1 Narrative of the Articulation Accuracy Lesson

Tri-North Middle School is a public middle school in the Monroe County Community School Corporation in Bloomington, Indiana. Tri-North Middle School serves 591 students in grades 7–8; 38% of students received free or reduced lunch, and the minority enrollment (22%) is mostly African American and Asian students. A fine art credit is not required for high school enrollment and approximately 22% of the study body participates in band, choir, or orchestra. There are three heterogeneous sections of beginning band and two heterogeneous sections of advanced band (i.e., mixed brass, woodwind, and percussion instrumentalists) with all sections of each band coming together for concerts after a few full band rehearsals. The class size of each band section ranges from 10 to 30, and most classes contain 1 or 2 students with exceptionalities who require an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

The learning objectives for this lesson were inspired by a common challenge for middle school instrumentalists: independent practice. In my own classroom, I realized that when students practice independently they tend to practice holistically rather than analytically. Such holistic practice is characterized by playing though a piece once from beginning to end before moving on to something new. Students often overlook mistakes and this results in inefficient practice in which errors are repeated without being corrected. Consequently, three learning objectives were chosen as a means of improving the students’ practice. These three learning objectives aimed to enable the students: (a) to demonstrate characteristic tonguing style on a band instrument with written notation; (b) to set goals, evaluate, and reflect on their personal skill development; and (c) to demonstrate what they have learned through lesson observations, focused practice sessions, and solo performances (see Table 11.1). These objectives align well with the National Standards for Arts Education anchor standards related to performance outcomes (National Core Arts Standards, n.d.). The lesson duration is one hundred minutes over the span of two class periods, and the lesson materials included an etude featuring contrasting articulation styles, an instrument for modeling, a projector or dry erase board, a Focused Practice Session template (Table 11.2), and video recording technology.

Table 11.1 Articulation accuracy lesson plan
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Table 11.2 Practice journal and focused practice session homework templates
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An efficient music classroom learning environment is one where procedures are consistent and well-rehearsed. When students enter the band room, they immediately go to their assigned seat with their instrument, music stand, music, and a pencil. When the bell rings, students assemble their instrument, write down their homework in their Practice Journal (Table 11.2), and start on the bell work. The agenda for the day, bell work assignment (silently practice notes and rhythms in the etude), and homework assignments (complete a Focused Practice Session template and prepare the etude for a duet performance tomorrow) are projected in the front of the band room.

The targeted activity for the lesson described here is simplified to a novice level. I selected a simplified activity to demonstrate how the concept of slurring notes is introduced; however, these lesson procedures can be transferred to intermediate level articulation skills by reviewing familiar articulations before introducing new articulations or faster tempos.

I begin the lesson by informally assessing the prerequisites of tonguing by asking a member of each section to describe or demonstrate an appropriate tonguing syllable for their instrument (e.g., “Tah, Toh, Tu”). Then, I engage the entire ensemble in a call and response exercise to review good tonguing technique. Using the pitches concert Bb and concert D, I play a four beat melody for the class to immediately echo back on their instrument. I then assess tonguing technique, and address student-specific needs before repeating these activities several times and allowing student volunteers to model the pattern. Next, I play a melody two different ways (tongued and slurred) and ask the students to describe the similarities and differences between the melodies. Students should conclude that while the notes and rhythms are the same, the first melody was tongued and the second melody was not tongued. Then, I explain that the difference they hear is a technique called slurring, so I show students the slurring symbol, and explain that slurring will become part of their everyday playing to add variety in melodies. I continue with the call and response exercise with the addition of occasional slurred notes, and address specific student needs. Now that students can aurally identify and produce a slur between two notes on their instrument, I teach them what the slur symbol looks like in the context of the etude. The purpose of this “rote before note” strategy is to eliminate the visual distractions of the musical notation in order to focus on the physical demands required to master this skill.

