IMPROVING GROUP DYNAMICS AND STUDENT MOTIVATION IN A GRADE 9 MUSIC CLASS

Cheryl Black

I have always believed that everyone has musical ability and that measuring that ability is unfair. Anyone can and should participate to the best of his or her ability for sheer enjoyment. After all, if only the best singers sang, there would never be enough people for a choir. As a teacher, I have always encouraged my students to strive for their best not be the best. In order to facilitate that, I have always tried to create in my class an atmosphere of trust, acceptance, tolerance, and respect for one another. As such, I have tried to use music as a vehicle through which to help my students gain confidence and self-assurance.

I am presently in my seventeenth year of teaching secondary school. Although music is my major and I have worked primarily with vocal and instrumental classes, I have also taught English, Visual Arts and Keyboarding. Our school serves a wide cross-section of population, but teaching music is a relatively sheltered existence—students are usually in my class because they have an aptitude or an interest in music. Rarely do students think that they will find music an easy credit. I do understand the classroom dynamics of teaching a mandatory subject. However, since I have taught only music for the last eight or nine years, I have rarely encountered unmanageable belligerence or animosity. If I do, peer pressure usually serves to help balance the problem.

This article describes my use of action research in my Professional Growth Strand. In the Grand Erie District School Board the Professional Growth Strand is an improvement-based approach to teacher evaluation in which experienced and competent teachers work periodically with a school administrator to set goals for improving their practice and to evaluate the progress made at the end of the year.

Why Action Research?

I was introduced to the method of action research about the same time I learned I would be on professional growth strand. I was also looking for an answer for the problems I was having with one particular class. Action research appeared to be a means of combining with my professional growth strand the work I needed to do in this particular class.

Believing that I am respected for my ability and knowledge is a rare feeling. Action research gives credence to my knowledge and experience. The method of carefully gathering and analyzing data shows that constructive improvement has taken place. No longer do I have to rely on vague, nebulous feelings of improvement when the proof is in writing. This serves to spur me on with my project specifically, and my teaching in general, on those days when I feel discouraged, ineffective, and unappreciated. Believing that I am making a difference allows me to be more emotionally resilient to stress-related illnesses and helps me trust my own judgement when I am bombarded with derogatory messages from various sources.

My Project

I believe that teachers can waste a great deal of energy trying to keep students motivated and interested in their respective subject areas. Occasionally I have come across groups of students who, despite my best efforts, only reluctantly participate in the activities in my class. Until this year, reprimands and modeling desired behaviour have been effective in eventually improving the atmosphere in my class. However, students are changing. Peer approval appears to be more important than teacher approval. In my opinion this is due to lack of self-confidence; such misbehaviour appears to be more for the validation of peers and, therefore, less responsive to verbal reprimands. So, for my professional growth strand, I decided that I wanted to find more structured activities to improve group dynamics and increase student motivation. I expected that the students would take a little more responsibility for their own learning and self-discipline allowing me to spend my energy more constructively arranging music and creating appropriate lesson plans.

The group that I chose for my study was a grade nine vocal class of twelve girls and four boys. I chose a vocal class because the self-image of singers is much more closely related to their singing ability. Instrumentalists can always complain about the instrument when a performance does not go as well as they had hoped but singers are putting a larger piece of themselves forward for evaluation when they perform.

I am used to some resistance at the beginning of the year in a new vocal class but this class was an extreme case. I was planning lessons only to have the class sit with blank stares and participate only half-heartedly, if at all. There were discipline problems and an apparent lack of interest in the subject. Day after day, people greeted my instructions with reluctance if not downright defiance. There was a total lack of focus during theory lessons and an increasing lack of participation. Ignoring the inappropriate behaviour had no impact on the students.

I decided to stop being reactive and start being active. I began watching the students as they entered at the beginning of class. There were a number of small groups within the class, depending on the public school attended. The groups were talking about each other, judging by glances and nudges. It appeared that insecurity and lack of group identity caused them to ridicule and put down each other. Students who would normally be interested in participating were intimidated into silence.

