Recursive learning

Earlier in the chapter, data revealed the general nature of the performers’ and participating-peers’ engagement during Layer 2 through the six reflective roles (musical chairs or lenses), but, because pupils were willing to engage in a reciprocal manner, moments occurred when they ‘intentionally or inadvertently stepped into the role of collegial educator’ (Journal entry week 9). Just as I observed the feedback from peers educating others with new knowledge or insights, these next snapshots show the educator becoming educated because of their own reflexivity. Hence the spiralling feedback loops. This recursive learning self-evidently extends to me, the teacher- researcher, as insight and thus expertise is gained.

Journal entry

week 9 – I am certainly learning from my pupils. To know that they are willing and able to explain concepts to each other, that they can offer advice or new ways to think about things, as educator, is informing how I have started viewing their role, and I hope, how they are beginning to view themselves. That pupils listen to, and perhaps accept, what each other say is uplifting. I have witnessed them assume the role of educator, and become the

educated…

4.14.2.1 Snapshot 3: reciprocal education

Layer 2 became an environment in which pupils could learn from each other by assuming both the role of learner and educator (Green, 2008, 2002).T2 was critiquing her own film in collaboration with V3 and W3 in the last of the Peer Collaborative Sessions of Layer 2, when she identified an unarticulated harmonic. Not having yet

encountered harmonics in her repertoire, V3 began asking T2 questions as they continued reflecting on the film. Their discussion took on the form of a tennis match, with V3 asking questions and T2 providing informative responses, until V3 was satisfied that her knowledge bank on the issue had been adequately filled. T2 shared her knowledge of what a harmonic is, how to correctly articulate it, and why she had not. Both pupils seemed quite comfortable and confident in their roles, with V3 willing to seek peer assistance and T2 willing to provide it, leaving no reason for me to interfere.

4.14.2.2 Snapshot 4: coincidental education

It was often obvious when pupils assumed the role of educator, but sometimes I witnessed pupils inadvertently stepping into this role by simply answering one of my questions with no knowledge of who their reflective insight was educating, or how profound that education and learning would become. The potential power of peer feedback in bringing about greater awareness is illustrated in this next scene.

Unknown to V3, W3 had a longstanding goal of increasing the amount of bow she was using for one of her slower pieces. During the second collaborative session, W3 did not catch sight of her own improvement in this area until V3 started answering my questions as to why she thought W3 had captured the character of the piece.

[Layer 2, session 2, Performer: W3, Participating-peers: V3, T2] T.R. – How does she move her bow to capture the style?

V3 – Long bows.

W3 – Oh my god I’m doing kind of long bows. I never noticed. T.R. – Have you just noticed you are using long bows?

W3 – Yeah. Everyone was telling me to do it. My mom is always like, ‘longer bows’ and I’m like ‘I can’t’…I am very proud.

T.R. – And you weren’t aware of that? W3 – No.

Though this scene is very innocuous, the capacity of peer reflection to educate is clear. Two words from V3 alerted W3’s awareness of her own goal being achieved. The depth of W3’s learning, and how she had set about to achieve her goal were not explored at this time, but its acknowledgement was an assurance that her effort and actions were

Instrumental learning and education revolves around discovering about and how to do things, but it is also important for pupils to recognise when they have achieved things. Perhaps encountering another visual lens of a peer would encourage W3 to readjust her own visual lens of enquiry in future. Here though, clarity and variety of observation was the key.

4.14.2.3 Snapshot 5: reflexive education

The role of the FAP encouraged individuals to investigate ways of tailoring their own experience of learning, while collaborating with a peer offered a means to experience learning from an alternative viewpoint. Some pairs were working on the same repertoire at that time, while others brought unfamiliar repertoire or pieces that their peer had studied in the past. No control mechanism was engaged to ascertain the extent to which pupils may have been influenced by having knowledge of a piece about which they were receiving or giving feedback, but nevertheless I observed pupils benefit from flexing their analytical and advisory skills, both as observer and the observed. This last snapshot shows Z5 engaging in the challenges of verbalising her learning, and in so doing becoming her own reflexive educator.

During the last of the Peer Collaborative Sessions, both Y5 and Z5 chose to play the same short work by Fritz Kreisler. Z5 performed first, and as she and Y5 analysed Z5’s film, neither needed more than my occasional gentle probing for clarity. Perhaps it was Y5’s opening comments about how she liked the way Z5’s performance told a story that influenced Z5’s own reflective engagement, since she carried this theme for the entirety of her own performance analysis and into her reflections on Y5’s performance. It was as if Z5 needed to explore and exercise this lens.

