Week 7

This week was more secondary research as well as creating my midterm presentation.

My midterm presentation was a challenge because of the time constraint of 5 minutes. I feel like I could talk easily for 30 minutes on everything that I have learned so far so cutting it down to 5 minutes was difficult. I decided to focus on the overarching ideas that are going to shape my future research. These ideas are mostly questions that are going to inform how I develop my interview questions when I get in touch with conservatories and other academics in the field. My midterm presentation can be found here.

I want to ask them about how they structure a classroom for adults. Most of my readings so far have been focused on lessons which tend to be individualized however, how do you structure a classroom of adults? Adults have various lives so what if they can’t practice or come in with different skill levels? How is that targeted, does it get fixed with more one on ones or something else?

I also have a lot of questions for adult learners. Most of the questions revolve around what motivates them? How do they choose a teacher that they like and aligns with their goals? What is easiest or hardest about learning? And how do they deal with self doubt and being self critical?

A lot of these questions have been hinted at in my readings but I want to interview to truly understand.

When it comes to secondary research I want to start looking at ed teach being used in classrooms and what type of learning tools already exist. I already found a book that I am excited to read and use as a launching point. I also am curious about people learning through apps instead of through in person lessons and how that is accomplished. I am hoping the conservatories can give me some insight into how they tried to run their programs during covid and what has been successful.