Once I have reviewed the prerequisites, the students are able to visually and aurally identify the new articulation. It is important to rehearse practice strategies that will help them master the new articulation in the context of the etude with rhythmic variety. Two effective practice strategies for learning slurs in a group setting are to have students sing the articulation, “Tah-ah” and sing the articulation while fingering along. Differentiated instruction is required to meet instrument specific demands, especially for trombone players and percussionists. Trombone players can sing “Tah-dah” and percussionists can count the rhythm while playing on mallets. As a second strategy, I ask students to write the letter “T” over all of the notes in the music that they will tongue, and to identify other practice strategies that can be used to practice slurring such as repeating small sections and gradually increasing the tempo. I conclude the lesson by rehearsing these practice strategies as a group in conjunction with the new articulation strategies.

To close the lesson, I explain that the goal for tomorrow will be to split into pairs to rehearse and perform this etude for the class. For homework, students are expected to complete a Focused Practice Session template (Table 11.2), that requires students to employ several self-regulatory skills: goal setting, identification of effective practice strategies, and reflection.

On the second day of this lesson, students follow the same beginning-of-class procedures as the first day. I have the students play through the etude as a full class, and then ask them to identify areas of the piece that need the most improvement. I then encourage student input on the strategies that would be most effective to maximize improvement and rehearse a few of these with the full class before continuing to the guided practice section of the lesson. Next, I divide the students into pairs to prepare for a duet performance on the etude. Each pair is encouraged to share practice strategies that they found most useful in their Focused Practice Session homework assignment. Then, the students practice together in pairs for 10 min to prepare the piece using strategies that they have found to be most effective at home. Finally, each pair performs for the class. I then video-record each performance and fill out a rubric with additional open-ended comments so students have access to feedback immediately after their performance (Table 11.3). To maintain student engagement, I ask class members who are observing each pair, to think about one positive and one constructive comment that they can share with their classmates. I randomly call on these students to provide feedback for the performers.

Table 11.3 Performance evaluation rubric
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To conclude the lesson, I use verbal spot questioning to confirm student understanding of slurring identification (visual and aural) and performance. For example, “When you see a piece of music, how do you know when to slur? What does it mean to slur? What steps would you take to teach this to a friend?”

A feature of this lesson is that it involves a sequenced approach to introducing the new skill of teaching through modeling, aural identification, physical performance of the skill, and finally visual identification. This allows teachers to quickly assess student comprehension and performance of the new skill before they apply this knowledge within the context of learning an etude. Another strength is the ability for students to engage in guided practice, individual practice, and collaboration with peers in order to develop a deeper understanding of the new concept. Teachers may find it challenging to engage students in independent group work if they are not careful to organize the activity and communicate expectations of student behavior. Given the large class sizes of instrumental ensembles, it is imperative that students have a clear idea of how to collaborate. If not, classroom management issues could result in significant problems. The most important feature of this lesson is that it allows students to transfer the skills, knowledge and understandings gained from the learning activity to any other skill and concept that is taught in a performance based class. It can also help to overcome some of the problems students experience when practicing without their teacher’s guidance. In these situations, it is common for them to practice holistically by running through the etude without thinking analytically or using effective practice strategies. An expected outcome therefore is that students will apply the error detection and practice strategies they acquire as part of the lessons during their own daily practice. Teachers can help to ensure that their student’s practice effectively by moving around the room during these types of group collaboration and asking individual members of the class to identify the sections in the music that they believe need the most improvement. Importantly, they should also encourage students to reflect on the strategies they need to employ in order to ensure they improve.

2 Narrative of the Practice Strategies for Band Lesson

This lesson describes a 90-min training class that takes place after school. Students representing grade levels nine through twelve and from all levels of playing ability often participate in the lesson (Table 11.4). The class this lesson was designed for typically has 30 brass and woodwind players with about 10 years of experience on their instruments. All students are enrolled in either the intermediate or advanced level band course that meets daily in a public high school in the Southeastern United States. This particular high school is an inner-city urban school that serves a population of approximately 70% traditional students and 30% International Baccalaureate magnet program students. The class represents a diverse population of Caucasian (46.6%), African American (16.6%), Hispanic (30%), and Asian (6.5%) students. The lesson included in this chapter can be helpful for fulfilling the performance standards of the National Standards for Arts Education, particularly those pertaining to analyzing, evaluating, and refining performances.