Initially, I dealt with snide comments and discipline problems as they occurred but as the situation did not appear to improve, I had to go deeper. I decided to assign a singing test. I planned a very short one but I hoped that taking a risk in front of each other would impress the point that they all shared the same amount of nervousness. One student, Al, refused to sing a test (Please note that in this article the names of students are pseudonyms.). He was rude and defiant. I asked him to go to the office because I was concerned that an attitude like that could spread. I understood that he was threatened by the thought of singing a solo and that was probably the root of his negative attitude. He said, "I’m not singing. I wanted Tech and they stuck me in here." I called his father that evening and suggested that a possible switch of classes would make the student happier but if he wanted to stay in my class, I was willing to keep trying with him. The student decided to stay in vocal music and even came in for a little private help.

I learned that two other students had been told that they had very good voices and the rest of the students were intimidated by their confident attitude. I began to believe that the true problem was a lack of self-esteem and the negative attitude was a defense. I wanted to create a climate of cooperation rather than competition. Nathaniel Brandon (1996, page 37) wrote, "Self-respect is the conviction of our own value. It is not comparative or competitive at all. It is the conviction that our life and well-being are worth acting to support, protect, and nurture; that we are good and worthwhile and deserving of the respect of others; and that our happiness and personal fulfillment are important enough to work for."

I realized that the students needed to believe that singing was only one of the many things that they did. For some students singing was a priority at which they worked very hard; yet for other students singing was only an enjoyable leisure activity. As a consequence, comparing singing voices was unfair. I wanted an activity that would help the students believe that they were special thus decreasing their dependence on the opinions of others.

Thus I devised my action research question, "How can I help my students develop their self-esteem so they will take a more active role in their own learning?"

Data Collection and Analysis

The data collected was primarily journal writing by the students and myself. Approximately every two weeks, the students would answer questions that I created based on my perception of their needs on their journey to self discovery. I photocopied the pages out of their journals and filed the sheets from each writing session with a copy of the questions. I dated each file. The data collected spanned a period of four months. Also on two occasions, I taped and transcribed class discussion. I also kept a journal and wrote particularly about specific situations in which the students exhibited improved caring and respect for themselves, each other, and myself.

I analyzed the entries during the project and as I prepared to write my article. Discussing the data and my analysis with a critical friend helped me to learn from the project.

The Story of the Project

We started just after Christmas. I gave students each one hundred index cards and asked them to start writing one good thing about themselves on each card. They were not allowed to share or discuss the cards with anyone else. The comments on the cards had to be attributes and abilities. I reminded them that abilities did not need to be stated as absolutes; they could acknowledge movement along a continuum as progress. I hoped

that if they understood that singing was only one of the abilities that they possessed, they would be less likely to measure their self-worth by the mark they received for their singing test. One student made the point that since I had not done this activity before, nor was doing it with any other class, that alone made them special.

For the next two weeks, I reminded them to continue reading over their cards every day and write more cards as they discovered more attributes. Eventually, I hoped that they would focus on things they could do in order to complete all of their cards. Focusing on their strengths would be the first step in increasing their self-esteem.

The next step was to help the students realize the difference the cards made to them. We had a class discussion during which I asked specific students to write down their own quotes. Out of sixteen students, only two had stopped reading them and one of those two students had lost her cards.

After the first set of question sheets, I received a notice asking about the behaviour and attitude of Al. At this point I had already seen a marked improvement in his attitude and behaviour. His class participation had increased and so had his concentration level. I filled it out and later took it to his learning resource teacher. I was surprised to learn that he was very different in other classes. His improvement in attitude was not directed toward school in general, just toward my class. So, I realized that I needed an activity to help the students apply respect for self and others to other areas of their lives. At this point, I had lunch with my critical friend and shared my experiences to date. Many students have an unrealistic view of how they are perceived by other people, so an activity was suggested to allow the students to collect compliments about themselves.

