Unit one
Teaching effective technique for your instruments or voice (Aug to end Sept)
This international course is at Masters Level (level 7) and is delivered online, beginning with one week of residential study at the University of Chichester campus.
The course will begin with its residential week from 9th to 14th August 2020, at the University of Chichester in the UK. All students are supported throughout the course by a subject specific mentor.
This course gives you the opportunity to take a look at your own teaching technique and specific strategies and techniques you use, in addition to standing back and developing a broader perspective on teaching and learning and music education in general. The course offers a well structured programme with mentors who are all highly experienced teachers, and a blend of face-to-face and online learning that results in a level 7 qualification from a well regarded higher education institution. Being a student on this course is all about developing as a reflective practitioner; someone who is willing to stand back and look at what they are doing, and contemplate changing aspects if they need to. The awarded PG Cert is a unique qualification for the teaching profession.
You will be assigned a mentor from the ESTA mentor panel. Your mentor’s job is to guide you through the course, lead study sessions and assess the work you submit. Your studies, be they online through webinars, one-to-one meetings with your mentor or course leader, discussion groups, reading, making a video, or reflecting on practice, will focus on every aspect of your teaching with particular relevance to the context in which you work. This work will help you to question things you may have taken for granted, explore work with and without notation and develop a holistic approach to your teaching.
Your course leader will provide an overview of the whole course, lead study sessions, and also make assessments of all students’ work to ensure fairness. In order to gain the maximum benefit from your investment in this programme of study you should plan your diary carefully to make sure you have all the deadlines for completion and submission of work highlighted.
Participants will:
Unit 1 focuses on teaching effective technique for playing or singing. Much of the work for this unit is undertaken at the summer school.
Unit 2 is titled learning to play. For many professional teachers, it has been years since they experienced learning as a beginner, and being removed from the learner’s experience can be a disadvantage. Instrumental and voice teachers are in a unique position, as opposed to a school class teacher, where they create an experience tailored to each learner. They need to develop an awareness and understanding of how learners learn in order to enable both teacher and learner to collaborate effectively and enjoyably. This unit enables teachers to experience and reflect on the learning process, giving them a valuable tool to develop their professional practice.
Unit 3 is titled teaching strategies for teachers: Working with children and young people. Pro-active teaching requires practical planning and preparation, and also an understanding of teaching the instrument as it has developed historically and within practical contexts. This unit enables teachers to be prepared for the diverse settings they may encounter in their teaching careers, giving them a grounding in teaching theory and exploring a range of methods and strategies that can be embedded into their own professional practice.
Unit 4 centres on developing effective curricula for instrumental and voice teaching. Teachers often become reliant on published schemes, tutors and methods which may play an important role in guiding both teacher and learner along a path of enquiry towards the acquisition of skills, knowledge and understanding. Through exploring the construction of curricula, teachers are empowered to make confident decisions about adapting published schemes of work or creating their own.
Three additional units provide the opportunity to spend some time looking at aspects of work which are of significant importance to all teachers:
Teaching effective technique for your instruments or voice (Aug to end Sept)
How students learn to play or sing (early Oct to Dec just before Christmas)
Teaching strategies for instrumental and voice teachers working with children and young people (Jan – mid March)
Developing effective curricula for instrumental and voice teaching (early April – June)
Students join a small mentor group and are allocated an individual mentor who both delivers the course materials and assesses their work. The mentor team works under the direction of the Course Leader.
In Unit 1, students work towards presenting a short, live presentation focused on a specific aspect of playing technique and a video recording of the opening ten minutes of a first lesson, introducing a student to the instrument.
For Unit 2, students submit an abstract of their written work and receive comments from their mentor before their final 3,500 essay is submitted.
In preparation for the final assessment in Unit 3, students analyse the content of a lesson and provide a brief written discussion of their findings. This leads on to a case study of their own (recorded) teaching. Students reflect in writing and specifically consider the impact on learning, contextualising and supporting, with references to relevant teaching literature.
For Unit 4, students first critique the published schemes of work or tutor methods of others, before constructing their own one year curriculum appropriate to a specific category of learner which includes a scheme of work/short term plan and an example of a detailed lesson plan.
Grades, rather than percentages, are given for assessed work. Students receive detailed written, video, or verbal feedback for all assessed work.
The course is graded Pass/Fail overall, where students must pass each unit to be awarded the Postgraduate Certificate. Detailed feedback and A/B/C/D/F letter grades are given for all assessments so students know their level of achievement and how to improve.
There are four units of study which must all be completed in chronological order and, in addition to online working, students are expected to attend specific study days as indicated in the timetable.
A further three additional units focus on: safeguarding children and young people in music education; equality, diversity and inclusion in music education, and promoting children and young people’s positive behaviour.
is centred on the ESTA summer school, to be held at Chichester University (8th – 14th August 2020) and which students must attend. This unit is completed by the end of September when students move to Unit 2.
is completed by early November when students move to Unit 3.
is begun in November with all work being completed by the beginning of March 2021.
is completed between March and the end of May 2021.
Students will need online access (at home) before, during and immediately following participation on the course. They will also need the facility to make simple audio and video recordings throughout the course (most smartphones and laptops will have this facility). These will be needed for:
Online classes take as much time as regular on-campus classes. You need to set aside sufficient time for study. Plan to spend at least as much time working on the assignments and studying as you would with a traditional course. We recommend that you need to set aside 12-15 hours for study per week in order to get the maximum benefit from the ESTA PG Cert course.
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