Table 11.4 Practice strategies for band lesson plan
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My lesson begins with a short listening session of both a recording of a unison Etude for band that contained technical and lyrical challenges and the “Folk Song Suite” by Vaughan Williams. The unison etude and the full band arrangement were introduced in the previous week’s classes during which students were given an opportunity to sight-read the music as a group before practicing the works on their own. The students’ initial sight-reading of the Etude is video recorded. At the start of the lesson the students create a second video recording of the unison etude. This is followed by a teacher-led discussion that encourages the students to express their opinions concerning the challenges present in the music. Much of the discussion can focus on the technical challenges posed when attempting to play the etude at an appropriate tempo. I then provide students with a list of suggested practice strategies that I had compiled based on my own research of the most accepted and effective strategies of college music majors and professionals. Using the resulting 22 practice strategies check list (see Table 11.5), I then begin to connect the challenges and concerns students identified with the appropriate practice strategies on the list. While defining each of the 22 practice strategies, I also provide the students with an opportunity to make a connection between knowledge and function by applying each of the strategies to a problem area in the etude. The students are then asked to play through selected parts of the etude using these suggested strategies to experience the problem solving processes as a group. I categorize the 22 practice strategies into three groups for better recollection and understanding; Element Elimination, Repetition, and Make It Musical. This categorical list of the strategies is used alongside an additional document titled the Rules of the Road (see Table 11.6) which provides guidelines for adjusting and self-monitoring whilst practicing.

Table 11.5 Practice strategies checklist
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Table 11.6 Rules of the road worksheet
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I use three group activities to scaffold the students’ understanding and application of effective practice techniques. The three activities are the (a) Practice Behavior Observation exercise, (b) Verbal Mediation exercise, and (c) the Practice Processes Worksheet/Intermittent Questioning exercise (see Table 11.7). All three of the cooperative group activities are followed by a teacher-led group discussion that included questioning and student demonstrations for assessment.

Table 11.7 Practice processes worksheet
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For the Practice Behavior Observation exercise, the students are grouped in pairs to work collaboratively for 20 min. For 10 min, one student practices while the other observes and documents practice behaviors using the 22 practice strategies check list. The students then switch roles for another 10 min. A teacher led discussion follows the cooperative activity that gives students an opportunity to discuss and demonstrate the practice strategies that they observe. During this first break out activity, I make myself available for questions and assist as a guide while students work in their respective groups. For example, sometimes I observe a practice behavior and notice that the student observer is not checking it off, so I could then assist in re-centering their focus. The students learn to define and apply the strategies and tend to enjoy these opportunities to demonstrate how they can master the etude by using a particular strategy from the list.

The second activity, “Verbal Mediation,” was designed to provide students with an opportunity to verbalize what they were doing as they practiced. Now that they have a language to use that could help them describe their choices, they can also be asked to think aloud by explaining their intentions and their processes as they practice while the other student checks off what they observe on the practice check list. This is done in groups of two and, again, the students switch roles after 10 min.

The third group activity, the “Intermittent Questioning” exercise, encourages students to work together to define a practice goal related to refining the etude. One student then practices with this goal in mind while the partner student intermittently interjects questions such as: “What are you focused on? Why?”; “What strategy are you using right now? Why?”; and “Is what you are doing right now helping you reach your practice goal?”

After completing all three group activities and the respective follow-up discussion sessions, the students perform the unison etude as a group once more. The performance is video recorded and played alongside the earlier recordings so that the students can assess the performances and evaluate their progress. As a final activity, I play the exemplar recording of the “Folk Song Suite” by Ralph Vaughn-Williams again, remind the students of their desire to learn this new and challenging piece, and we sight read the work again. I then instruct the students to practice individually for 20 min using what they had learned from the group activities and the 22 practice strategies check list. After the 20-min break out practice session, we play the piece again, which provides the students with an opportunity to perform with greater proficiency and ensemble cohesiveness. The students are then engaged in a discussion concerning their goals and the “what”, “when” and “how” of practice strategies that can be used to improve one’s playing. I then ask the students to explain what their individual challenges were with this piece, what practice goal they set for themselves, and what strategies they used to accomplish that goal. The students are also asked to share what they had achieved and how they accomplished this by modeling their practice behavior for the group.