I had the tables moved in the classroom so that the students were sitting in a circle. We passed around sheets of foolscap and students wrote their names on a sheet. We continued to pass the sheets so that other members of the class could write positive comments about each student. The sheets were passed along three people each time to protect the anonymity of the source for each comment. I collected these Compliment Sheets and checked them over to ensure that the comments were all positive before the students saw them. The following day, I handed out the sheets along with a notebook journal for each student. I asked a series of questions about their comments and asked students to write answers in their journals to ensure that the students read and considered the compliments that they received.

Once every two weeks, I would ask the students to write in their journal responses to a series of questions geared to help them become aware of the changes and maturing that was happening. The students called these classes, ‘Think Days’ and enjoyed them. If I forgot, they would remind me that they hadn’t written in their books lately. The students were changing. I could see it and I could feel it in the atmosphere. The questions I asked were not very detailed but were only designed to make the students aware of their feelings.

Findings

Case Study #1 - Sally

Sally started out very negatively. She lost her cards and even when she read them, she said, "Those cards made me feel worse inside." In the margin of the same sheet of paper, she wrote, "I hate my fat life." However, the comments made about her by the other students included things like, "good friend; laughs a lot; always makes me laugh; very friendly; very kind." Her reaction to those comments seemed as if they were from a different person. She wrote, "All of the comments make me feel really good today; …it makes me feel that in this class we are all good friends."

Two weeks later I asked them if they acted differently in my class. Sally replied, "I do my work and try to act nicer than normal." The next series of questions included the question, "What is the most important thing you learned about yourself this year?" Sally replied, "That I have a lot of problems and a caring teacher to help me solve them." On April 28, I asked whether or not students felt better about themselves, Sally replied, "Yes, I do feel a little more confident about myself." On May 11, Sally wrote, "I am nicer to teachers. I am not getting in that much trouble lately and I have learned to like some people."

Case Study #2 - Al

Al made more significant changes. In the beginning, he did not want to be in Vocal Music. He was insolent and frequently rude when asked to participate in class activities. After a short, private session after school to analyze his potential, he seemed somewhat resigned to stay in the class.

For the first three months of the school year, I tried my usual techniques. Verbal reprimands for derogatory comments usually work well but this year they did not. However, phoning Al’s father to clarify the reason he had been sent to the office seemed to begin the change in Al’s attitude. He was impressed that I wanted to ensure that he had not received more punishment at home.

When we did the one hundred index cards, I was uncertain as to what Al’s reaction would be. He filled out six cards in class. That was a tremendous surprise. I had expected a battle. The next day, he had a total of ten filled out and one of the other students had a story to tell about him. In Math, a student had been making fun of himself for failing Math. Al asked the student if he had tried his best. When the student replied, "Yes." Al told him that he should be proud of that grade. The student scoffed and made fun of Al but the student telling the story came to Al’s defense and agreed with him. As she was telling the story, Al looked rather sheepish but was smiling widely. The other students in the class applauded. This episode was followed by Al’s improved willingness to participate in classroom activities.

Two weeks later, when we had our first real discussion about the cards, Al was late. When he finally arrived, I asked him if he had forgotten last class and gone home. His jaw dropped and he said, "How did you know?" I told him it was just a lucky guess. Because he was honest with me, I didn’t overreact. I just laughed with him, as did the class. Later he told me that earlier in the year, he would not have come to class and told me the truth. He would have tried to come up with an excuse or, gone to the office to sign back in.

Shortly after that class, I learned that another activity was necessary to help the students understand that they can choose how to act in every class, not just mine. The students appeared to have little difficulty coming up with compliments for Al as the sheets were passed around the class. Compliments included, "He is funny; very honest; very interesting." One even complimented "his courage to stick with vocal music." He was not impressed by that comment but did like the fact that he was considered interesting and honest. He said, "People don’t really know me…They just wrote anything down."

