A matter of presence: A qualitative study on teaching individual and collective music classes

TY - JOUR

T1 - A matter of presence

T2 - A qualitative study on teaching individual and collective music classes

AU - Schiavio, Andrea

AU - Biasutti, Michele

AU - van der Schyff, Dylan

AU - Parncutt, Richard

N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: A. S. is supported by a Lise Meitner Postdoctoral Fellowship granted by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): project number M2148. D. v.d. S. is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.

PY - 2018/11/2

Y1 - 2018/11/2

N2 - In the current study, 11 expert music teachers were asked to reflect on their own practice and compare their experience of individual and collective teaching settings. Adopting an approach based on grounded theory, two interrelated themes were identified in the raw data: teaching issues and professional development. In both categories, the notion of ‘presence’ emerged as a defining feature of the comparison. Teachers reported to be less present in collective settings, whereas one would expect that the higher (cognitive, teaching, etc.) demands associated with more learners would result in teachers being instead more involved in the unfolding dynamics of the lesson. Inspired by the conceptual tools offered by the Extended Mind (ExM) approach, we suggest that in collective settings teachers feel less present because they can offload the cognitive role of ‘teacher’ onto the learners, giving rise to a hybrid extended system that fosters a shared sense of responsibility, where pedagogical dynamics are functionally distributed across the whole group. In reporting excepts from music teachers, and adopting a novel perspective to frame our discussion, our research may contribute to existing literature in (collective) music pedagogy.

AB - In the current study, 11 expert music teachers were asked to reflect on their own practice and compare their experience of individual and collective teaching settings. Adopting an approach based on grounded theory, two interrelated themes were identified in the raw data: teaching issues and professional development. In both categories, the notion of ‘presence’ emerged as a defining feature of the comparison. Teachers reported to be less present in collective settings, whereas one would expect that the higher (cognitive, teaching, etc.) demands associated with more learners would result in teachers being instead more involved in the unfolding dynamics of the lesson. Inspired by the conceptual tools offered by the Extended Mind (ExM) approach, we suggest that in collective settings teachers feel less present because they can offload the cognitive role of ‘teacher’ onto the learners, giving rise to a hybrid extended system that fosters a shared sense of responsibility, where pedagogical dynamics are functionally distributed across the whole group. In reporting excepts from music teachers, and adopting a novel perspective to frame our discussion, our research may contribute to existing literature in (collective) music pedagogy.

KW - collective music lesson

KW - Extended Mind

KW - music teacher

KW - musical learning

KW - presence

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058687064&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1029864918808833

DO - 10.1177/1029864918808833

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85058687064

SN - 1029-8649

VL - 24

SP - 356

EP - 376

JO - Musicae scientiae

JF - Musicae scientiae

IS - 3

ER -