Teaching Strategies for
High School Group Piano Classes by Ricardo Pozenatto, PhD
L
Learning how to play the piano is frequently viewed as
interpersonal influence and conflict also have an impact
advancements in technology have made it possible to
Educators from the past have discussed their ideas
a practice that requires one-on-one instruction; however,
on the success of a group’s activity.
group electronic keyboards in the same space, enabling
surrounding group dynamics. The Swiss psychologist
same time. The first electronic piano lab—a music labo-
ticipants will engage in discussions in which cognitive
more than one student to receive music instruction at the ratory including digital pianos interconnected through
wires—was developed in 1956 at Ball State University
(Fisher, 2006). After that, the presence of group piano classes increased in colleges and universities around the country as well as in public schools. In this article, I
present a few strategies for teaching group piano classes, based on cooperative learning theory.
Group Dynamics and Cooperative
Jean Piaget argued that “during cooperative efforts, par-
conflicts will occur and be resolved, and inadequate reasoning will be exposed and modified” (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 39). Similarly, Lev Vygotsky suggested
that “group members exchange information and insights,
discover weak points in each other’s reasoning strategies,
correct one another, and adjust their understanding on
the basis of others’ understanding” (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 40).
Cooperative learning is “an instructional method
Learning Theory
in which students work in small groups to accomplish
ple in groups appeared in the 20th century in the United
teacher” (Rigacci, A., 2020, para. 1). It is a learning
The study of group dynamics and the interaction of peoStates with the work of the educator John Dewey, whose
“concept of education put a premium on meaningful activity in learning and participation in classroom democ-
racy” (Public Broadcast Service, 2021, para. 2). Group
dynamics involve the interaction between members of a group. These interactions influence how the groups func-
tion. Factors such as emotions, individual differences, and
20 F l o r i d a
Music Director
a common learning goal under the guidance of the theory that was originally designed for use in the pub-
lic school classroom. The teacher facilitates students’ learning experiences by helping them to collectively discover the concepts that are being introduced or reviewed. The five essential elements of cooperative learning theory are:
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