A couple of weeks later, another sheet was sent to Al’s teachers to check on his progress. The reason for this sheet was his medication for Attention Deficit Disorder. He told me when he started the medication and that he was glad that he would be able to concentrate better in his classes. Initially, I was prepared to give Al’s medication credit for his improved focus in school until I realized that there had been significant changes in my class before he was put on medication. I continued with my project because all the students seemed to be benefiting, and because William Glasser (1986, page 50) wrote, "Giving (students) a stimulant drug makes them feel as if they are satisfied, and for a while they tend to quiet down. If, however, in this quiet period they do not learn more mature behaviors, the drug will cease to satisfy. Teachers should not be lulled into thinking that these students have been "cured" by a drug."

Comments on this set of sheets indicated that there was an improvement. Al "…has improved his behaviour and participation…(He) seems a little more settled in behaviour… better at times than in term 1…not as belligerent or aggressive."

The next journal writing session that Al attended was on April 14. In response to the question, "What do you like the best about this class?" Al wrote, "How people are open and can talk about everything or anything that is important to them." He also wrote that he would not change a thing about the class. When asked what he had learned about himself, Al wrote, "...that something that you think is bad can turn into something that you like."

Things continued to improve with Al. On April 28, Al wrote that he felt, "more confident, less worried about (his) appearance" and that he had "learned a lot of new things." When it came to taking risks in new activities, Al wrote that he was still "embarrassed" but that he learned to "laugh at (himself) and try anyway."

On May 11, I asked the students if they noticed significant changes in anyone. Nine of the students indicated that Al had the most improved attitude of anyone in the class. One said, "He sings a lot now." Another wrote, "He is more confident about (himself) and will now sing in class." Al felt "everyone (had) improved in everything." He also wrote, "Now I want to come to this class…It is one of my favourite classes now."

Observed Improvements in Group Dynamics

One afternoon I took my class to watch a short drama presentation produced by another class. The audience did not produce the increased focus the drama teacher desired. The drama students did not take the presentation seriously and were rather ill-prepared. Upon returning to class, we talked about the presentation. One of my students said, "They weren’t very mature, were they?" I thought that was significant considering in September, my class acted in a similar fashion when a performance was expected.

Another afternoon, the class was moving to the choir risers on one side of the room to perform their best piece. The piece had two parts, and each student knew which part they were expected to sing. Al stopped everyone and said, "People singing the first part stand on that end of the risers and everyone else on the other end." So, not only had he improved in his willingness to sing, his confidence in relating to the other students had also increased and he was beginning to develop some leadership ability.

On March 11, as I was doing attendance and the students were talking to each other and to me, I asked them to give me a minute to think because I had been involved in a rather heated discussion over a student just prior to the class. One student said, "Ms. B., it is so rare that you are not in a great mood that it brings me down." Another told me that I don’t talk down to them; I speak to them ".. as if we had a brain." Another said they listen to me because they like me not because they are made to listen. One girl remarked, "Every day we learn something; sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s not but we always learn something." Al said, "Yeah, this is my favourite class." Another student said, "We don’t feel we have to pretend to be something we’re not. We are accepted and special just the way we are." I was very moved to see them worrying about me. For a few days, I had been encouraging them to sing for the other music class scheduled at the same time as their class. After this conversation, they volunteered to sing for the other class. In retrospect, I wonder if they thought it would make me feel better.

My main method of data collection was journal writing. Students were very excited about the fact that I had bought them index cards and notebooks. One student asked whether I was doing journal writing with other classes. When I told him they were the only class, he said, "We really are special, aren’t we?" I knew that if I wanted them to take more responsibility for their own learning, I had to help them believe that their opinions were valid. Asking them for their opinions, in their own words, was a means of increasing their feelings of self-worth.

Observed Improvements in Social Responsibility

When I started this project, I only had the goal of improving the learning atmosphere in my grade nine vocal class. However, there were many added benefits. I saw my students develop an improved sense of social responsibility. Rarely did I have to deal with derogatory comments. Other students usually dealt with teasing and criticism. Regularly, the students tidied the piles of music and the room before leaving and without prompting from me. I saw increased tolerance and respect for each other. After all, if students are special, and treated with respect they learn to treat each other that way also. When setting dates for testing or other activities that they were not as happy about, they often decidould to ‘get things over with’ so they can go to do the things that they liked better. I believe that attitude shows an increased level of maturity. A couple of students decided that they would like to experiment with drama and drop music for a year. Both students subsequently changed their minds and switched their course selection back to music.

