The Student Mindset

In pedagogy we have recently been summarizing the core objectives and goals of various theory fundamentals books, as well as what supplements are available for these titles.  One thing I have noticed is the increased frequency of including CDs and DVDs that supplement the written text.  While I am not certain what types of exercises or lessons are included on the external media, I am aware that there is a push by certain instructors to begin using these materials to extend learning outside of the classroom.  However, through personal experience I have found that students do not respond well to these exercises, not because they are poorly formed, but rather due to student mentality and associating these exercises with homework.

While I believe that a lack of basic knowledge in fundamentals leads to deficiencies in student analyses, I do not believe that students treat these exercises equally with their other work, despite its relevance to their musical careers.  I would like to expand upon this with a quick anecdote about Auralia.

I have spent the better part of the year trying to integrate and implement Auralia software with our freshman aural skills courses.  While the first semester went well, our attempts to use the software this spring have proven to be difficult, and I believe a large part of the issue is student willingness to actually work on these skills.  This past week, part of the quiz included chord identification (major/minor) and their inversion.  We received a lot of negative feedback concerning this question, with students claiming that it was too difficult, and that it didn’t tie into the overall class structure well.  However, one of the benefits of Auralia is that we are hooked into a server that allows us to view if students are practicing.  After these concerns, I decided to take a look at how many actually worked on test questions, and a total of six students worked on chord recognition before taking the exam.  Given this number, I can’t take these concerns too seriously, but I still feel the need to address these concerns.  While students don’t think twice about devoting hours to their instruments, the idea of practicing even fifteen minutes on music fundamentals is unthinkable to them, and I’m not sure what we can do to change their minds.