The lesson concludes with a collective commitment to continue to practice using the 22 practice strategies and “Rules of the Road”. I also provide the students with a handout that I designed to assist them in organizing both their individual practice time as well as their small ensemble and instrument sectional rehearsals. The handout provides suggestions for keeping a practice log for themselves and a framework for section leaders to design well-balanced practice sessions with follow-up and accountability procedures for their section members.

My students enjoy working in small groups as the cooperative learning activities provided them with an opportunity to reflect, share ideas, and take risks. It is typically evident in their mastery of the strategies and concepts that this collaborative model helps to stimulate learning in a way that direct- or teacher-led instruction alone does not always achieve. Coordinating small-group practice activities can be challenging for some students since it requires that students be prepared to analyze their own and/or their peers playing and practicing. However, with careful planning and preparation, students will enjoy the change of pace. In addition, navigating the recording technology for immediate listening can be problematic if not prepared carefully ahead of time. The curriculum that this lesson plan is based on provides students with an accessible tool box of practice strategies and processes that help them to problem solve in their practice endeavors both as a group and individually. In this way, it contributes to the advancement of their independent learning abilities.

3 Self-regulated Learning Theory and Musical Development

3.1 Introduction

Successful musicians devote large amounts of their time to individual, solitary practice in order to improve their performance abilities (Hallam et al., 2012). As such, acquiring music performance skills necessitates learning how to more effectively and efficiently monitor and control one’s own learning. It is clear that accomplished musicians have at some point acquired a deep understanding of how to motivate and manage their own learning processes (Hallam, 1997; McPherson, 2005). Traditionally, the development of these understandings hinges on individualized instruction from an expert performer and master teacher (Sosniak, 1985). However, music performance instruction in North American schools typically involves large-group instruction in bands, choirs and orchestras where the needs and priorities of the ensemble can often outweigh those of any given individual. Unfortunately, music teachers tend to emphasize instructional objectives that lead to fine ensemble performances but lack sufficient specific emphasis on the development of each individual student’s abilities. For example, it is relatively common within this area of music education to find that although a school music ensemble may be quite successful, the individuals that make up the ensemble are lacking in independent skill and understanding. As a result, many students in these types of ensembles do not develop the intellectual and musical capacity to guide their own practicing outside of the classroom, which for some can lead to a lack of motivation and/or ultimately attrition from their school program (McPherson, Davidson, & Faulkner, 2012a). Moreover, it is also the case that many of those who continue to learn music until the final years of schooling do not continue performing once they leave school. Part of the reason is that they have not developed sufficient self-regulatory abilities to take charge of their own musical learning independent of their membership of an ensemble (McPherson et al. 2012a).

It is clear that music teachers can benefit from a conceptual model that provides a clear description of the critical processes as well as the dispositions, skills, and intellectual abilities that support individualized learning. We believe therefore that self-regulated learning theory is an intuitively-appealing, evidence-based framework for describing how developing musicians can be empowered to take control of their own learning. In this section of the chapter we will describe how the model lessons documented above can mitigate some of the challenges inherent in school music performance instruction by explicitly and systematically reinforcing principles that are consistent with self-regulated learning theory.

3.2 Self-regulation Principles and Music Learning

The principles of self-regulated learning theory are directly aligned with best practices in music education. Several scholars have provided extensive treatments of the relevance and application of self-regulated learning theory to research and pedagogy in music education (e.g., McPherson, Nielsen, & Renwick, 2012b; McPherson & Zimmerman, 2011; Prichard, 2012; Varela, Abrami, & Upitis, 2016). Zimmerman’s (2000) social cognitive theory of self-regulated learning is the most prevalent framework in the music education literature and consequently, it is this framework we apply to the discussion in this chapter. There are two key aspects of Zimmerman’s theory that we will focus on as we relate self-regulated learning theory to practical issues of music teaching and learning. The first is the three-phase, cyclical process that can be used to illustrate how self-regulated learning is carried out in the moment, and the second is a developmental trajectory involving four stages that describes the steps along the journey of becoming self-regulated. We refer the reader to DiBenedetto (2018/this volume) for a more in-depth discussion of the various components of self-regulated learning theory.