Conclusions

The atmosphere in this vocal class improved more than that of any other class I have taught. In the past there have been many classes which started out on a really positive note and did not improve as much as this year’s class. As a minimum activity, I intend to include journal writing on a weekly basis in my vocal classes. If the writing becomes a regular activity, I would hope that the need for directing questions would decrease as the comfort level of the students increased.

The index cards will also become a part of the course. I believe that everyone should have one hundred good things about themselves that they review everyday. The key is total honesty when writing the cards. Learning to be honest with myself is a very difficult lesson. I believe that helping students with that lesson will enrich their lives.

I realize that, having taught for seventeen years, there may be some things that I have begun to take for granted. The changes I witnessed this year have served to remind me that students always appreciate positive reinforcement. Even if I do not consciously work on self-esteem in my other music classes, positive comments about the progress of my students are always appreciated by them and by their parents. Lately, I may have fallen into the habit of pointing out areas for improvement without remembering to first, compliment students on their progress.

I recognize that there is a danger of attributing too much to the activities done in my class this year. There is a strong possibility that the students would have developed naturally as a group as they gained confidence in the life of high school and, as they learned to trust each other and me. I am also aware that my attitude shifted. As I saw improvement in their treatment of each other and me, I am sure I saw the positive more readily and ignored the negative more often.

When I see a grade nine music class, I look at the students as a four or five year investment. If I can maintain a positive attitude toward music and, improve their readiness to learn, then the next three or four years will be affected. I took a chance that if there was slightly less curriculum covered in grade nine due to the activities I have described, the students would compensate for that either in grade nine or later due to their improved attitude in music class. However, during the year essential complicated concepts were mastered by the grade nines with which some grade ten vocal students are still struggling. A comparison of comprehension and retention will be a question for another action research project.

Later that year, my class asked me to perform for them. When I expressed my concern about nerves, one student piped up and said, "Why? Your singing voice is not who you are, you know?" They finally understood what I had been working for all year. I had hoped that they would achieve their potential as singers. However, the fact that some understood the motive behind our classroom activities, went beyond my expectations.

As a result of my year with this class, I have been reminded not to underestimate adolescents. Their abilities are almost limitless as long as they believe in themselves. Time spent helping them feel better about who they are has paid back immeasurably in their improved attitude toward learning and towards school, in general.

Action research has allowed me to validate my philosophy of education—remembering to teach the child as well as the subject. I hope that short-term setbacks will be compensated by the development of life-long learners with a more positive attitude about themselves.

Reflections on the Process of the Study

I did not substantially change the focus of my study as the year progressed. My question remained the same. However, I adjusted the questions for journal writing depending on the atmosphere within the class and, the interactions of the students between journal days. The questions were designed to help the students recognize the maturing and growing that they were doing. They were probably vaguely aware of the changes taking place within them, but asking them to articulate those changes in writing, meant they could not pretend that they were not growing.

The only change I made in my initial plan was the addition of the Compliment Sheets to help the students become more aware of the perceptions of other people. I realized that they were not automatically applying the things that they had learned about themselves. By making them aware of their own growth, I hoped to help them develop self-confidence and help them improve their dealings with other people.

Resources

Branden, N. (1996). Taking Responsibility. New York: Simon & Shuster.

Canfield, J., & Hansen, M. V. (1995). A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Florida: Health Communications, Inc.

Glasser, W. (1986). Control Theory in the Classroom. New York: Harper & Row.

Jeffers, S. (1987). Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, New York: Fawcett Columbine.

McNiff, J., Lomax, P., & Whitehead, J. (1996). You and Your Action Research Project. New York: Routledge.