Situated Cognition

Greetings all and welcome back to my blog!

Today in our class we discussed situated cognition. Learning and thinking within the context of the authentic situation. Students learn best when tools, activity and culture combine. Tools can be more than just literal tools, they can also be concepts. I thought of two examples in my music class. If I want students to learn how to play the drums, it's best if I give them the opportunity to play and learn through their experience. Standing up front and explaining and demonstrating are not enough and will not give a student the full knowledge of how to play. Tools can also be concepts. The concept of dynamics is an important part of music production. Rather than just showing a flashcard with the symbol "p" and telling students it stands for piano, which means soft, they would be better served by singing a song piano and then later forte (loud) to learn the contrast. They are learning through the activity of the discipline. I am not teaching music, I am teaching musicians.

Enculturation is an important part of the learning process, as well. In my music class the other day, we discussed the reasons why people make music. Most of the answers were reminiscent of " it's beautiful" and "it makes life less boring". But there were also students that I knew had never thought of this question before. Relating the context of the culture of the music world, I asked my students to name some music professions. The list varied but mostly revolved around singing and performing. I let them know that my father in law is a music producer and my goal is to have them interview him soon via Skype. By seeing how music exists in the real world, my students can see the culture of music and be inspired to either make it a career someday or play or sing for fun and add to the beauty of our world.

We also learned about SPD- Structure, Process, and Discourse…. Structures are the nouns that we want students to know...In my case, terms like dynamics, tempo, rhythm, etc....

Process is the steps you take to achieve a certain end. For my older students, I would love for them to compose a piece of music. And the discourse is the way that it's communicated. So, a wonderful lesson in music class could involve learning the basic structures of a music theory, creating and composing a piece of music and then performing that piece for the class.

In addition, students need their ABCs... :)

ABCS-

Authentic Activities

This is what real people do- not school behavior. Again, this goes back to the potential Skype session wiht my father in law. We also have a cousin works internationally as a music producer, a friend who is a music therapist, and the list goes on... possibilities to make real world connections are endless.

Background Building Activities

A vocabulary list can be a part of it but not all of it. The definition of piano as "soft" can't be skipped in order to fully understand music dynamics but it shouldn't be where I end.

Constructing Activities- the teacher coaches but gets out of the way a little bit and puts it together. This is probably going to be my biggest area of growth. I have a hard time knowing when to intervene and when to get out of the way. But I'm getting there.

Sharing Activities- with an authentic audience… Priscilla gave the example of a weatherman visiting... I love the idea of having a professional musician come for a visit. Or having the kids perform for an audience.

And lastly,

AeCTS

A- Authentic Context- Create an authentic context. Think of a real situation that would require a solution. Hmm, still need to ponder this one more for music class but I have a few ideas in the works.. just don't know how authentic they are.

E- exit experience-  if you introduce an authentic problem, you better have an exit strategy- (ie. Skype)   

C- Clear outcome... what are we trying to accomplish? This is a very important part of the process so students maintain focus.

T-Thinking Skills- stop and think about what thinking is required.  Excellent listening skills are one of the many thinking skills required in music.

S- Software skills- think about what tools you have to scaffold... computer software for putting your music together.

I'm excited about all of the many possibilities that are in front of me and my students this year. In summary,

"Good learning designs recognize concepts as tools, situate those concepts in the context of their use reflecting authentic activity, conceptual tool, and culture, and analyze content for generalizable knowledge." This is the Third Design Principle: The Knowledge Principle.

I can't wait to see what next week brings and to start incorporating these ideas in my music classroom!