Self-regulated learning unfolds in real-time as a cyclical process wherein a learner negotiates through three phases: forethought, performance, and self-reflection (Zimmerman, 2000). McPherson and Renwick (2011) have presented a detailed description of some of the context-specific processes that each of these phases can embody in music learning. We provide a summary of some of the primary considerations here.

The forethought phase of the self-regulated learning cycle is characterized by the application of task analysis abilities and the influence of selected self-motivation beliefs. In this phase, the music student chooses goals and develops a strategic plan for achieving those goals. Many music teachers would agree that developing musicians are often unaware or at least unfamiliar with the work associated with this phase. For example, beginning and intermediate musicians typically start their practice without clarifying specific goals and without having a pre-conceived strategy for working through the musical challenges they face (Miksza, Prichard, & Sorbo, 2012). Music teachers can help their students become more thoughtful in the forethought phase of learning in a variety of ways. For example, ensemble directors can ensure that they teach students how to analyze musical works by identifying the challenges that are posed when learning new repertoire and then prioritizing techniques for mastering these challenges through positive habits that increase the efficiency of students’ practice. Moreover, it can be insightful for students when their ensemble directors share their own insights and reasons for setting rehearsal goals, developing rehearsal plans, and applying rehearsal techniques.

The forethought phase also incorporates the influence of motivational beliefs from the outset of the learning process. Accordingly, students’ efficacy beliefs, interests, achievement orientations, and outcome expectations can play a large role in (i) what they choose to do, (ii) their attitudes towards the learning process, and (iii) their willingness to invest deeply and persist with their learning. Music teachers can influence their students’ beliefs by helping them choose moderately challenging goals they can accomplish in a reasonable period of time, delivering careful feedback, and designing assessments that emphasize mastery and progress as opposed to social comparison and competition among peers.

Within the performance phase of the self-regulated learning cycle students engage in self-observation as well as learn how to take control of their approach to solving musical challenges during the act of performing. During this phase, students need to balance their ability to be flexible and adaptive to performance problems as they arise with an emphasis on directing their attention towards their immediate goals and desired level of performance. Self-regulated musicians are able to balance these two tasks and/or toggle back and forth between them without overwhelming their working memory capacity (Duke, Cash, & Allen, 2011). Capable self-regulated music learners will keep the musical product they are striving to achieve at the focus of their activities but are also able to adapt and adjust according to performance errors as they occur. Music teachers can encourage students to practice with an ideal image of the musical product in mind. It would also be beneficial for teachers to encourage their students to use tools to help them develop an awareness of their progress during the act of performing. For example, backing tracks, metronomes, and recording devices can be effective as external reference points and forms of feedback for students when performing on their instrument (or voice).

Self-regulated music students will also direct their own learning in the performance phase by covertly or overtly monitoring their concentration, regulating their emotions, and applying effective learning strategies. Students who demonstrate self-control during learning have been able to direct themselves towards priority goals and recognize when they are becoming distracted, and when they need to re-direct their attention. They will also be able to manage negative emotions emerging from failures or repeated unsuccessful trials such that they will retain or rebuild enough energy to persist. Self-regulated musicians also have the ability to choose appropriate strategies for mastering challenging tasks (e.g., chunking, slowing, whole-part practice) and are able to apply their strategies thoughtfully. Music teachers can reinforce these strategies, techniques and approaches by encouraging an adaptive attitude towards unsuccessful attempts and explicitly modeling how to apply learning strategies during rehearsals.

