TEDx TwenteU: Interaction technology for better teaching

Rethinking teacher education: Interaction technology to increase confidence in teaching music – Benno Spieker

When our children were in primary school and I asked their teachers about the music lessons they would teach to my children, there were always teachers telling me that they wouldn’t because music teaching was not really their cup of tea or because they couldn’t sing or just were not musical. 

For many years, I have been teaching future teachers about how they can teach music to children in primary schools and whenever I asked my students how they felt about teaching music themselves, there were always students who rather wouldn’t, because – again – music teaching was not really their cup of tea, they couldn’t sing, or just were not musical. 

What they really meant was that they hadn’t learned to play a musical instrument. Or they compared there singing to that of Adèle and Beyoncé. Most of all, they expressed their lack of confidence in teaching music.

In schools all over the world, there are children who do not have music lessons because their teachers don’t feel confident in teaching music. When I asked my students with a lack of confidence about the reasons for that, there were always students telling me that they had no music lessons in primary school and, when doing field practice, that their mentors neither teach music, so why should they?

We are in a loop of teachers not teaching music because their teachers did not teach music to them. Imagine that we do nothing to break this loop and it becomes a downward spiral because fewer and fewer children have music lessons. Imagine what you would hear in future schools: you would hear the sound of … silence … 

I am really worried about this. Research has already shown that music education can have great impact on children’s development and their future lives, in many ways. Music education is of course important for those who want to learn about music to enjoy it as a hobby or to make a career out of it.

But music education can also benefit children’s social development and their health and wellbeing. That is important for all. And it can develop the listening skills that are fundamental for learning language. That is not only important, but even crucial for those who struggle with reading and writing.

What we need is that our teachers get their confidence back so that our children benefit from their music lessons. 

In my research I explore how we can accomplish this by using interaction technology in teacher training. Technology, such as apps, websites, games VR, AR, robots, that we can interact with and that responds to what we do and vice versa. Could that make a difference?

I know that teacher trainers work hard and do their utmost to prepare their students for teaching music. I know they also use interaction technology: websites for teaching music, apps for practicing music skills. But it is apparently not enough for teachers to feel confident. 

We must do things differently. If we use interaction technology in teacher training we should use the technology smarter. Use it to solve the challenges that teacher training faces.

We know that the backgrounds differ a lot between teacher students. Some already play a musical instrument, others don’t. Some already have experience in teaching music, others don’t. These differences make that it is quite challenging for teacher trainers to sufficiently support each of the 20-30 students in a music pedagogy class individually in the limited time available. It is impossible!

My assumption is that interaction technology can make the difference by addressing these kinds of challenges. By supporting teacher trainers in their guidance of each individual student. Or by giving students more opportunities to practice skills without the need for extra time or the teacher trainer to be there in person. 

What interaction technology should we then use? And what should we use it for?And how should we implement it? 

In my research we try to answer these important questions by designing and building different examples of interaction technology. Prototypes that we can test and evaluate in the field. We explore ways to give students more opportunities to practice music teaching skills and to make teacher training more efficient and more effective.

Imagine you are a teacher guiding 20-30 children playing enthusiastically on their musical instruments and imagine that you must determine what is really going on musically: Who plays the correct rhythm? Who doesn’t? Who is too fast, who is too slow, too loud, too quiet? And then decide in a split second how to act on it. 

This is quite challenging. Teacher students must learn quite some skills. Learning skills is about doing things over and over again until you master it.

One way these skills are typically trained is by practicing the music teaching as if it were for real. One student in the role of the teacher in front of the other students in their roles of children playing music. But how efficient is this approach really?

Students learn more when they are actively involved in the learning. 
But are they? 

There is usually not enough time for all students to stand in front of the group and for all students to have a turn in giving feedback. The feedback is usually given after the student in front of the group has already finished so the students in the group cannot immediately give feedback on what they see. The student in front of the group cannot adjust their behaviour during the teaching. And what about the focus of the students in the group? Is it really on the teaching to be learned or on their own music playing?

Now imagine that we use interaction technology and each student would be able to train the music teaching in a virtual classroom, by themselves at their own convenience, without the need for the teacher trainer to be there. That could save time and students would be able to practice specific skills over and over again.

Or imagine that, without VR, all students in the group would be involved in giving feedback, focused on the music teaching to be learned, at any time of the lesson. Wouldn’t that be more efficient?  I would really like to know this.

That is why we have developed interaction technology, a webapp that is currently being tested in different teacher training institutions. The webapp makes it possible for all students in the group to give real-time feedback via the teacher trainer to the student in front of the group. And it makes it possible for the teacher trainer to direct their students’ focus on the teaching to be learned. We test whether this helps all students with their individual learning needs and how this can make teacher training more efficient and effective. 

Based on what we see so far, I believe that enriching teacher training with interaction technology – but in a smart way – will help teacher trainers to overcome the challenges they face and eventually help students to better learn how to teach music, so they feel confident to teach music to children.

Imagine that, as a result, all children have good music lessons in their schools. Children will benefit from the impact that music education can have on their development and future lives in many ways. Those who will become teachers will teach music to their students and those of their students who will become teachers will teach music to their students and so on.

There will no longer be a downward spiral. We will be in the loop that we need to be in: Teachers teaching music because their teachers were teaching music to them. 

Imagine what you then will hear in our schools. Not the sound of silence but you will hear the sound of … music.