Sophia Anzalone

MUED 376

Dr. V

14 September 2019

Paul Mayhew’s dissertation on teacher effectiveness was very interesting to read as an

undergrad and future educator. While I learned many valuable things, it also caused me to reflect

on my past experiences in music and the type of teacher I want to be, which I will now discuss in

depth. First and foremost, I learned that key attributes to effective teaching were high levels of

intensity, competent verbal and nonverbal communication skills, eye contact, feedback, physical

gestures, pacing and sequential patterns of music instruction. While I feel as though I knew many

of these attributes were essential to effective/good teaching, I was still surprised to read that

‘high levels of intensity’ was on the list. It took me a minute or two to actually think about what

‘high levels of intensity’ refers to. In my time as a student, I have had ​many i​ ntense teachers,

whom I was not in favor of. This is the type of teacher I never want to be, one that is so intense

that the students have to walk on eggshells in class and are afraid to speak up. I’d like to think

that Mayhew is rather referring to teachers that have high energy levels and are engaged

throughout the entire class period, but it is still unclear to me; perhaps a discussion of this in

class will enlighten me further.

Second, I learned some interesting information about conductors in a music classroom.

Specifically, that nonverbal communication such as posture, eye contact and facial expression

can influence an ensemble’s perceptions of a conductor’s ability before the rehearsal begins.

Thinking back on the two semesters of conducting I took at JMU, this makes perfect sense.
Whenever I would get up to conduct in front of my peers, I always appeared very nervous. To

me, usually if the conductor appears nervous, the ensemble will be nervous and not put their faith

in the conductor. This proved to be true nearly every time I would conduct; something would go

wrong because I lacked the ability to be confident ​and ​show the ensemble before me that I was

confident. When I think back to all the excellent conductors I have been under the direction of in

my life, I can remember them all exuding confidence prior to rehearsals or performances,

perhaps a lesson to be learned. Mayhew also notes that expressive conducting exhibits frequent

body movements, expressive gestures, approving and disapproving facial expressions, and eye

contact. These are all things that I have struggled with as a novice, undergraduate conductor and

need to further work on before I enter a classroom. The combination of these two findings by

Mayhew are the keys to being a successful and effective conductor in a music classroom.

Finally, I’d like to reflect on a study Mayhew discusses in his dissertation. The two

individuals conducting the study surveyed 426 university professors with expertise in choral

music education (ranging from choral, instrumental and general music teachers) about their

perceptions of skills and characteristics required for effective music teaching. The survey

questions were related to musical skills, teaching skills, and personality characteristics. To my

surprise, respondents rated teaching skills highest, followed by personality characteristics and

musical skills. While I was not shocked to see that teaching skills was ranked highest, I was by

the fact that musical skills was last. Almost all of the music teachers I have had in my lifetime as

a student have been a perfect blend of these three categories, however, I think our profession is

very hard to do if you do not have adequate music skills. In other school subjects, I think it may

be slightly easier to fake, English for example, but not in the arts where your talent seems to be
at the root of everything. I have been struggling with trying to figure out what my personal

ranking would be because I know for a fact I would rather have a bubbly, out-going teacher who

perhaps wasn’t the best singer than a fantastic singer who lacked empathy for their students; this

has given me some cognitive dissonance. I would be very interested in hearing what my peers’

ranking would be regarding this.