What
are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your
students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?
How
might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional
decisions?
The essential skills that I want my students to have, relative to my subject, is for them to actually understand what they are doing. Many students come to band class, and play their instruments, but if they do not understand what they are playing, then they are not getting the full extent of the class. Instead of just playing the notes written on the page, the students need to know what the music is made of. I would like to offer a music theory course if the school allows, and teach the basics of music beyond what is being heard. These basics include scales, harmonies, chords, and context. If the students begin to recognize these aspects in the music they are playing, they can better understand and appreciate the music.
For example, the set of pitches used in standard tuning, such as a piano, are adjusted so that all the notes are equally out of tune. This way the instrument can play in any key, and all keys sounds the same tuning wise. The way that the sound waves work, this tuning system is not perfect. The reason it is set this way is because if a piano was set to a certain key, then all the other keys would sound out of tune. Instruments and voices though, can make subtle adjustments to their pitches, and can place any note where it needs to be relative to the key. In a chord, the third has to be slightly lowered to sound "correct" and if a student can recognize the theory behind the music he or she is playing, they will better understand why certain pitches have to be modified.
Knowing the way that memory processes work, I can plan my educational patterns accordingly. Sequencing instruction in a logical way is the only way for students to remember all the different aspects of the music theory behind the music they are playing.
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