constructivism where students construct their own knowledge and where mental patterns and ways of learning are considered

Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development from birth to adulthood whereby a person's learning abilities are affected by their environment and their stage of maturity. He proposed that tasks need to suit a child's cognitive stage for effective learning to occur..

From birth to approximately 2 years of age, is the sensorimotor stage, when a child experiences and learns through the senses and motor actions
From around 2 to 7 years is the preoperational stage when a child's language is developing and he/she can identify and classify objects
It is at the concrete operational stage from 7 to 11 years when a child starts to think logically about the physical world
And finally, at the formal operational stage from 12 years to adulthood the capacity for abstract thought emerges.

In the earliest two stages, children experience the world and undertake new learnings by acting them out physically and as they become concrete operational, thought becomes more complex.

New ideas can be assimilated, where they are understood by linking them to existing ideas. However when existing ideas are no longer relevant they are accomodated by changing the idea and new learning occurs.


QUESTION 4

Vygotsky's significant contribution to understanding how children learn was his social development theory. He found that people learn most effectively in social situations and culture is a major influence on learning.

Problem solving by interacting with a partner or in a group is Vygotsky's ideal way of acquiring knowledge. Our cognitive skills develop by participating in social learning experiences. We learn concepts twice, in a social situation and by internalising the idea.

The zone of proximal development considers a child's potential for development. It is not only what a child is capable of doing alone, but what he'she can do with help and guidance from an adult or another person/s that more accurately reflects the child's mental capacity.

The teacher can connect to students in a culturally relevant way, then assist them to learn. By providing opportunities to collaborate, meaningful recipricol learning can take place.


SECTION B

QUESTION 1

Expert teachers have a deep understanding or their specialist field and are able to help students integrate knowledge by being adaptable and selective in teaching essential information. They can sense a student's cognitive processesand can find ways to remedy shortcomings. They relate current material to previously learnt subject matter both within their field and in the wider curriculum.

Expert teachers are flexible, able to improvise and are good at anticipating problems. Thay are concerned about the efficacy of their teaching and welcome and act on feedback. Through an effective mix of student centred and content based learning, focus is maintained, objectives are met and student queries and concerns are provided for and utilised meaningfully.

These qualities are part of an ability to identify essential representations of the subject and come from a great love of one's subject, a love of service, teaching and learning and a genuine interest in developing quality relationships.

Expert teachers can guide learning through classroom interactions. They are constantly multitasking and are aware of what's happening in the classroom at different levels. They encourage students to be active participants in the learning process and ensure the environment is conducive to learning and is a safe place to "have a go" at problem solving and expressing one's viewpoint.

Students are more likely to respond when being taught by someone who shows an interest in them personally and individually and who shows respect and commitment . They would be less inhibited and likely to be reached through the various strategies an expert teacher is likely to employ. And passion and enthusiam are cintagious for as young people are particularly impressionable, the optimism and eagerness of an expert teacher helps students stay involved in constructing their own knowledge.

Students benefit from expert teachers' abilities to tune into intellectual and emotional needs, then pinpoint solutions, drawing on a wide range of skills and experience. They take time to "read" a situation or an attitude, understand it and problem solve creatively. Monitoring feedback is given ample consideration.

An expert teacher imparts a positive yet challenging approach and expectations of high standards and mastery whilst nurturing self esteem. Students are encouraged to manage their own learning and rise to challenges, acheiving outcomes at surface and deep levels.

All these qualities seem equally important but if i had to choose, I would say respect for the students, otherwise why be there?, combined with a deep knowledge and passion for the subject and the ability to improvise (especially as a music teacher!), which is a solid grounding for learning and teaching. To have a sound knowledge base from which to draw and to impart this knowledge in varied and integrated ways can already be an inspiration for students - to observe someone so skilled in their field. To be able to respond to whatever happens and make it up as you go as well as be an organised expert in your field covers a lot of teaching ground.


QUESTION 2

Methods to use to cater for individual differences in the classroom.

I would endeavour to become aware of students' abilities and interests through activities designed to identify these and where possible find out how they get along in other classroom and social situations.

I would address three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective, for example analysing a song, playing a song and responding emotionally to a song.

