Pedagogy: It's not what you think.

Warning:  This is a lengthy one...and a bit rambling at times...

I have been thinking about this blog post probably since mid-February.  I now realize the topic of "pedagogy" is at the heart of the differences between American and Finnish education.  Well, that and the way Finland values their people, which I covered a few posts ago.  

Before I delve into this tricky subject, I want to say that the process of struggling to figure out the Finnish understanding of pedagogy has been one of the most pivotal, meaningful, and personally shaping experiences of my entire time in Finland.  Much of what I am learning about Finnish culture has been easy to see: they don't wear shoes in school, the education system is free, they love salmiakki etc...  But this was a case of knowing that what I was observing was a new thing to me, but I couldn't make sense of it.  I have been blessed with an advisor who is good at sitting and talking with me, and who has given me literally hours of her time.  Most of our conversations have been fairly easy in that one of us asks the other about some aspect of our respective culture, and the other answers it.  This topic, however, was different.  I have come to understand that sometimes it is difficult to describe something about your culture when you are speaking as an insider, from a perspective where you're culture is all you know.  It's like the questions being asked don't really make sense because you can't even see what the question is.  What would the other option be?  This was pedagogy for us.  We were using the same word, but meaning very different things by it.  

Let's see if I can walk you through some of this journey....

Part of the application for a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Education grant is a proposed inquiry project.  Here's an brief outline of mine:

I wanted to create a resource guide for music educators based on what I observed in Finnish choral rehearsals.  The main purpose of my time in Finland was to increase my skills as a conductor and choir teacher.  I was also hoping to come back with a handy little guide full of new tools and techniques that teachers in the US could take into their classrooms.  Chapters one and two were meant to be brief descriptions and chapter three was going to be the meat of my project.  

An In-Depth Look at Music Education and Children's Choirs in Finland

Chapter 1: Music Teacher Training in Finland

Chapter 2: The Finnish Music School Model

Chapter 3: Finnish Children's Choirs

-Conductor Responsibilities

* Choosing Repertoire

* Learning the Score

* Conducting Gestures

-Tools and Techniques for Teaching Musicianship Skills

* Vocal Development

* Musical Literacy

* Part-Singing

-Rehearsal to Performance

* Song Presentation

* Planning Rehearsals - both short and long term planning

As it turns out, Chapter 1 is the only chapter that will remain the same.  The issue with Chapter 2 is that the Finnish music education system is much more extensive than just music schools. And Chapter 3...well this chapter is pretty much going to be thrown out completely. It became clear to me almost immediately that I was asking the wrong questions in Chapter 3.   

Let's back up a little.  The very first day that Sanna (you all know her as my advisor by now, right?) and I met to talk about my project, she suggested I look at the pedagogy in Finnish children's choirs.  Excellent, I thought!  I've got an entire chapter of my project dedicated to this!  

Now fast forward a bit.  Sanna invited me to teach a handful of songs to her choir - quite a generous gesture!  The first song I worked on was "On Suuri Sun Rantas Autius."  This song is a bit like a Finnish "Shennandoah."  The words talk about hearing the wild duck crying on the shores of a beloved lake, and the cries make the writer long for their home land.  Like a good choir director teacher, I spent time analyzing the piece and figuring out what a good "entry point" was for introducing this song.  Vox Aurea, Sanna's choir, is an advanced choir and I had a hunch they wouldn't need much help with the actual notes.  So I decided that a way to get right to the musicality of the song would be to focus on the mood of the piece.  I read the words to the choir and then I played them an audio recording of a loon call, which was the closest connection I had to a wild duck.  We discussed what kind of emotions a call like this evoked.  I had the choir sing the song with those emotions in mind.  I also noticed that the music had no dynamic markings, which I found unusual and interesting.  I had the choir break up into small groups and discuss what they thought the dynamics should be throughout the piece.  Then each group took turns writing out the dynamics on the board and we sang through the song according to each groups dynamic interpretations.  I should mention, I was absolutely impressed with the choir's ability to sing the dynamics differently each time.  They really did sing with such sensitivity.  Then my time was up so I said we would come back to this next week and make final decisions about dynamics as a whole group.

Pretty good lesson, don't you think?  Engaging, analytical, opportunity for group discussion, and repeated practice of the song.  This lesson had it all!  I was supposed to have worked on two pieces that day, but what teacher hasn't run out of time for their entire lesson before, right?