McPherson and Renwick (2011) suggest that the self-reflection phase involves four basic processes: self-evaluating, developing attributions for success and failure, an affective response to the learning process, and the degree to which learners are able to adopt an adaptive or defensive stance towards their future learning. Given that musical performance is an aural phenomenon that unfolds over time, opportunities for self-evaluation are abundant. Students will naturally compare their musical progress to peers as well as their models, and teachers can help them do this more efficiently by teaching them to listen for and assess specific musical criteria. Directly related to self-evaluation is the formation of causal attributions. Generally, self-regulating musicians will attribute their learning successes and failures to malleable, effort-based causes rather than fixed abilities or random causes. In so doing, they develop a mindset that allows them to see their successes as a result of their work and their failures as simply a challenge that has yet to be mastered. The nature of the feedback teachers provide their students can help to shape an attributional frame of reference that is more conducive to growth. An ideal outcome of teaching that adopts the self-regulated learning framework is for students to reflect on their learning process and feel proud of the progress they have made at each step of the learning process. In this way, they learn how to master the goals that are set by their teacher and the goals they set themselves. Coaching students to arrange their tasks and routines such that they will have a high probability of successes near the end of a practice session can help to reinforce positive affect towards learning. In general, a self-regulated musician can engage in the self-reflection process and emerge with an adaptive rather than defensive attitude towards learning. A student’s reaction to the learning process can greatly impact the next iteration of the self-regulation cycle and whether a student approaches the next forethought phase with an enhanced or diminished sense of self-motivation and willingness to set challenging goals.

It is important for teachers to recognize that self-regulation can be thought of as a context-specific set of processes that can be explicitly taught to students. Schunk and Zimmerman (1997) describe four, hierarchical stages that characterize the changes learners move through as they refine their abilities to self-regulate. These stages are useful signposts for teachers to take into consideration as they reflect upon the level of independence and challenge for which their students may or may not be ready. First is the ‘observation’ stage in which students are exposed to the skills necessary to be self-regulated. Teachers can expect that students in this stage would benefit from a wide range of instructional approaches including, but not limited to, direct instruction in self-regulatory skills, modeling from teachers and peers, and opportunities for abundant feedback and encouragement. Opportunities to observe exemplar demonstrations of self-regulatory behaviors and opportunities to receive explicit guidance as they try these out are important for developing musicians.

Once students are able to imitate a competent model, they can be scaffolded to the next stage which self-regulation theorists refer to as ‘emulation’ (McPherson & Zimmerman, 2011). Teachers can aid the development of students in the emulative stage by assigning self-directed self-regulatory tasks like practice assignments that students can complete on their own and by gradually challenging the student to demonstrate more metacognitive involvement such as through goal-setting activities and peer- and/or self-evaluation assignments. The observation and emulation phases each involve a good deal of social guidance via teacher scaffolding.

In contrast to the first two stages described above, the third and fourth stages entail the learner depending progressively more on self-reinforcement and individually-derived goals and standards. The third stage of self-regulation development is referred to as ‘self-control’. Students at this level are able to transfer what they have learned in the observation and emulation stages to similar tasks and learning targets. For example, music students in the self-control stage can be challenged to adopt a process they have learned from a teacher to a new etude or piece of music they have not explicitly studied with the teacher in class. They might not necessarily be able to invent new strategies or develop tools to solve novel problems, but they are typically able to apply the methods and concepts their teacher has taught them in an independent, yet somewhat structured setting. In contrast, students in the self-regulation phase are able to modify their self-regulatory approach and adapt and alter their strategies to fit their idiosyncratic, personal needs. Moreover, self-regulated students have come to predominantly rely upon their own motivational resources as opposed to reinforcement and encouragement from their teacher or significant others.

4 Model Lessons: Analysis of the Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Music

We will now discuss the two lesson plans included in the first section of this chapter with reference to the cyclical processes and hierarchical stages of self-regulation described above. The lessons from Amanda Herceg are emblematic of best practices for developing self-regulatory skills among beginning and intermediate music performers. Although these lessons are extracted from a middle school setting, the goals and procedures would be suitable for any developing instrumental ensemble at the high school level. Herceg’s lessons emphasize activities that are effective for mitigating the self-regulatory challenges that students in the observation and emulation stages often face. The lesson from Kimberly Mieder is an exemplar of best practices for developing self-regulatory skills among intermediate and advanced music performers. This lesson is situated in a high school setting and includes teaching strategies that address some of the sophisticated metacognitive challenges that more advanced musicians in the junior or senior grades are typically equipped to deal with. As such, Mieder’s lesson emphasizes activities that can help to mitigate challenges commonly encountered during the emulation and self-control stages.

