Seeing the Big Picture: Distinguishing Reflection From Assessment in Music Education Methods Course Video Assignments

• In Event: Music and Arts Teacher Learning Through Classroom Video: Outlining Future Research Agendas

Abstract

Watching and reflecting upon teaching videos is part of many music education methods courses. Researchers (Bauer, 2010; West, 2013) found guided video-related experiences help preservice music teachers challenge assumptions and assess effectiveness. Over time, Blair (2013) observed growth in preservice teachers’ teaching video analysis. Some studies about teaching videos and reflective practice contain an indivisible element of assessment: instructor assessment of quality of student self-reflection (Powell, 2016), or student self-assessments of performance.

Assessment of quality may be assumptive, as when students are given video models assessed by instructors as exemplars of certain characteristics (Killian & Liu, 2018). The literature describes reflection at least three ways, as: (a) construction of personal teacher identity and pedagogy (Conkling, 2003); (b) reliving/retelling pedagogical stories, making sense of teaching experiences through sensitive, shared narratives (Blair, 2012); and (c) tool of methodical self-critique (Bartolome, 2013). Additionally, reflection and assessment are often confused. “Reflection is a personal process that can deepen one’s understanding of self and can lead to significant discoveries or insights, while self-assessment is a process that involves establishing strengths, improvements, and insights based on predetermined performance criteria” (Desjarlais & Smith, 2011, p. 3).

Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to examine preservice music teachers’ (n=30) perceptions of the meaning and nature of reflection versus assessment within self- and peer-teaching video analysis assignments in the researchers’ undergraduate music education courses. The study site is a public university in the Southeastern U.S. within contexts underrepresented in the literature (Batista, Tan, Wong, & Conway, 2019): preschool and secondary methods courses.

Reflective analysis assignments were intended to have our participant-students ponder “significant questions about the nature and purposes of music education” (Barrett & Rasmussen, 1996, p. 87), not as post-mortem analyses of “what went wrong.” Each teaching demonstration (in and outside class) was recorded and uploaded to a course YouTube channel, accessible by all students. Students used Screencastomatic, a free screen-capture/recording software to view their and others’ videos and comment in real time. The software captures participants’ voices as they watch the video, and the video itself. Students were prompted to question traditional music teaching practice, moving comments away from pedagogical moves and issues of straightforward content knowledge. For example: “Examine the video for ways [Teacher (self or classmate)] is constrained by the barriers and boundaries of the secondary band setting, and brainstorm three ways teachers might expand these boundaries.”

Data collected and analyzed were transcripts of all Screencastomatic discussions, relevant segments of videos, written student assignments, posted comments on the YouTube channel, and transcripts of small group “check-ins” throughout the semester (focus groups for data collection in this study).

Findings indicate that student-participants appreciated big-picture questions about the nature of progressive music teaching. They relished the emerging self-view of “boundary pusher” in music education, versus someone who merely tinkers with refinement of tried-and-true teacher techniques. Discussions about what it means to “reflect” were helpful. Participants problematized fuzzy usage in teacher education coursework as they began to emancipate reflection from assessment.

Authors

• Ann Marie Stanley, Louisiana State University

• Dan Isbell, Louisiana State University