Not so much.  Sanna's response was basically:  "What was that?"  Her general feedback was that in the time I had to rehearse, I only got to one piece.  They have very little rehearsal time to learn LOTS of songs, so there is no time for things like what I did.  She did, however, agree that I had told the kids we would decide on dynamics next week, so she said I should work on it again next week and follow through on my promise...but be quick about it!

So I taught the song again the next week.  I don't honestly remember as many details about that rehearsal, but I know we decided as a group on the dynamics and we rehearsed a few tricky spots that I was noticing note-wise.  I thought it had gone better.  Again, not so much.  Sanna still seemed confused about the choices I had made for that rehearsal.  She posed questions like "was I happy with the speaking vs. singing ratio" and "what did I think about the timing / effectiveness of the session."

I was starting to stress out!  I'm here on a FULBRIGHT, for goodness sake, and I felt like I was coming across as some American yahoo who didn't know how to run a choir rehearsal.  And it wasn't for lack of trying on my part!  I put a lot of thought into both of those rehearsals.  Aaaagh!

Sanna and I met the next week to talk things over.  At some point during this conversation she again mentioned that I should examine the pedagogy of children's choirs. As we began discussing "pedagogy" it was clear we were not understanding each other.   I remember her saying "well...maybe the issue is in each of our understanding of pedagogy."  But neither of us were doing well at articulating our understanding of pedagogy.  It was a frustrating position to be in.  I wanted to do well by her, and I wanted to learn the Finnish way, but we were struggling to communicate to each other.  

All I knew was that she was giving me another chance to work with her choir, and I did NOT want to screw it up.  But I didn't really know how to fix what I was doing.  I remember thinking and thinking about this.  I was frustrated, I didn't understand, and I didn't really even understand what it was that I didn't understand.  It was like there was this big black hole that I wasn't able to penetrate.  I can remember coming up with a brilliant solution to my problem as I was walking one day.  I sent her an email asking if she would be willing to give me a sample "lesson plan" of what she would do if she were me.  How would she use those 30 minutes to work with the choir?  I thought that if I could see how she would use that time, maybe I could prepare by trying to do my best at following her modeling.  She responded by saying that she'd be happy to try, but that's not really how she thinks about teaching.  She said she doesn't decide beforehand what she will teach, but she listens to what the singers' needs are and reacts accordingly.  She comes prepared with many different plans and then works in cooperation with the singers to meet a shared goal. 

Again, aaaaagggghhhh!!!!  Of course I don't disagree with this, but you can see how I was struggling with knowing what to do with this.  I mean, what exactly was I supposed to do?  I wanted a step by step guide about how to improve my instruction.

We met again and Sanna suggested that I talk with a professor from the education department who was from England but has lived in Finland for 20 years. Sanna thought a native English speaker with an "outsiders" perspective may be able to help make sense of the confusion I was experiencing.  

I met with this woman and basically explained to her everything I've written above, and this is where the breakthrough happened.  She understood immediately what I as talking about and described it like this:

In America (and apparently England too):

Pedagogy = specific techniques, tools or methods used to teach and assess different skills or content.   This is teacher or process centered.

In Finland:

Pedagogy = The process in which a child grows in personal and cultural development, and how the teacher uses various tools to help each child in the process according to what works for each individual child. This is student centered.

Understanding this difference made me realize I had been asking the wrong questions.  The question wasn't "what tools and techniques do they use in Finland."  Those are basically the same as what we use.  As Sanna says, "Educational research is universal."  I kind of agree. Instructionally, I have seen nothing new happening in Finland.  The difference isn't in their tools and techniques, the difference is in their approach to education.  So the correct question to be asking was, "How does Finland approach education, and what does this look like in a choral setting?" A primary goal of Finnish education is to help students discover who they are and to grow into their own personal identity.  Educational ideals are not imposed on students they way they are in the US.  There isn't one definition of success (ie, high scores on tests.)  Teachers here are expected to know something about many different methods and instructional models, and then look at their students as individuals and choose the instructional method that is right for them in that moment.  

