Time management and the benefits of repetition

Most often, time management style is dictated by the students in my classes. I have had classes where the majority of the students are very studious; very diligent with regards to their instrumental practice time outside of class. When students have this approach, I feel as though I am able to have more flexibility with regards to how I use class time. I may spend less time working on concert or technique building materials and more time with music theory, composition, and improvisation. There are instances where simple appreciation and listening become valuable when practice occurs at home. If students are coming to class prepared to play, I can give them more opportunities for creativity.

Generally speaking, the average class needs me to build that practice time into the school day for them. Unfortunately in band class, as one of three teachers, I need to make sure that students are keeping up with learning concert materials so that when it comes time to combine groups (the band is generally broken up into smaller sections, brass and saxophones, upper woodwinds, and percussion) my students are ready to play, regardless of their formative assessments and practice habits, so that the experience is fulfilling for everyone. The other less-than-ideal situation that arises from classes that spend less free time preparing their music is that they get less time with creative assignments. However, music is traditionally pretty competitive in my town with numerous national championships in marching arts and the curriculum is performance driven. Repetition is the key for time in class with groups who prepare on an average to below average level.

It has been noted in a 2015 article for the Journal of School Educational Technology that there is, on average, a one quarter low, one half average, one quarter high division in the class community with regards to students’ levels of time management and academic achievement. (Cyril 2015) Because of this it is important to make sure that there is enough repetition involved in your curriculum. Every teacher wants to provide a breadth of knowledge to their students, but if students don’t have the opportunity to return to materials that are familiar to them, the student never has the opportunity to build confidence in knowing what they are learning.

“Repetition is an important element of learning … much more important than the current emphasis on speed and brevity suggest. Even in the midst of binding time constraints, look for opportunities to revisit, review, and restate. Through repetition, students return to where they started.” (Bruner 2001)

Additionally, a 2018 study from Saudi Arabia seems to confirm that repetition has dramatically positive effects and long-term and short-term retention. (Altalhab 2018) It certainly makes sense that the more times you can expose a student to the given materials, the more thorough the learning will be.

A lack of repetition can lead to trying to get the class to try to catch up later on. “One of the best arguments for learning good time management are the negative effects of procrastination.” (Gargari 2011) When procrastination occurs, long term retention suffers. In music performance it is less possible to “cram” because there are physical connections between the student and the instrument that need to happen. There is a certain amount of hand/eye coordination that needs to develop and these types of skills take time and repetition to be possible.

If there is one pattern in my classes that affects my time management positively, it is the repetition of materials. Because of the physical aspect of playing instruments, it does require that there be quite a lot of repetition in basic skills. The more exposure you get to playing an instrument and playing in a band, the more you understand that there are patterns that appear in most music which require a set of skills to navigate. The band teachers in my district have developed a set of warm-ups and etudes that we provide to the students in each grade focusing on developing these core skills.

Repetition of concert materials is also necessary. While rote memorization is not generally necessary, students must perform the music enough times to have a scope or understanding of the material. We certainly would not fare well in a concert if the students were asked to perform music they were not familiar with. In pieces requiring memorization (parade music, marching competition music) repetition is even more necessary. To complicate matters, students are often pulled from band class to meet with specialists, guidance counselors, or academic teachers who require more time for testing. It becomes necessary to consider who has been out of class when starting into either something new or something familiar.

Resources

Gargari, R. B., Hossein Sabouri, H., Norzad, F. (2011) Academic procrastination: the relationship between causal attribution styles and behavioral postponement. Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci. 2011 Autumn-Winter. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3939975/

CYRIL, A. V. (February 2015) Time management and academic achievement of higher secondary students. Journal on School Educational Technology Vol. 10, No. 3

Bruner, Robert. (2001). Repetition is the First Principle of All Learning. Present value: An informal column on teaching https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228318502_Repetition_is_the_First_Principle_of_All_Learning

Altalhab, S. (2018) Short- and Long-term Effects of Repetition Strategies on Vocabulary Retention. Advances in Language and Literary Studies. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1178250.pdf