Although these lessons are tailored for students with different levels of self-regulation ability, it is important to recognize that high school music performance courses typically involve students with a wide variety of skill and experience levels. For example, it is common for a school band, choir, or orchestra to include students from each grade level enrolled in the same class (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, senior). This reality makes curricular sequencing for school music ensemble instruction extremely challenging and often results in teachers delivering instruction in foundational concepts to their entire group each year in order to achieve a baseline of musical understanding across the students. Most high school music teachers will begin each school year with classes that have relative beginners intermingled with intermediate and advanced students. Consequently, the lessons included in this chapter are relevant to a wide variety of instructional settings at the high school level.

Interestingly, the updated National Standards for Arts Education seem to emphasize learning goals that are consistent with self-regulated learning theory. For example, the music performance standards cited in both model lessons discussed in this chapter stress the development of student agency and autonomy as individuals. The standards require that students are able to self-evaluate to determine their own strengths and weaknesses, analyze their performances for errors, guide the improvement of their performance in practice, and judge the outcomes of their playing. These elements of the standards are aligned particularly well with the cyclical phases of forethought, performance, and self-reflection described by Zimmerman (2000).

4.1 Lesson Sample One: Herceg

Herceg’s lessons are explicitly aimed at developing students’ skills for “self-regulated independent practice”. In describing the learning objectives for her lessons, Herceg specifies long- and short-term goals consistent with reinforcing self-regulated learning. She emphasizes a desire to help students approach their practice in an analytical manner by cultivating skills related to error detection, strategy choice and application, and self-reflection. These elements are supported by a wide range of literature (e.g., Hallam, 2001; Miksza, 2007). The long-term goals are aligned perfectly with the cyclical processes of forethought, performance, and reflection that are emphasized by Zimmerman (2000). Herceg then specifies more detailed short-term goals related to this specific lesson such as mastery of articulation (e.g., tonguing) styles, independent applications of practice techniques, and mastery of solo performance on specific musical tasks. This set of learning objectives represents her awareness of the kinds of challenges that beginning and intermediate students are typically capable of addressing. The objectives also stress process and product outcomes that indicate her recognition of the importance of teaching students “how” to approach learning as much as “what” to do while learning (McPherson et al. 2012b).

Herceg begins the lesson by modeling an optimal learning environment for the students; one that is focused, organized, and in which procedures and goals are in place. In so doing, she is explicitly socializing her students to arrange their physical and social space in a manner congruent with self-regulated learning (McPherson & Zimmerman, 2011). The next steps in the lesson involve systematic teacher-modeling and demonstration. The imitation activities that are interspersed throughout provide her students with multiple opportunities to internalize the sound of the musical goal. These activities also provide the teacher with a means for sequencing the instruction according to the students’ ability level as well as multiple opportunities to provide feedback. The careful sequencing of call and response exercises helps the students focus their attention on goal production during each trial while also giving them concise enough targets that they can devote some degree of attention to self-evaluation without overwhelming their working memory (Duke et al., 2011; McPherson & Renwick, 2011). Once she is sure the students have reached a criterion level of mastery, Herceg then teaches them two learning strategies that can be applied in home practice. Importantly, these are initially worked through and practiced during her class before the students try out the techniques in their home practice. Finally, the students are given a homework assignment that is intended to reinforce the principles of goal setting and strategy choice and application that were demonstrated in class. This assignment illustrates the kinds of tasks that learners moving from the observation to the emulation stage of self-regulation ability should be challenged to master.

In contrast to the first day’s lesson, Herceg’s plan for the second day of instruction is much more student-directed. For example, it begins with an informal assessment of the students’ understanding of how to identify problem areas in the music and how to apply rehearsal strategies to solve those problems. The students are then put into pairs to work on a piece of music together. The students share ideas for how to practice the music, record each others’ performances, and practice evaluating the performances using an analytic rubric. In addition to capitalizing on the social reinforcement of peers, Herceg’s in-class duo assignment provides the students with an opportunity to work on the independent evaluative skills necessary to move from the emulative to the self-control stages in self-regulated learning. The goal of this second day is for students to begin to grasp how they could transfer the learning processes that are demonstrated in class to other pieces of music they may work on by themselves at home.