[Z5 as participating-peer]

Z5 – It could be like if the whole thing was like a dance. And then it’s like a curtsy, or like a bow, or something, and then it goes back into the dance again. But I really like that Y5 takes control over the sound that she is producing, like at the beginning and stuff. It is really solid and very clean. It just sounds so confident, and it’s like the opening of the piece that those notes are really kind of like, enforcing them, and its like, ‘I know what I am doing, I know this piece!’ I was going to say that it is kind of like a Fanfare, like a trumpet or something, but I don’t think so now.

T.R. – Really?

Z5 – No, I think it is kind of ‘brass’, like in a way, but…[pause] I suppose if you put it into an orchestral piece, it like opens with like a big group of like, either a large group of strings, or brass or something, and then goes into like a soloist or something, for a little bit, and the middle could be like woodwind or something… you know?

T.R. – Is that what you think about when you play it?

Z5 – No, but I just did now, so, I probably will now the next time I play it!

While it was obvious that Z5 did not need help in expressing her thoughts, this potentiating environment seemed to have encouraged and allowed her the freedom to end up in an unexpected place.

4.14.2.4 Snapshot 6: the camera doesn’t lie

Perhaps the thread connecting all of the snapshots given thus far in this chapter is the power of video. As a tool for teaching and learning, the use of video in Layers 1 and 2 created possible links to the Practice Maps of Layer 4. Although Layer 4 is covered more thoroughly in the next chapter, one final snapshot is needed to demonstrate how I experienced combining the use of video with the maps.

Journal entry

week 3 – That some pupils are less vocal than others does not seem to matter. Maybe it is an advantage to just sit quietly and observe what the film is revealing, it does not lie. I got the impression from how both Qp and S2 quickly glanced at me this week when something very obvious occurred in their films… they seemed thankful for the film revealing what it did.

Journal entry

week 9 – …mapping in combination with the video, continues to benefit those pupils returning them…this combination is a great source confirming the usefulness of their strategy design, or choice, but also for how we talked about practising at the close of the peer sessions this week.

Journal entry

week 12 – Pupils accept their films. Whether their performances contain errors, or successes, none have tried to ‘escape’ from what their films reveal.

When pupils were unpacking and tuning their violins at the start of each lesson in Layers 1 and 2, I took the opportunity to read any Practice Maps (Layer 4) that were returned. I often dedicated a portion of the lesson to directly addressing troublesome issues that pupils had indicated within their written reflections, but filed their map for future reference if the lesson needed to cover different material. The maps also provided a path for acknowledging or addressing practice issues at the end of each lesson during the FAP moments, especially when, as this next snapshot shows, the pupil chose to film and analyse the same piece that had been used for mapping that week.

S2’s lesson in week three included different material than the piece she had used for mapping, but it was the piece from her week’s mapping process that she chose to film and analyse in the final minutes of her lesson. As we sat in front of the computer after filming, I quickly read S2’s map and noted that she had worked to secure ‘clear harmonics’ and ‘clean shifting’. I knew S2 had been working to master combining these two elements in a particular bar of this piece, and detected a slight sense of eagerness from her as we began to view it. A few bars into the film we both glanced at each other with raised eyebrows as her intonation momentarily slipped, but moments later I had the opportunity to smile and silently give her a ‘thumbs-up’ sign after she executed the combination of the harmonic and shift beautifully. To make sure she understood this gesture, I played the section again and asked, ‘Did you hear that? You wrote here that you were going to work on the harmonics, and getting down to the G string clean, and you wrote that (pointing to her map), your “shifting down is cleaner”, and that you are “not touching the D string any more while shifting”. It worked, didn’t it?’ S2 answered yes by smiling and rapidly nodding her head up and down as we continued to view her film. Though I had observed this success during the making of the film, and could have simply mentioned it to S2 before we began viewing, this reflective environment had created a space to acknowledge that together.

Like other pupils, S2 had achieved her goal through a strategy she devised and executed. However, when pupils noticed recurring or unexpected errors in their films, such as S2’s intonation slip here in this snapshot, the atmosphere between us was no less enthusiastic. The video was accepted as an honest representation of their performance and as such narrowed the need for debate in moments when both the pupil and I heard or saw the same error. Here with S2, the video was a tool that freed me from

detailed comment because we both knew her intonation to be normally very accurate. It was no surprise though that the issue of intonation featured on S2’s next map for this same piece.