A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 99

A Reflective Lens:
Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice

Opportunities for improvement:
i. The mentor pre- and post-observation conversations
could have been recorded and transcribed so as to
better document the questioning and reflection.
ii. Weekly FGD after every lesson could have been done with
the pupils to triangulate the findings. It was challenging
due to the limited time we had with our class and the
timetabling of teacher researchers and pupils.

Conclusion

While singing games, when used appropriately, is an
effective strategy to engage pupils in their musical learning
and an outlet for their musical creativity, teachers should
not see it as a panacea.
It is important for educators to continuously employ cycles
of critical reflection for their own teaching as all of us enter
the teaching field with our own set of values and biases,
pre-conceived notions and coloured lenses which at most
times go unchallenged. Circumstances for teaching evolve
all the time, with external factors such as emotions of the
pupils, their readiness to learn affecting learning. As such,
teaching is as much an art as it is a science. When we are in
the midst of busy everyday-teaching, we might lose sight of
what is important – why we teach, who we teach and how
we teach. To critically reflect (e.g. through video recording,
peer observation) on our own lessons might make us feel
vulnerable and disconcerted at times, but it is truly an
efficacious way to grow ourselves and benefit our pupils.
Critical friends can be good sounding boards who enable us
to see our blind spots and who grow alongside us.
These are the insights that I have gained in my personal
journey and I am confident that reflective practice will
afford great benefits to any educator’s teaching practice.

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