Are You Really Doing What You Think You Are Doing In a Lesson?

Michaela Kelly performed a pilot study to find if a relationship existed between how a voice teacher rates their own effectiveness and how much the student sings in a lesson. Using the five categories of motivation, modeling, augmented feedback, verbal instruction, and student physical attempts, the author finds in observing lessons that a strong positive correlation between the percentage of time students spent singing and teachers’ self-rated effectiveness scores. However, students sang 25 percent of the time on average with the other 75 percent filled with teacher modelling or verbal instruction. The implication is that there is a disconnect between what applied teachers believe is happening in a lesson and what may actually be happening.

In the observed lessons, modeling, the demonstration of a skill, and augmented feedback, external information provided to the learner about their performance, were the most used instructional strategies. This shows that the master-apprentice tradition in the voice studio remains present to this day. In order to guide students toward autonomy, teachers may instead create space in their lesson to include student-centered approaches. They can use open-ended questioning and implementing tools that students can use in their own practice.

The results of this study imply that both voice students and teachers benefit when students sing more in voice lessons. Shifting instructional behaviors that encourage students’ physical attempts can positively impact their skill acquisition, goal setting, and practice habits. By creating more space in the voice lesson for students to sing, teachers can also feel a greater sense of effectiveness.

Kelly finds that the least used instructional behavior was motivation. Outlining the benefits of the tasks and helping with goal setting in lessons can increase student motivation. I think that helping the student find specific steps to take to work toward their goals helps me be a more effective instructor.