So what did this mean for my time with Vox Aurea?  I decided to just focus on the music.  Each time I've been asked to teach a song, I prepare by making sure I know the score really well so that I'll be able to spend all of my energy listening to the choir and responding to what I hear.  I've taught through a very straight forward method - basically teaching the songs by playing the music on the piano.  There is not much creative about the teaching process, but then we get to the "making music" part more quickly.  And since I've done that, Sanna has said, "That was perfect, Rachel!"  This is quite different that the training I've received in the US.  I can see pros and cons to both systems, but I am avoiding making judgments, and simply trying to learn the Finnish way.    

As a result of all of this learning and reflection, the three chapters to my project will now be:

1. The Finnish Music Education Model

2. Music Teacher Training in Finland

3. The Finnish Approach to Teaching and Learning in a Choral Setting

Finnish Music Education: It's complicated.

This is gonna be a big one.  Finland's music education system is quite complex, and I think we are going to need some visual aids to help sort this all one.  Here goes...

Remember this picture from a few posts back?

Visual Aid #1

For right now, we are going to start by focusing on the lower half of this picture:  Early childhood education through basic education (birth-16 years old.)

Finnish music education is divided up into multiple "pillars."  From what I can tell so far, there are four pillars, but there is honestly so much music here that I wouldn't be surprised if I'm missing something.  Each pillar has its own purpose, and it appears that different pieces of the music education are pretty compartmentalized into a certain pillar, and there's not a lot of cross over between them.  

Visual Aid #2

	Basic Education	Basic Education/ Special Music Classes	Music Schools: Conservatory (auditioned) Community Ed (non-auditioned) Private (non-auditioned)	Choirs (Non-Profit)
3 Yrs: 16-18	Lukio General Upper Secondary School (High School)	Music Lukio Music every day Various courses that include many genres of music	Conservatory *Auditioned Community Ed. *Non-auditioned Private *Non-auditioned -Private instrument  lessons -Music theory classes -Orchestra -Choir -Folk music Ensembles -Pop/Jazz Ensembles and lessons	Youth Choir Ages 11-18
9 Yrs: 7-15	Grades 7-9: Two compulsory music courses	Music every day: various music courses (Audition for Music Lukio)
	Grades 3-6: Music class once per week	Four hours of music instruction per week, including choir
	Grades 1-2: Music class once per week	Audition for special music classes -  may vary		Children’s Choir Ages 7-10
1 Yr: 6	Pre-Primary Education (Kindergarten)		Music Playschool Instrument Lessons
5 Yrs: 0-5	Early Childhood Education and Care		Music Playschool	Playschool Choir

The chart above shows the four main pillars I have observed so far.  Let's dig in a bit.

Basic Education
Structure:
I don't see that Finland's music education is terribly different from American music education (in structure, at least) during basic education.  There is one exception to this, and that is the early years.  I do not believe there are any music standards for students younger than kindergarten in America. Here, all children do receive music education in preschool, and have access to music classes from birth.

Observations:
So far I have only observed primary music classes.  I am still hoping to observe some classes in upper secondary, but have not yet done so.  After observing numerous primary music classes, three things strike me as notable.  First, there seems to be an overwhelming focus on instruments rather than singing.  The classrooms that I've been in are well stocked with instruments.  It is common to see class sets (meaning enough instruments for each student to have their own) of guitars, ukuleles, and recorders.  There are also usually a decent set of Orff instruments, a piano, many unpitched percussion instruments, and a set up for a pop band including electric guitars, drum sets, and microphones.  I've only seen singing in a handful of classes.

So many colorful UKES!

These kids were playing the guitar by plucking one string at a time
as a "bass" accompaniment to recorded music.  It was a nice beginner
level activity.

This is a kantele, a traditional Finnish folk instrument.
  It is similar to a dulcimer, but it tuned in a way that makes it very easy
for young students to play chords.  And it has a lovely, light sounds that
is suited perfectly for accompanying young voices.

Very nice recorder storage.

Bands!  This kind of set up was in every single music class I visited.

Second, music teachers seem to create experiences for their students, rather than rolling out lessons of explicit instruction.  There isn't much "do this when you see this" or "play this when I give you this signal."  It seems much more free form.  For example, there might be a quick overview of the song they will be playing, and then there is lots of time for the kids to "practice" on their own.  And I put "practice" in quotes because it's really more just exploring their instrument.  My advisor compared it to kids playing on a musical playground.  As in, they're just noodling around seeing what the learn from these instruments that are in front of them.