By using Gardner's 9 intelligences and possibly Costa's habits of mind as a guide,individual differences could be identified and catered for. Students could be given choices of tasks and how to complete them, ie verbally, written, pictorially, demonstrated, musically performed solo or in a group, relating to nature,emotions or ideas.

For example, a presentation of a composer and one of his/her works may be role played, listened to with visuals, written about, visually and artistically interpreted, a time line, a musical analysis, a multi media presentation.

Bloom's taxonomy provides a structure catering for different levels of complexity and ways to go deeper into a subject via knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

A way to apply this to individual learning needs, for example, is to give students activities where they are to learn the structure of a major scale. They can write C major scale in notation or letter form, marking the degrees, tones and semitones (knowledge), sing or play a scale by reading or from memory and say where the tones and semitones occur (comprehension), be able to sing/play/write a different major scale (eg G major) using the tone/semitone formula (application), talk about how these scales are related (analysis) and play or compose a melody based on one of these scales, identifying the degrees, and where tones and semitones occur (synthesis). They can hear or see if they are correct (evaluation).

This entire activity could be quite complex for some students but the completion of the first two stages would be a satisfactory initial acheivement.

Group work is a great way to learn and accomodate differences, as individuals strengths and weaknesses are pooled together and affect each other. Everyone has something to contribute and growth and learning will surely occur (Vygotsky's social theory). Jigsaw and think/pair/share are effective group work methods and it is good to rotate group members for different projects.

One can ask lower and higher order questions and encourage shy students to respond. Also, modelling (demonstrating), individual coaching, scaffolding (providing a variety of levels of support), articulation (step by step description by students of how they problem solved), critical reflection and exploration all serve to provide for individual differences.

So see where students are at (recognition of prior learning, interests, mood), meet them there and take them on a multi-layered learning journey. And have fun!


SECTION C

QUESTION 1

boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au is the essential site for all nsw teachers. It provides syllabus for creative arts, of which music is a part, K to 6, and music syllabus for year 7 to 10 (stages 4 and 5) and year 11 and 12 (stage 6).

On the left side of the home page are a list of access points to various areas including HSC, school certificate for year 7 to 10 and K to 6.

Click on HSC Exam papers and "M"to access those available from past years, with notes from the marking centre.

At HSC level are Music 1, Music 2 and Music Extension, found under "M". An introduction to the syllabus, support documents which include examples of how to outline and assess a unit, draft performance bands which set out what is needed to achieve a "band" or grading, past exam papers and notes on them, marking guidelines, specimen HSC exam resources, sample marking guidelines for practical tasks and submitted works and advice regarding the latter.

There are HSC exam and timetables and important dates for practical submissions and marking, resources and textbooks and updates, rules and procedures, a guide for year 10s entering the new HSC.

There are syllabus and assessment resources including FAQs, newsletter, standards setting, glossary and course descriptons.

Clicking on HSC assessment on the home page takes you to HSC assessment policies and documents including rules and procedures, advice to parents and teachers and "All my own work".

Under advice re: HSC assessments and submitted works is an example of a student declaration form that music composition students are required to fill out.

School Certificate has syllabus for years 7 to 10, course performance descriptors, guide to the syllabus, advice on programming and assessment, Life Skills (for students with special needs) planning, programming and assessment, Life Skills outcomes worksheet. there are rules and procedures and portfolio credentials, and school statistics that date back to 1955.

Back on the home page, the assessment resource gives access to all levels of study and acheivement where samples of students' work can be found with their grading and commentaries.Then there is advice on work samples and the grade alignment process and the common grade scale.

Manuals and guides inform about things such as equipment checklist for exams, recognition of prior learning, applying for special provisions, and guides to assessment practice.

Special education needs provides support for teachers of life skills students.

Vocational education

Official Notices and the board bulletin have a variety of current information including a note about the use of unusual musical instruments or sound sources in HSC music exams.

Down the middle of the home page is The HSC exam timetable, respect and responsibility, values and education information, Aboriginal educational contexts, special education needs and certificate test reports.

In the ICT section, click on the database and choose music and the relevant stage to attain outcomes, content and syllabus requirements regarding computer based work.These pointers can be incorporated into lesson planning.

