This video is from one of my favourite shows growing up but I failed to realize just how applicable it is to education, even music education until reflecting on it now. It starts with the stereotypical teacher who in an effort to follow the rules set out for her position of power, makes the student conform by sitting still while writing a test. This is problematic because not everyone learns or recalls knowledge the same way. I think one of the reasons this video is so dynamic is because it focuses mainly on the student realizing their limitations of learning in the typical class atmosphere and seeking other ways of retaining knowledge. In this case, it is the student who is in pedagogical power by stepping up and teaching herself, rather than the expected hierarchy of the teacher teaching the student. The teacher actually fails in her teaching strategies in this scenario. I also chose this video based on the method that the student has chosen to remember the material. Its through a self-choreographed song and dance that the student successfully learns what is expected of her. Who knew that music education could be so applicable in subjects other than music? This reminds us of the many ways that students learn and obtain knowledge and that there is no, necessarily, right or wrong way of learning as long as the outcome is the same.
This video struck me when I first watched it for a number of different reasons. To begin, the expansive musical references were taken from many cultures and not just cultures that we as a Western (geographical, not the school) society would be familiar with. Its important to grapple with material that is unfamiliar and maybe uncomfortable in an effort to have a clearer basis of understanding for the cultures that we are not in immediate contact with. The way that the teacher describes rhythm by using a circular versus a linear visual aid was something that I think would be more understandable and accessible for a general audience who doesn't have a musical background. The video itself was also very dynamic in the way that it incorporated and accommodated a variety of learning types. First we have the visual aids of the musical "clock" and the other graphics in the video that help us to physicalize what the speaker is teaching us. We also then of course have the speaker, the teacher in this case, who is explaining the graphics as the video plays and forces us to listen as a way of learning. Speech and communication are very important roles in an educational atmosphere. Similar to these two key aspects we have more sound added to the video, the musical excerpts. Each time the speaker explains something, there is a quick musical clip that shows us as students what we're learning would sound like. Teaching in such a dimensional way is something that I see imperative for achieving the greatest learning success throughout the vast majority of a classroom.