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Teachers
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Do you know why your students understand perfectly what to do all week but tend not to carry out their assignment well? Are you aware of just what makes adolescents perform with more anxiety than children, even though they have been performing since they were children? Do you find yourself staying in abusive relationships with parents then wondering why you do so?
Many of these and other questions have already been answered by psychological science but have not made it in to piano pedagogy; other questions are being answered, and others need to be answered. That is why a pioneering group of psychologists, educators and musicians formed SPPA in 2005. They were concerned about the lack of basic psychological information in the performing arts, from the private music teaching studio to the Conservatory. At the current time, piano pedagogy curriculums can do little to train teachers in developmental psychology, performance issues, motivation, learning and other issues; students who have psychological problems are largely considered unworkable and often limited to narrow types of study. So, recently, psychologists have begun doing research within music study itself, producing studies which convey the essence of the study in reporting the results. In that manner, we now have the best of psychological science, plus the basic and applied research which has begun in the field of music psychology itself.
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Some Recommended Readings |
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Teachers
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Here are some books that may help music teachers become familiar with psychology so they can begin helping their students. Check this page often as our membership grows. We will add publications as our membership publishes materials that examplify our agenda.
- How to Think Straight About Psychology (7th Ed.) by Keith E Stanovich. The information in this book is crucial for everyone in the performing arts who wants to understand psychology. It presents basic psychological principles in a jargon-free form that any non-psychologist can understand. As a musician myself, I understand the crucial need for all musicians to be able to tell the difference between psuedoscience and the real thing, and this book does it. It will also help in many other areas as well. It is for sale at every online bookstore and is very inexpensive.
- The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns, M.D. In this self-help book, you don't have to be depressed or anxious to benefit from the tenets in this book. As you read it, you will find that you say and do some of the things in this book (everyone does!) and even more important, you students say and think them. So, you may as well get started; first, on yourself to begin to manage your own thoughts, then when you become more sure of yourself, to begin to challenge some of the same thoughts in your students.
- Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns, M.D. In this self-help book, Dr. Burns explains the relationship between our thoughts (cognitions) and emotions. Through learning how to idendify our minsets and manage our dysfunctional thoughts, we can promote feelings well-being without having to take medications. The techniques outlined in his book are scientifically tested for their effectiveness. After discovering how you get in your own way, it is easy to see how your students are doing the same thing. You can help yourself by helping your students identify their own faulty thinking patterns. This is a remarkable book for anyone.
- Piaget's Theory of Cognitive & Affective Development, by Barry J. Wadsworth. This book introduces Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development to educators in a clear, conceptual manner. Understanding Piaget's contribution to theory of intellectual development has many benefits to teaching child and meeting their needs according to cognitive developmental level.
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Written by Dr. Marcie Zinn
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Every year hundreds of thousands of students enter the arts via private instruction, and every year just about as many drop out. Do we know the exact numbers? Do we have an approximation? No, we do not. No one has 'run the numbers.'
Do you know what learning "looks like" in the brain? Are you aware that you cannot feel your brain from the outside? Learning is a neurochemical change, so it can't be seen, and if you could feel your brain, you would not be alive long.
These paragraphs have something in common; that is, they present the need to bring science into the arts. In order to find the answer in the first paragraph, one would have to do a large scale longitudinal study. The second paragraph was taken from a presentation I saw at an arts conference. The presenter showed two slides, each with a neuron (brain cell) on the slide. The second slide showed a slight fatter neuron. The presenter claimed that was the physiological basis for learning. Later in the day another presenter claimed she could feel her cerebellum sticking out from underneath her skull. If that were true, she would have died in infancy. It is these plus many other "neuromyths"1 that permeate our profession (the arts). I am calling for all Arts Societies to aid in positive neuoreducation so as to debunk these myths. Myths find their way into educational policy and when they do, are very difficult to undo.
How many individuals do you know from your training who had significant anxiety symptoms? Even if you have arts training only, you still may be able to reflect on the incidence of clinically significant anxiety in the arts (it's upwards of 80%). Did any of those individuals ever seek treatment, did they seek treatment for the symptoms only (anxiety produces body symptoms, and treating the body symptoms won't treat the anxiety), or did they simply work around the issue by avoidance of anxiety-provoking situations?
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Teachers