As Penny Prince was working on her doctorate in music education while she was a lecturer at the college level, she observed the ways that her graduate teachers taught. She wanted to know why some were more successful than others.

[Check out community-building ideas in Lessons from Grad School, Part 1 from the HEAR Archives.]

Prince’s educational theatre teacher distributed “Exit Slips” in the last few minutes of each class to help himself and his students assess (anonymously) the learning that had occurred during that evening.

Said Prince, “Every few sessions, another lecturer had students fill out a quick questionnaire with the following questions:

• What am I (the professor) doing well?
• Where do I need improvement?
• What should we be doing more of?
• What should we be doing less of?”
   

According to Prince, “Every aspect of classroom management and teaching can be open to discussion and negotiation. This kind of power-sharing can make for extremely effective learning.”

As to don’ts, Prince says to avoid giving too much weight to a single aspect of a class, such as a research paper. And don’t overlook the in-class contributions of those students who are willing to share ideas verbally.

She also cautions against ever humiliating students or their work in front of others. The idea of public praise and private criticism works everywhere, but especially in the classroom.

MENC member Penny Prince is an assistant professor of music education at Lehman College of the City University of New York.

--Ella Wilcox, September 30, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)

Share ideas presented here with a colleague by clicking on “Share This Page” in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.