4.2 Lesson Sample Two: Mieder

Mieder’s lesson stresses the development of metacognitive skill and includes many activities that are designed to help the students become more aware of the relatively covert elements of self-regulated learning (e.g., intentionality, concentration, decision making, motivational disposition) (McPherson & Renwick, 2011). Mieder’s general goals are for the students to have opportunities to apply self-regulated learning principles to several musical challenges and to recognize the impact that self-regulated practice can have on performance achievement. In contrast to Herceg’s lessons, the content of Mieder’s lesson emphasize activities that are more appropriate for students who are ready for more independence and autonomy such as those that might be characterized as being in the self-control stage of self-regulation development (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997).

The lesson begins by recording the students’ early attempts to perform their etude in order to establish a baseline reference level of performance achievement. The students are also given an opportunity to internalize the ideal learning outcome by listening to a professional recording of their repertoire. This activity reflects Mieder’s awareness of the value of modeling for developing performance achievement and self-evaluation skill (Hewitt, 2001). The teacher then guides the students through a discussion of how to identify learning challenges and presents a set of practice strategies that are matched to particular types of musical problems the students will encounter. Next, the students demonstrate the practice strategies as a full ensemble. Throughout this introduction, Mieder serves as a guide and facilitator by balancing direct instruction with inquiry-based strategies. These introductory activities also include an emphasis on conditional decision making so that the students understand that knowing “when” and “how” they can apply the practice strategies is just as importance as knowing what strategies are generally useful (Miksza, 2015). For example, her “Rules of the Road” exercise is aimed at encouraging students to be more flexible and adaptive to challenges that arise from moment-to-moment during practice.

Mieder’s lesson then quickly transitions to a block of peer- and group-based activities for highlighting self-regulated learning principles. These activities reflect important elements of the cyclical process of self-regulated learning (McPherson & Zimmerman, 2011). The “Practice Behavior Observation” exercise is aimed at helping students identify effective task strategies that are representative of the thinking involved in the performance phase. The “Verbal Mediation” and “Intermittent Questioning” exercises stress aspects of goal-setting, intentionality, and self-monitoring that are critical to both the forethought and performance phases. Following these activities, the students are then tasked with recording a performance of their etude a second time and given an opportunity to openly reflect on the progress they have made in addition to identifying the qualities of practice that led to their improvement. This discussion activity is representative of the kind of thoughtful analysis self-regulated learners demonstrate in the self-reflection phase. This evaluative, listening exercise can also serve to reinforce adaptive affective responses to the learning process by providing evidence that the students’ increased performance is a direct result of effort and thoughtful work. As such, the evidence of the students’ success can lead to cultivating effort-based attributions, stronger mastery motivation orientations, and increased levels of self-efficacy. Lastly, toward the end of Mieder’s lesson, the students were challenged to apply the principles covered thus far to a full piece of music. However, prior to doing so, Mieder had the students apply their self-regulation skills on their own with minimal guidance.

Mieder’s lesson is an excellent illustration of methods for encouraging students to engage thoughtfully in their own learning. The challenges presented to the students are exemplary examples of activities that will help students become more autonomous learners.

5 Recommendations for Future Research

Reflecting on the practical application of self-regulated learning theory to music practice uncovers several avenues for future research. Further research dealing with approaches for assessing music students’ self-regulatory abilities is necessary. In particular, there is currently a lack of research that highlights the specific behaviors, metacognitive activities, and dispositions that correspond to each of the three cyclical processes outlined in self-regulated learning theory, forethought, performance, and self-reflection. It is important that measurement methods be developed that yield rich, detailed accounts of how individual’s self-regulatory abilities manifest themselves. It is also important that further research be conducted on the manner in which novice musicians can be taught to move through the hierarchical stages of self-regulated learning. Determining what types of pedagogical approaches can help students become more independent in their music practicing would be particularly beneficial for teachers. Moreover, it is important that this research consider both individual-, small- and large-group learning settings. Although, one-to-one music instruction is common, school-based music instruction typically occurs in large-group, ensemble settings. Research that tests the effectiveness of a variety of interventions is critical for the enhancement of future music pedagogy.