Recently I posted a blog titled: The Single Most Crippling Phrase to Learning. There were some questions posted about it to me (BTW: I love and welcome your questions, as it means two important things. 1. You are thinking about the information which mean you are trying to gain ownership instead of renting the information. 2. Your questions make me think deeper and get clearer about the ideas. So thank you for the questions!) Someone asked, "What about challenges that, in fact, are not new, but are in fact hard for my student and have been hard for a long time?"
First, rephrasing the "It's too hard, I can't do this," is NOT about discounting a student's feelings. Learning is hard! It means spending time problem solving a new task in order to gain ownership over that task. It means expanding your comfort zone, which, by definition, is uncomfortable. The important Diamond Distinction is in the second part of the statement "I can't do this." For me, it's about reframing their inner conversation (which they usually declare in an "outside voice!") so that it is not a stop light of them questioning their own potential. Most students do not readily recognize that everything they ever learned had to pass through the "new" stage before mastery occurred. Walking, riding a bike, tying their shoes, using utensils to eat, etc. All of it was new at one point. A reframing helps calm the panic.
First, rephrasing the "It's too hard, I can't do this," is NOT about discounting a student's feelings. Learning is hard! It means spending time problem solving a new task in order to gain ownership over that task. It means expanding your comfort zone, which, by definition, is uncomfortable. The important Diamond Distinction is in the second part of the statement "I can't do this." For me, it's about reframing their inner conversation (which they usually declare in an "outside voice!") so that it is not a stop light of them questioning their own potential. Most students do not readily recognize that everything they ever learned had to pass through the "new" stage before mastery occurred. Walking, riding a bike, tying their shoes, using utensils to eat, etc. All of it was new at one point. A reframing helps calm the panic.
"It's too hard, I can't do this," is NOT about discounting a student's feelings. Learning is hard! It means spending time problem solving a new task in order to gain ownership over that task.
Second, if a challenge is in fact "too hard" it means that the challenge needs to be adjusted to feel more accomplishable to the student. A student doesn't care if it feels easy for you. All that they know is that it feels too hard to them. Notice that it doesn't matter if in fact the challenge is or is not too hard. All that matters is how it feels to the student. In such a case, they need to develop the skill set to breaking down large challenges into smaller more bite size pieces. Many students do not have that skill set. It is part of the job of an Empowered Music Teacher to provide them the skills to navigate new challenges in a manner that maneuvers them past their obstacles and propels them on the road to success.
The tips in this blog are culled from my two books, Coffee With Ray and Lessons With Matt. If you would like more strategies that will both nurture your students into self-directed learners while making your job less stressful and more rewarding, please check them out on Amazon.
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