Lastly, pop and jazz music play a big role in Finnish music education.  A BIG role.  I would almost go so far as to say that pop and jazz are valued more than classical music.  The only other genre I see playing a big role is folk music.  I have heard quite a number of folk songs performed at various schools.  But definitely pop and jazz music are the majority of what I've seen students singing and playing.

One school I visited was particularly focused on pop music.  She started the 4th grade music class by having a group of kids show me their "band" playing ACDC's Highway to Hell.




Basic Education/ Special Music Classes
Structure:
The easiest way to describe this is a magnet program for music within a regular public school that students must audition to be in. These classes begin in fourth grade and continue through what we would call middle school.  All of the students accepted into the program are in the same classroom, and they stay together from grade to grade.  For example, in the school I visited, there were two fourth grade classes, and one contained all of the students in the special music class program.  Next year, all of these students will again be in the same class in fifth grade.  Students in the special music class receive four hours of music instruction per week; two one-hour classes during the school day and a two-hour class after school one day.  This after school class is less like regular music class and more like an ensemble, made up of students in all the grades combined and co-taught by the special music teachers.  The cool thing is that the nature of the ensemble is flexible.  Sometimes it's a choir, other times it's an orchestra, or a ukulele ensemble, or an orff ensemble etc...   After "middle school," students may elect to either go to a regular lukio (high school) or take an entrance exam to attend the music lukio, which is essentially a music magnet high school.

Observation:
If I were a child in Finland, I would be in the special music classes.  I would love all of the extra music classes and I would love being with a group of friends who love music as much as I do! As you can image, these students become a close knit group and end up creating quite a bond with each other over the years.  I observed the after school ensemble rehearsal of the special music classes in my town, and I was quite impressed.  The day I observed they were rehearsing as a choir.  I loved the repertoire the teachers chose, and I thought the whole rehearsal was quite engaging for the students.  I think I probably would love being a teacher in this setting as well because I love co-teaching!

I've been told that the number of special music classes has declined in recent years.  Apparently there used to be three schools in Jyväskylä with special music classes, but now there is only one.  It seems that despite the long tradition of music in Finnish culture, they are experiencing a similar fight for the arts as we are in the US.

Music Schools
Structure:
Music schools are after school programs where people of all ages can study a wide variety of musical subjects including early childhood music classes, private instrument lessons, music theory classes, orchestra, choir, folk music ensembles, and pop/jazz ensembles and lessons.  There are three types of music schools: Conservatories, Community Education (not actually what it is called, but a similar system to what we have in the US), and Private.  The idea of public vs private and the prestige associated with each is the opposite in Finland than the US.  Conservatories are publicly funded by both the federal government and municipalities.  They are competitive, highly respected institutions for students who pass entrance auditions. Families do still have to pay a fee, but a nominal one.   Private schools, as it was described to me, are available to anyone who can pay the tuition, regardless of talent.  That said, I think there are some very good private music schools.  Then there is the community education program.  This is also funded by the government but is more of a place for people to study music as a hobby.

Observation:
This seems to be where most of the explicit instruction takes place.  From an American perspective, and I am saying this slightly tongue in cheek, this is where it seems the "real teaching" is happening. I sat in on a theory class for late elementary aged students, with approximately 10 pupils.  It was based on the kodaly method and felt very familiar to me.  This is where students learn all of what we in America would call "musicianship skills" like sight reading, inner hearing, audiation, rhythmic and melodic dictation etc...  Many students who participate in choirs take theory classes and/or private instrument lessons in music schools.  I have been told that because they are learning to read music in these settings, these skills are not explicitly taught in public school or in the choirs.  There seems to be a concern about not repeating information, or making students sit through the same content multiple times.  It almost seems to me that the very involved students are catered to so that they will not be bored.  I do know that there is a lot of competition to keep students involved in choir, because there are so many activities for students to choose from, not unlike in America.  And it seems as if that may be even more the case here because these activities and sports are all much more affordable than they are in the US.

Penatoniikka

Each student had their own keyboard and headphones.  

They had spent the entire class up until this point working with one song, 

figuring out the solfege (pitches of the song) through singing, hand signs,

analyzing the intervals, and writing it on the staff.  Now they were discovering

how to play the song on their keyboard.

