On September 13, Professor of Music Dane Heuchemer gave a sabbatical talk at the CIP, titled “Re-Reaching My Students: When An Old Dog Needs New Tricks.”
Sabbaticals pose a particular challenge for directors of musical ensembles like Dane. Unlike most courses, a successful ensemble relies on performers coming back year after year. Rather than risk the long-term recruitment consequences of a year’s absence, Dane chose to take a partial sabbatical, continue conducting the Symphonic Winds, and conduct research on generational issues as they relate to motivation, focus and retention, with the goal of finding approaches which would improve the learning experience of the ensemble.
Dane came up with a number of changes to Symphonic Winds rehearsals, which he thought might better reach “iGen” students. For example, much of the business literature focuses on younger people’s eagerness to work and desire for autonomy. Inspired by this, he took on some of the collaborative leadership processes used by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Dane established student committees, with each committee being responsible for a different piece in the ensemble’s repertoire. Similarly, he began using a lot more group consultations, where sections of the ensemble were given time to discuss and self-critique. These approaches increase students’ critical thinking about how a performance can be improved, although student enthusiasm for the committees did wane over the semester.
Dane also adopted a number of strategies to increase students’ context for the rehearsals. This started on the very first day, with more attention paid to creating the cohort of players in the ensemble, and explaining the artistic and pedagogical directions of the class. He also incorporated regular briefings and debriefs in the opening and closing moments of class, so students were always aware of what they’d worked on previously, what the goals for the day were, and how they did on reaching those goals. These strategies are good for any form of learning, but might be particularly powerful for a class working toward a common goal like an end-of-semester performance.
Within the semester, Dane reports that these strategies were highly successful. Retention of students through the 2017-18 year was improved, and some measures of musical accomplishment increased, such as the ability to successfully perform more of the desired repertoire. Dane reported that the seniors in the ensemble exhibited particularly good leadership. Unfortunately, it didn’t immediately create the increase in year-to-year retention he was hoping for, so his work to engage students with a long-term commitment to the Symphonic Winds Ensemble continues.
Dane’s generational research project is also an exercise in better understanding who our students are, so we can more effectively meet them. As he said, “you can’t blame the students for being who they are when they come into the classroom.” (There was also some discussion of the fact that “young people’s culture” is not fully distinct from “older people’s culture,” which can be similarly connected, distracted, and overcommitted.) This led to some broader suggestions for managing the affective dimension, such as paying attention to nonverbal cues, especially those relating to anxiety, and teaching students how to manage stress and take productive risks. Dane repeated the call that we need to be good and open role models in these areas; Kenyon’s faculty and staff might do well to reduce our stress levels and talk about how we do it.