Informal learning: new ways of thinking and learning in contemporary music education

1. Informal learning: new ways of thinking and learning in contemporary music education Zoe Dionyssiou Ionian University

2. We are in need of a type of music education that cares for the needs, qualities and expertise of the learner and leads to the personal and musical growth and fulfillment of the learner and the teacher– Critical pedagogy • learning takes place even without teaching • Questions need to be answered: • a) what informal learning practices offer to formal music education (meaning students, teachers and school music-making) and • b) if and how informal learning can work in formal institutional settings.

3. Informal learning: mapping research in ethnomusicology and music education • Three stages of human development: socialisation, education and schooling (Merriam, 1964). • Three categories of learning: enculturative, guided and highly structured learning(Campbell, 1998). • Three levels of education according to the degree of their formality: informal, nonformal and formal education (LaBelle, 1984). • Five categories of learning: schooling, training, eduction, socialisation and enculturation(Jorgensen, 1997).

4. Formal and informal learning practices coexist • Even when children in a class or a teaching situation are exposed to the same type of learning, they learn different things. • Children choose and learn what they want to learn, or what they are more familiar with– ‘knowledge embedded in their communities’. • These three types of educational processes and structures are never dichotomous. Features of formality exist even in everyday teaching and learning always in a continuum between formal and informal educational processes.

5. Non-formal learning • a type of learning that occurs in informal situations and follows some kind of educational structures and processes, or a type of learning that occurs in formal situations without following typical educational structures and processes. • In non-formal learning the role of the teacher or expert is to reinforce learning in ways neither as systematic or formal as those practiced in formal learning, nor as mere observation.

6. Informal learning • Informal learning is the learning that takes place in daily life, in everyday situations, through contact with people of our everyday network, away of the institutional context. It is learning that is not intentional, but it simply occurs. It happens during our daily activities, usually by doing something, observing or talking to others. • Teaching is not a prerequisite of learning. • a great deal of learning occurs through only observation. • ‘finely tuned understanding of where learners are’ (Henze, 1992).

7. Teaching techniques • motivation, guidance and rewarding(Merriam, 1964). • aural-learning and score-reading(Herndon & McLeod, 1981: 58). • six methods of music learning met among many traditional cultures: • teaching by example: • teaching by metaphor: verbalising the movements and methods; • teaching by rote: the student plays exercises (with or without the use of notation); • coaching: the teacher/coach comments on nuances rather than basic design, guides the student who are already knows music fairly well; • learning without a teacher, usually after intensive listening to a particular musical style; • learning with a supernatural teacher: an individual who is seized by the desire to learn to play an instrument is possessed by a spirit of a dead nobleman who wishes to perform (Herndon & McLeon, 1981: 59-64) • A learning-by-ear model: playing (or singing) a piece learned from notation by memory, specifically copying the playing of another performer, imitating a particular style of playing heard at some point, improvising a variation on remembered music, inventing within a clear assimilated framework, and free invention in which the player has the maximum scope for choice and decision making (Priest, 1988; 1989).

8. Informal learning sees learning as cultural practice, meaning a process of interaction between the participants’ musical experience and competence, their cultural practices, the tools, the instruments, and the instructions, ‘altogether forming the affordances in the creative situation’ (Folkestad, 2006). • In the formal learning situation the minds of both the teacher and the students are directed towards learning how to play music (learning how to make music), whereas in the informal learning practice the mind is directed towards playing music (making music)(Folkestad, 2006).

9. Four parameters for the study of formal & informal learning • Formal and informal teaching and learning in music education can be defined according to: • a) the situation: where does the learning take place? It may take place in formal (school, conservatory, college) or informal setting (in community, peer-learning, in clubs, garages, etc.) • b) the learning style: meaning playing music from scores (written music) or by ear (aurally), • c) ownership: who owns the decision of the music activity? does the teacher decide what, how, when and where to do, or the learner? This is a difference between didactic teaching versus open and self-regulated learning. • d) intentionality: is the mind directed towards how to play (pedagogical framework) or towards playing (musical framework)? (Folkestad, 1998; Folkestad, 2006: 141-142).