Choirs
Structure:
Children and youth choirs in Finland seem structurally similar to choirs in the US.  Choirs in this "pillar" of the system are non-profit, community organizations, have a board of directors, usually have choirs for multiple age groups, and rehearse in the evenings or weekends.  One interesting thing is the way they group students age-wise.  It it very typical for the "top" choir of an organization to include children from 10-18 years old, or even as young as 8 or 9.  One significant difference is that these choirs are typically funded by the city.  While there is a nominal tuition fee, the majority of the director's income is paid by the city.

Sanna Salminen and Vox Aurea

Pasi Hyökki and Tapiola Choir

Observations:
While structurally children and youth choirs seem similar to the what I've seen in the US, there are actually many practices I've seen that seem distinctively Finnish.  The repertoire selections in Finland are largely modern compositions and folk song.  By my ear, there seems to be far less lyrical or romantic sounding music.  I've heard a lot of Baltic or "nasal" folky tones, overtone singing associated with yoiks, and an overall brighter sound.  It's very "fresh" sounding.  Despite the large age span, these choirs are still technically treble choirs, singing SSA, or SSAA music.  This does beg the question of where are the changed male voices?  The first thing I would say about this is that I have not seen many boys in general singing, and even fewer older boys.  This seems to be one similarity to youth choirs in the US.  Even though these choirs are technically treble choirs, the low alto parts (which are where the older boys sing) sound very low to me.  While the directors here in Finland say their choirs sounds like youth choirs, there are times where I feel like their music almost sounds like a mixed chorus.  I had an interesting facebook discussion with some American choral colleagues about how low is normal for altos to sing.  It seems as though the range isn't the difference, with altos singing between F-C below middle C.  I think the difference is in the tone or timbre of these low voices.  According to my dear advisor, Sanna, there have been studies done that show Finnish women have lower voices than women from other countries, and this is attributed to their long history of gender equality.  I know, it sounds like a joke, but apparently it is not.  Back to repertoire:  most of the music they sing is unaccompanied.  As one director put it, in Finland the harmonies come from within the choral music, where as in America the melody comes from the choir and the harmonies come from the piano.  This is of course not an accurate blanket statement, but I think there is definitely something to it.  And having the large age span of singers definitely allows for more difficulty in musical selections.  The older singers kind of help the younger singers along. Here's an interesting dichotomy:  while there is relatively no piano accompaniment in the pieces, the music is introduced almost exclusively through playing parts on the piano.  This was kind of a shocking one to me.  I am so used to presenting songs in a way that engages singers in the score, or helps to build their musical literacy skills etc...  You may remember from the music schools "pillar" that music theory and musicianship skills are taught there.  Thus, they are not taught in choirs.  When speaking with the director of one choir he told me that he will always pick students with a good ear over those with good voices.  I asked if he does anything in his rehearsals to help develop students ears.  He paused for a long time....and then said, "no."  It's just not a focus of rehearsals here.  And many, many of the students who sing in choirs here also play an instrument and and theory classes, so they come into choir reading music.  Those who don't just get carried along by the others.  To me, it almost felt like the rehearsals early in the season that were largely focused on learning new music were, well, boring!  I was honestly kind of shocked.  However, because there doesn't seem to be as much of a need to "teach" in these rehearsals, they get to the music making much faster.

There is one other thing that I absolutely LOVE about the Finnish philosophy about children's choirs or children in general.  Finns believe that youth choirs are not training grounds for children to become musicians later in life.  Rather, children already are musicians capable of making art.  

I love it.  ❤❤❤


Conclusions:
So...what does this all mean?  I don't know.  It's a lot to sort through.  I think my general take away is that I feel like basic music education in public schools in America is more well rounded than it seems to be in Finland.  Partly I think that is good because I think my students are developing more musicianship skills than it seems they might in a Finnish music classroom.  And I am coming to realize how "American" this is, but I think the instruction as a whole is stronger in America.  (More on that in my post about "pedagogy.")

On the other hand, it is WAY easier and way more affordable for Finnish children to delve deep into their musical practice pretty early in life.  There are so many free or inexpensive musical opportunities available to students in Finland.  I would have given anything to have this as a child.  Really - it's pretty awesome.

It does leave me wondering about those kids who's only exposure to music education is from school? For me personally, I would choose American music education for those students.  If we are talking about students who are able to take advantage of all the opportunities available to them, however, I would absolutely choose a robust music education system like Finland's.