Introduction
The early childhood education is more important than most of us can imagine. Teaching children can become very complicated and render a teacher to be clueless if the materials, teaching methods are not well-prepared, proven too complicated or not delivered well articulately, enthusiastically or professionally. In this report, I will describe three groups of peer teaching and the pupils in an observation I did about the Practices in Early Childhood Music Education. The purpose of this report is to reflect on the peer teaching strategies and class environment in relation to what was learned during the Teaching Methods class. In the first part of the paper, will be analyzed the strengths and limitations of the peer teaching, as well as the pedagogical theories and approaches appropriate in the teaching lesson planning. In the second part, it will be a reflection about my own group’s peer teaching.
Observation Report of three groups of peer teaching
Before the Observation
First of all, it should be said, that in the first part of our reporting, we will consider three lessons: the Ocean Adventure, the Journey to find Mama Swan and Ring the Jingle Bell. In all cases, the pupils in these lessons are children aged from 5 to 6 years, with no prior knowledge, that means, that they are still beginners, which is considered by teachers. Lesson duration averages 20 minutes. The number of children is flexible, classes consist of 10 to 26 children (average - 20 children). During the lessons was used special equipment: stereo, discs, projector, screen, TV, DVD, children’s musical and sound instruments, illustrations, paintings. Also, teachers carry out preliminary work with children: acquaintance with the elements of musical-rhythmic movements of dance and exercise.
During the Observation
During all three lessons, the objectives were clearly set, which in consequence, have brought the desired result in children’s education. The objectives set by the teacher during this lesson were: educational, developmental, educative. During the Ocean Adventure lesson, the educational objective was the usage of body movements to feel and act out the rhythm and emotion, fast and slow tempo, staccato and legato, high and low pitches; to distinguish sound quality, such as shaking, drumming, dancing; to distinguish ascending and descending scales; to know the sound of pentatonic scale. The Developmental objective was to develop the ability to think logically, to make a conclusion, to show the phenomena of nature, its mood with music and plastic movements, to develop an imagination of sound, sense of rhythm, articulation. The educative objective was to bring love and respect for nature through musical imagery, emotional responsiveness in performing activities. During the Journey to find Mama Swan lesson, the educational objective was to teach singing a song with a simple melody by imitative singing; to be able to react and imitate simple movements and body percussion with the song; to learn new vocabularies related to the nature of the theme. The Developmental objective was to Identifying the beats; to recite new vocabularies in syllabic, rhythmic patterns; to learn dynamics; singing with contrast, louder or softer. The educative objective was to be exposed to the natural world, to love and be loved. During the Ring the Jingle Bell lesson, the educational objective was to warm up exercises through music activities; to teach the music song; to teach realizing and understand the concept of antonyms. The Developmental objective was to teach the understanding of the polyphonic musical thought pattern; the using of cannon to practice this musical knowledge in an interesting way. The educative objective was to be exposed to the natural world.
Conclusion after the Observation
After the Ocean Adventure lesson, children were encouraged to create body movement and music rhythm and sound to represent the animals, so that their musical understanding and improvisation can be further developed. During the Journey to find Mama Swan lesson learning and appreciating the music through Orff approach inspired their potential ability in music and made a meaningful foundation for the path of studying music in the future. Through the whole Ring the Jingle bell lesson, children enjoyed the class initially, and then really constructed the concept of the antonym, practice the sensibility of children respond and understand the song and music through their own experiences during the class.
After some reflections about the cooperation during the lessons, I made a clear conclusion that the peer teaching was a system of how to use students to teach other students. This kind of teaching offered me significantly more potential advantages than disadvantages. During my observation of the Practices in Early Childhood Music Education I stated, that the same-age peer students were as equally effective as non same-age peer students. The main strength of the peer teaching is that it offers the higher amounts of individual attention to those who learn, than the traditional classroom instructions. As a result, peer students increase their own understanding of received information by teaching it to other people. In addition, I can say, that in the process of my teaching, I was not simply learning the material, but I was also learning how to teach the others students. After the cooperation with other fellow peer teachers, I made a conclusion, that those who have received the peer teaching felt more comfortable receiving any kind of instructions from fellow students than adult teachers. While teaching with same-aged students, I concentrated better on the objectives of the lesson, which could then transfer into the achievement of a higher level. Besides, it helped me develop better personal relationships between the students. It was a great experience for me, I learned a lot about pedagogical theories, approaches and principles appropriate in the lesson planning. The main approaches were Orff’s and Dalcroze’s. From past experiences, it seems that children love stories, and teachers also love to deliver stories to children. This is why we were very enthused to present a demonstration with a story with the help of these two approaches while they learn through playing and participating. The experience influenced a lot my beliefs on music pedagogy in teaching little children. First of all, I learned to cope with children, to teach them in the right way. Moreover, I have explored many useful teaching tactics which will help me in the future.
Reflections from the observation of my own group’s peer teaching
Before the Observation
First of all, it should be said, that in the second part of our reporting, we will consider one lesson - the Bee Bee. The pupils are children aged 6 years old, with no prior knowledge in music. Lesson duration was 20 minutes. The number of pupils is about 20. During the lessons was used special equipment: piano, pitch pipe, magnet bees and TAs. Also, as the additional support, children were allowed some extra time to internalize passing beat through visual learning.
During the Observation
Foremost, I need to specify that method, which I chose for my Practices in Early Childhood Music Education. This was Zlatan Kodaly’s method. I used some of the techniques of his practice, namely, in particular, the improvisation, the perception and reproduction of music. My objective as a teacher, was the aim of laying the foundations of musical education of students, to develop their sensitivity to the mother tongue, to provide children with all necessary knowledge and skills for choral singing and to generate their interest in music. During our lesson, we used the singing activities with a variety of movements, clapping, rhythmic accompaniment, games and other things. The main purpose of this lesson was the development of such an important quality in the music, as the sense of rhythm and beat.
Conclusion after the Observation
The peer teaching is a great experience and opportunity both to learn and teach. While being in a friendly atmosphere, we were less distracted and less strained. All this, helped us to better focus on our objective - the education of children. The approaches, that we have chosen, acted more effectively. In addition, it was a very important for us - the moment of exchange of experience. While communicating with our peers, we can receive a constructive criticism, which in consequence will help us in better planning of our lessons and in selecting one method or synthesizing multiple techniques for greater productivity. Also, peer students can give an advice, to adjust the work, the younger generation has a more flexible mind and a brand new view of the education system, their approach is more creative. The amendments of my work, made by my colleagues, helped me adjust my work and bring it to the higher level, where the efficiency is the main criteria. Besides, while watching the teaching process of my colleagues, I have found a lot of new and useful information. Everyone in the team was very friendly, therefore, difficult moments and moments of failure, were easily surmountable, with the support of others. Through this practice, we discovered three new approaches as Orff’s and Dalcroze’s and Kodaly’s methods. This practice allowed us to examine deeper these theories and apply them in practice. Therefore, I believe that all the student not only learned the basics of these techniques, but have learned to combine their work and even made some adjustments to ensure better academic performance of children. All that has been done during this practice was effective. Therefore, every kind of experience and practice will be different in some way. We learn and improve our skills, each time laying all new knowledge and skills in the foundation of our abilities.
