Teacher-student rapport in the secondary instrumental music ensemble: educational psychology and teacher disposition standards
Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Critical topics of teaching music continue to undergo philosophical evolution as unique concepts and perspectives are introduced by a variety of experts both in and out of the field. One concern among many is the role of the secondary music educator in the ideal classroom for student learning, part of which is impacted by teacher-student rapport. Teacher-student rapport is defined in this paper by the author as an adaptation of the general definition of rapport by Carey et al. (1986a): the quality of relationship between teacher and student that is characterized by communication and mutual, emotional understanding. The following questions were explored through content analysis of an education practitioner journal as well as literary analysis: how are teacher-student rapport-building strategies informed by the behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and humanist schools of psychology; how can the information garnered from a literary analysis guide the transformation of teacher disposition policy; what are best practice techniques for teachers to build rapport in the secondary instrumental ensemble as implied by the data? It is with the data and discussion of this study that the author hopes to support teachers' positive rapport-building efforts with students in the secondary instrumental classroom through the avenues of immediate classroom application, and policy transformation. Data reveals that articles in the Journal of Educational Psychology examining positive rapport-building elements most comprehensively cite principles of the constructivist school, and the top three cited psychologists are Albert Bandura, Abraham Maslow, and Jean Piaget. Recommendations for teacher disposition policy transformation are suggested to help preservice teachers cultivate positive rapport-building practice, and they include standards for promoting socio-cultural investment, positive expression, student discourse recognition, reflective practice, empathy, and effective communication. Examples of potential applications in the secondary instrumental music classroom include, but are not limited to, engaging in students' referential (Reimer, 2010) connections to rehearsed repertoire and permitting exploration of expressive interpretation of said connections; consistently raising standards of musicianship and community in response to achievement through promotion of reflective processes and demonstrations of exemplary performance; recognizing and utilizing students' abilities to think critically and abstractly about the expression and artistic merit of class repertoire. Other implications of best practice are refined from Bandura's (1986) self-efficacy, Maslow's (1943 & 1971) hierarchy of needs, and Piaget's (1952) schema and genetic epistemology theories. Finally, potential operations in chamber music are presented in relation to constructivist principles.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
educational psychology
secondary instrumental music
teacher-student relationship
rapport
education
teacher disposition