Edpsy 399 OL - Spring 2000

Tom Anderson, Instructor

Leonard Fretzin

Forum 4 - Lesson 4

Date: Sun March 11 2001

Subject: Lesson 4 Required q4

Kounin and Conductor Metaphor

Kounin expects the teacher to be an orchestra conductor. Fortunately I began college as a music major who had the good and bad fortune of having one of the most famous conductors, William D. Revelli of the University of Michigan band. So I think I'll use him in a matter of respect to his memory for the touchstone of this metaphor.

The ripple effect is widely used by good conductors. By bearing down on and criticizing the poorest musician in the band or one that isn't particularly liked, the conductor is able to humiliate the offender, and, at the same time keep his other players on the edge of their seats, and more alert. Revelli's favorite question to an errant musician was "are you proud of that sound". No one dared answer 'yes'.

When used by teachers it will have some ripple effect among the rest of the class but the extent of the effect will depend upon the susceptibility of the individual students to correction. Unlike our band members, whose continuing membership in the organization is considered a privilege, the student in class is required to be there, and the teacher is more often than not required to put up with him.

The ripple effect of discipline has less effect on those who do not care, unless it is accompanied by some real threat of a consequence. This is the reason that Kounin could not find the ripple effect in children at summer camp. Its difficult under those circumstances to back up a desist with a possible adverse consequence.

It is almost the definition of a good conductor to say he must be "withit". The conductor is listening to many more musicians than a teacher will in a classroom. These musicians are divided into 'sections', each of which plays a part that is indicated on the score that a composer wrote. In a band there are usually three sections of clarinets, two of flutes, two of oboes, bassoon, two of alto saxophones, tenor, and baritone saxophone, two of trombones, bass trombone, baritone, two of trumpet, two of french horn, coronet, and percussion, etc. Although the band has all the individuals in a section playing the same part, the classroom has 28 to 32 individuals, potentially playing separate parts.

The members of school classrooms are individuals, even though they can still be lumped into 'sections', but in a different way then is seen in the band. There are those students who usually are following the program and don't need individual attention, there are those students whose greatest infraction is talking in class, and there are students who need to be watched daily because of their tendency toward disruptive and inappropriate behavior. Kounin advises that the teacher attend to the most serious deviancy taking place, and likewise make the best possible selection of the student to be the subject of a 'desist'.

The same good judgement is need by the band conductor. His hearing must be first rate so that he can zero in on any player who is 'goofing off' by not playing his part correctly on purpose, and secondly the conductor must pay attention to the player who is simply playing his part incorrectly. The nature of the 'desist' in the band involves the musician being made to play their part alone for the purpose of example to the rest of the players. The time spent this way in a rehearsal is well spent. The 'miscreant' can be corrected, told to stop playing that section, be moved down a chair in position, or in untoward other ways, be humiliated for his lack of musicianship and practice.

Kounin's concept of movement management is based on his observation that there is a relationship between student behavior and movement within and between lessons. He requires teachers to practice moving smoothly from one activity to the next, and divides the lesson by their pacing, momentum, and transitions. He warns about two problems that commonly occur in transitions, namely jerkiness and slowdowns. Jerkiness is an abruptness in transition that tends to throw students off. Slowdowns are delays that waste time, often involving 'overdwelling' on one subject.

The great conductor , Wm. D. Revelli knew about both of these problems when he conducted practice sessions of the University of Michigan Symphonic Band. One important aspect of good musical interpretation involves the transitions between parts of the musical score. It may be an abrupt transition from an andante introduction to an allegro vivace theme, or a ritardando which must be carefully directed with all players' eyes on the podium, that is the conductor.

In a classroom the undivided attention of students is rarely seen. Perhaps this is why recent research has found that musical training helps boost the results of academic training. The ancient Greeks emphasized the positive effect that musical training had on both academic training, discipline, and character development. (Plato - Republic)

Musical practice, however, can become a negative feedback loop when too much time (i.e. 'overdwelling') is spent trying to improve, or 'clean up' a section of music. Generally, if more than 15 or 30 minutes is spent trying to work out the problems in a section of music, the musicians become increasingly restless and irritated, and less likely to improve. A good conductor instinctually knows this, and will not dwell on problems to any length of time, especially, (and this may be surprising) right before a concert performance.

When students are involved in group activities, and are often divided up into various functions within small groups, Kounin's model teacher, becomes even more like a band or orchestra leader, being able to observe all the members of the class, while one member performs. He is required to circulate and observe the responses of the other students. He asks other students to check on the accuracy of the performing student, while calling for a unison response or checking individuals at random.

The band director sometimes uses a similar technique. When one musician 'challenges' another to move up into his chair (most musicians seek to be 'first' chair of their section), they each play the same part of their score and their performance is judged by the other band members.

A good band or orchestra conductor must be a good entertainer and producer, and know how to select a program for a concert that contains a variety of music both in type and in difficulty. This benefits not only audience, but also the musicians in the band. A typical program by maestro Revelli would include a Sousa march, a serious transcription from orchestral literature such as Wagner's Liebestod, popular band music, by such composers as Percy Grainger or Emil Holtz, and some contemporary and controversial piece. In other words, mix 'em up so that everyone in the audience has something to like.

Likewise Kounin's ideal teacher is required to avoid satiation among his students by offering a variety of learning experience that remain challenging from day to day. This is not an easy task, and is certainly more difficult than the concert building that an orchestral or band director must do. A concert may occur once a month or even more infrequently, but class is held five days a week. Unless a teacher is lucky enough to have at his disposal a curriculum which is both ingenious and rich, (and I have yet to see one in either Chemistry or Physics), then he is on his own to both be a curriculum developer and a teacher. It would be nice if the curriculum development people in the Boards of Education actually did something to help us.

TEACHERS FIRST!

Anderson, Tom - Commentary on Kounin

Charles, C.M., Senter, Gail W., Barr, Karen B. - Building Classroom Discipline; ISBN: 0801330041; Publisher: Addison-Wesley Longman, Incorporated 1998

Kounin, J.S. (1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

McEwan, E. K., Damer, M. - Managing Unmanageable Students; Corwin Press, Inc.,Thousand Oaks, CA 2000