10. Informal learning in practice: a new promising pedagogy Lucy Green – “How popular musicians learn? A way ahead for music education” • the importance of feeling, • the limited use of notation, • the centrality of listening and copying as the overriding learning practices in popular music, • the fact that the musicians were not conscious that their learning practice was based on listening and copying, • the practice of peer-directed learning and group learning, • watching as a learning method, • the fact that most new techniques were not considered as learned unless they were formally taught (Green, 2002).

11. Five principles that characterise informal learning • students start with music they choose for themselves • it involves listening and copying recording by ear • takes place along friends usually without any guidance by teachers or other qualified adults • includes haphazard learning of whole real pieces of music • performing, composing, improvising and listening are all integrated activities in the music experience (Green, 2008: 9-10).

12. Students practice music making in informal way • a) students had to choose and copy their favorite music in groups of their choice, • b) they were introduced to musical structure by listening to, copying and performing their favorite tracks, • c) they created their own music, • d) they engaged with music they would not have normally choose as their music preference (like classical music, opera, etc.).

13. Main outcomes in Green’s project • informal learning increased pupils' motivation, their listening skills, leadership skills, teamwork and musical appreciation. It offered them a sense of enjoyment and ownership (Green, 2008). • music teaching is closely connected with the formation of identity for their students of any age and any cultural or ethnic group (Green, 2011).

14. Patterns of informal and non-formal teaching and learning in folk music education in Greek Secondary Music Schools • ‘Please indicate which of the following techniques or materials you use in your teaching and how often’ • 45% of music teachers used theoretical books, • 71% of the teachers use scores of Classical notation, • 15% use scores of Parasimantiki notation. • 28% of the teachers use music listening in their teaching, • 61% performed or sung systematically in their classroom, • 8% record the lesson • 22% of teachers reported they use aural teaching.

16. Three main tendencies • Teaching Demotiki from a basis of Western Classical music: using western staff notation, emphasis on score-reading, using techniques and processes usually associated with western music, aiming at an accurate performance, western-style orchestration and instrumentation that are odd for the conventions of Demotic music. • Teaching Demotiki from a basis of Byzantine music: through Parasimantiki notation (the notation of the eastern orthodox church), associate it with Byzantine music theory and with musical characteristics of ecclesiastical music, regard folk music as a branch of the ecclesiastic music tradition (‘byzantinocentrism’), preventing Demotike from evolving freely and creatively. • Teaching Demotiki as an oral tradition: teaching in ways traditionally associated with folk music in community, aural learning or the ‘pick up’ method, the teacher plays and the student copies or imitates his/her teacher without the use of notation, listening to pre-recorded music in the classroom, lending students pre-recorded music for home listening, the teacher performs in the classroom and the student listens and copies his teacher’s playing/singing, and the teacher records the lesson for students to listen at home. Music listening in or out of the classroom plays an ancillary role in music teaching.

17. While the informal approach to folk music features strong in the community, in school it acquires a secondary role, as emphasis lies on formal methods instead.

18. What do students believe? • Formal teaching methods in folk music confuse students, who frequently expressed displeasure and dissatisfaction about the fusion of Classical and folk music. • Students clearly expressed their pleasure with informal music learning practices, because aural learning usually results in better understanding of folk tradition, its rules, canons, and conventions.

19. Limitations • It is the teacher’s responsibility to make this method work. • Only those teachers who are active in folk music-making in the community may be able to offer this experience to their students, which makes folk music teaching more holistic. • Informal music teaching is not an easy approach and requires a rich musical and cultural background in folk music-making, before being put it into practice.

20. Conclusions • Informal learning can take place in formal education situations and institutions. Students gain a lot out of this experience, as they approach each musical genre (that of popular or of folk music) holistically, with respect to its cultural parameters. • Music education research acknowledges the shift of focus from teaching to learning, from the teacher to the student, from formal to informal and non-formal learning situations.