Burwell, Carey, and Bennett Article Response
The excerpt from Burwell, Carey, and Bennett’s article, Isolation in studio music teaching: The secret garden, provided a new perspective on studio teaching, specifically at a higher level of education. Something interesting to me that the article highlighted that I had not considered before was that studio teaching creates a certain intimacy that could potentially create a comfort zone that is difficult to get out of. This is argued to be true for both the teacher and the student and is not something I had thought about previously, however am now finding myself agreeing with. I studied with a private teacher for approximately one year before coming to Western and I did not realize how much of a bond we had formed as many students do with their teacher in one-on-one settings. I also found it interesting the way the authors described group lessons such as masterclasses, for example, which is another thing I had not thought to deeply into. In the case of a masterclass or group lesson, each student has their own strengths and weaknesses,
I was surprised to read that it is unlikely for studio teachers to have had any formal teacher training. The following quote, in particular, took me by surprise:
“Shulman’s (2005) account of professional education indicates that it is by no means uncommon in higher education for faculty members to have no direct preparation for teaching, instead modelling their work on the teaching they received” (10).
I was under the assumption that the majority of studio teachers - if not all - had formal teaching training to adequately prepare them for studio teaching. I also found this to be slightly frustrating; it seems crazy to me that so many highly respected, intelligent teachers do not possess any type of formal teacher training. This definitely challenged an initial assumption I had and made me think deeper into the value of obtaining qualifications and what the effect of not having such qualifications has on students.
It is clear that there are distinct arguments for and against studio teaching, so I would be more interested to hear a more in depth argument of how each of the authors view this matter. I would also like to tell the authors that the article was thoughtfully written and was supported with numerous sources that made it much more credible and interesting to read.
Overall, Isolation in studio music teaching: The secret garden was a thought-provoking article that challenged the ways we view studio teaching and music learning as a whole.
Hi Marissa,
Thanks for your response. Thanks especially for addressing your assumption regarding studio teachers’ amount of formal teacher training. Yes, it is interesting to think about some faculty members’ lack of “formal preparation” for teaching, and how they may model their work on the teaching they received instead. Whether or not this influences our conception of students’ learning could be tied to the individual student and what they may be learning for. If one is learning for performance alone, it is likely very helpful to have a professional musician teach according to the performance techniques and teaching they received. Yet if they are learning within a different type of environment that does not necessarily view music education with an end goal of performance, how might teaching qualifications have an influence on this? Do you think formal teacher training is always necessary? What does formal or our conception of “adequate” teacher training consist of? Is there one way to view this?
Thank you,
Laura
​
​
​
Hi Laura,
To an extent, I don’t think formal teacher training is always necessary. Depending on the experience of the teacher and the desires of the student I think it is certainly possible to have a good, effective teacher who has not received formal training. I also think this is possible because there is more than one interpretation of “adequate” or “good” teaching. Some people might view teachers with no formal training as unprofessional or unfit to teach, while others may desire a teacher who has not had any formal training but tons of experience in informal training.
Thanks for the questions!
Marissa
Burwell, K., Carey, G., & Bennett, D. (2017). Isolation in studio music teaching: The secret garden. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 147402221773658. doi:10.1177/1474022217736581