Formal
I consider formal learning to be in a classroom setting. There’s a teacher that tells you what to do and how to do it, there are rubrics and rules to follow, grades to earn, and there’s a clear right and wrong. It can also be in an ensemble setting, where there is a conductor in charge, and you follow the notes on the page and what the conductor wants. Formal learning is quantifiable and there are desired results that are meant to be achieved. The context I am most familiar with is that of a private piano lesson. Implementing formal learning in my practice would look like me outlining exactly what I want from a student and expecting them to complete it. This might be instructing them in how I want them to play a certain passage or laying out what their practice should look like. Non-formal Non-formal seems to be focused more on the experience than on any quantifiable results. There might still be goals involved, but there is more of a focus on community and learning through experience. This might look like a group of students forming a band just for fun, or choir members forming a group to practice their parts together. There might be leaders who step up within the group, but there is not a single, designated person in charge that dictates what should and should not be learned. In a piano studio context, it would still be blended with a formal setting, but implementing informal learning might look like putting two students together to learn a duet on their own or providing space for students who want to form their own small ensembles just for fun. Informal I consider informal learning to be self-directed more than anything else. You are the one who is making the rules and you get to choose what to learn and when. There are no goals and guidelines other than the ones you go looking for. It is learning in whatever way works best for you. Informal learning can also be learning through your surroundings. It’s the idea of “picking things up” through exposure, whether that be an instrument, a technique, or a general sense of musicianship. In a piano studio context, this might look like implementing Independent Study Projects, where the student gets to pick the topic of their study and learn it on their own before I engage with them about it, or by encouraging a student to work through a problem based on the knowledge that they already have. |
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December 2019
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