On the right of the home page, are relevant partner sites AMEB NSW and ENCORE.The latter site can be shown to HSC students so they can hear outstanding performances and compositions of previous HSC students, which would serve to motivate and inspire them and perhaps give them some ideas.

One can program the music curriculum using the syllabus as a guide. It shows the pathway of learning from K-12 and the three main learning experiences are addressed through out the document, those of listening, composing and performing. Objectives, outcomes and content can be used to inform programming and lesson planning. For example a unit could comprise essential content, Australian music and individual lessons could be based on one or more musical concepts of pitch, duration, expressive techniques, tone colour, texture and stucture.

A lesson based on tone colour could be adapted from the content overview:
for students to explore, identify and discuss the following aspects of tone colour in relation to traditional and contemporary aboriginal music:
• sound source material, for example, wood, metal, string, skin, electronic and vocal
• combination of sound sources, for example, single voice, multiple voices, voices accompanied or unaccompanied by instruments
• method of sound production, for example, blowing, hitting, plucking, scraping and shaking.

The syllabus also indicates key competencies, such as orgainising ideas, communicating information and working with others in teams, environmental considerationas, using mathematical ideas and technology. It suggests ideas for topics which can be
used for a series of lessons such as jazz, music for film,tv and multimedia, and music of a culture.

Basically the syllabus is a great resource guide and helps one organise ideas and concepts into learning experiences and how they might be assessed.


QUESTION 2

Planning is important because students need structure, both cognitive and behavioural, so they can have a sense of direction and place. A well thought out and presented lesson will serve to stimulate and engage and provide a focus for working towards goals.

Lessons should be planned with a beginning, a middle and an end where Gagne's instructional events and Bloom's Taxonomy may be followed, Vygostky's Zone of Proximal Development can be considered and Gardner's multiple intelligences can inform the content and tasks to ensure effective learning. Student's need to be informed of what they are expected to learn, both as a guide and a motivational force, and then provided with opportunities to explore the subject matter in a variety of ways, particularly in student centred activities.

The school curriculum, state syllabus and the teacher's own interests all come into play when planning a lesson, as well as consideration of the students wants, abilities and needs. A well rounded and organised approach should contain the what, how, when and why of the lesson and allow for questions, critical reflection, perceivable outcomes, feedback and evaluation.

Relating new experiences to what students already know is a fundamental concept of constructive learning
One can refer to previous lessons and consider the developmental stage of students to have an idea of their prior learning. What, if anything, do they already know about the subject. Are there skills already existing that can drawn upon and extended? What attitudes or ideas do students have already and are there concepts they are familiar with?

Background knowledge can then be tapped into as a means of understanding the new material. Understanding a students' cultural world of interests, attractions and inspirations are also important factors to stimulate and help make learning experiences relevant and accessible. For example, in a music lesson on song structure, a current popular song most likely known by all can be used to listen to and analyse. Students can then find another song with a similar structure which allows for their own input and interests.

By beginning a lesson in a novel or surprising fashion, such as having them perform a quick body percussion exercise to warm up (physically, to each other and to the lesson) their attention will most likely be commanded. An obvious visual cue, such as a question on the board to be answered or a new instrument placed in the middle of the room would also arouse interest.

Gagne suggests that gaining attention is the first strategy needed in a lesson and stimuli should point to the content and serve to orient students to task. Devising routine whereby students know what to expect and respond accordingly is effective and allows for consistency and engagement.

Music can be a great motivator as a stop/start cue for example, as year 9 students enter the eurythmy room they are greeted with motivating music to get them into their first exercise and the music stops when they have completed it. When students are becoming restless or distracted, playingthe beginning of the music for the next exercise alerts them to the task at hand.

Assignments should incorporate layers of learning strategies, such as Gardner's multiple intelligences and Bloom's taxonomy, in order for a student to gain deep understanding and higher order thinking.

Group based projects allow for exchange and transmission of ideas and allow for social learning. Some verbal or written follow up regarding findings could be presented.

Explicit instructions on what information is to be gathered, recalled, analysed, synthesised and evaluated should be given. Strategies includewritten assignments with specific questions, verbal presentations of knowledge and performance to demonstrate a skill. For example, a student may be asked to explain the meaning of semitones and tones, write some examples, play or sing them, identify them aurally or visually and include them in a melody.