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I've been off this board for quite some time, so hello again! I hope everyone in this community is happy and healthy.

This is going to be a long post, so if you read to the end, thank you. I appreciate any consideration, advice, or criticism.

Some background- I am an adjunct instructor of tuba and bass at a small Midwestern University, approximately 2000-3000 students. When I say we are in the middle of nowhere, I mean it. Our population base to draw students from is small and the geographical area is quite large. Our recruitment issues are a huge concern, as we have to consider a quad state area and entice prospective students away from much larger universities that are a similar distance from home, and often have a lot more money to offer students. The students that come to this university are typically from very small high school programs, which often have less than 100 students in music in k-12. The prospective music majors that come from bigger high school programs do not often consider this university because, honestly, why would they? They can go to a much larger program and get "better" instruction for a similar price. As a result, the music program here gets a lot of under performing students here who want to be music majors. This is not to say these kids lack potential. It just means that they are quite often behind the curve on their ability levels and technique. For all intents and purposes our music department has been, and will continue to be, 100% music education. Which is fine.

From the handful of students I've had over the last few years, I've gained a few insights that have left me with problems I am apparently not equipped to solve.

Firstly, there is a very strong and pervasive culture of mediocrity in the department. Students here consistently play at a high school level throughout their college careers. It is normal for students to take 6-7 years to finish a music ed undergraduate degree. I have no real criticism of that if the individual can afford it because things take as long as they are going to take, and putting a timeline on achieving musical ability is kind of ridiculous. BUT, (big but) that highlights the underlying issue- there is very little motivation to succeed or excel.Which brings me to my second problem-

No one practices. For lessons at the 100 level, students are required to practice a minimum of 5 hours per week. It is explicitly stated in syllabuses throughout the department that majors should practice more. However, it is is extremely obvious that in many cases even this bare minimum standard is not being met. I can tell from the conversations I've had with other faculty and the progress I see my own students making. I'm not on campus every day but whenever I am, the practice rooms are a ghost town, whether the time is 10 am, 2 pm, or 5 pm. It is comical, almost, to go at 7 pm on a random weekday to fetch something from my office and find that the entire building is deserted and the lights are off in the practice room hallway. It is extremely improbable that every single student does their practicing between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm, and specifically while I'm not there.

The main problem that I personally deal with from these issues is that every single student is a constantly moving target. I struggle to develop expectations or standards for individual students because they very rarely work on things that I ask them to. Compounding this, they constantly forget things that we've talked about multiple times. I know from experience this is pretty common, but sometimes it borders on the ridiculous. For example, practice routines, specific techniques that they should be doing every day, and even basic things like "please keep your instrument in working order, and no, oiling your valves once a week is probably not enough." Or an even more basic requirement of keeping track of assignments and remembering to bring their materials to the next lesson. As a result, it is extremely challenging to develop a course of study for these students. I have no clue what results they are capable of producing because they don't work on any of the things that I give them. A huge concern is that many of these students shouldn't, and often don't, pass their juries.

I am in no way blaming my fellow faculty members. They work hard, are dedicated and talented, and do what they can with what they have. Our faculty are every bit as good as those I've seen at larger universities. The education and knowledge that is available to these students is not the problem. The opportunities to perform for students are even better than at a large university because if a student wants to be in everything, they can do that right away here. That might also lead to a lack of specialization, but that is probably a different issue. I've had numerous conversations with other faculty about my concerns, and we all have pretty similar experiences. We can only do so much. The kids are far more influenced by their peers than by the faculty as a whole.

How can I help these students understand that the standards I set are believable and achievable if they only stick to some sort of program? That there is a method to my madness? What kind of things have helped you or your students practice, and implement at least part of what you assign, on a daily basis? How do I get past the idea that private lessons are for practicing your band music and not much else?

I'm not trying to inflate my reputation or ego with this position, I'm trying to do my part in producing educators who understand what it takes to be successful on their instrument and can pass that on to their future students. I'm also not ready to tap out. I want to find effective solutions and help these students achieve what they say they want to.

One of the things that really helped open the eyes of my students at WU was to take our tubaband for SERTEC. When they got to hear what other studios were doing, it flipped the studio culture overnight.

Douglas wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 8:32 pm One of the things that really helped open the eyes of my students at WU was to take our tubaband for SERTEC. When they got to hear what other studios were doing, it flipped the studio culture overnight.

That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you.

You haven't said anything about your grading policies. You did mention that the students often fail the juries, but by the time juries come up, it's too late; you have lost a semester or even a year.

A big problem in education in general is grade inflation. If a student deserves a D, you do give a D?

Even a grade at the end of the semester isn't enough. You should consider a grade for every class and lesson, with clear understanding that each lesson will factor into the final grade.

I know from personal experience how hard this can be to do. Hard (actually FAIR) grading can lead to tension with students. You have to be willing to tolerate some level of dissatisfaction. And you have to accept the fact that some students will fail (and they should fail; failure will get them to a better place sooner than wasting time in a program they don't care about).

I bigger problem I had as a director of a program in a different field was that I was at risk of endangering the enrollment of the program by discouraging the students. If you are in a situation like this you have to take an extremely hard look at yourself: are you compromising your standards by letting students get away with mediocre (or worse) performance in order to protect your program and your job?

Hup

I agree entirely with Hup. But I would add that praise can do a lot of good. The problem might be finding something to praise your students about, especially if they are as unmotivated as you suggest they are. So, maybe first they need to have their eyes opened as Doug suggests. Sure, they are ed majors, but a short term goal - weekly gigs at the student union, for example - might give them a fun reason to practice.

Check out Wiff Rudd’s book, Side by Side. Tons of great strategies and perspectives in there.

hup_d_dup wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 1:45 pm You haven't said anything about your grading policies. You did mention that the students often fail the juries, but by the time juries come up, it's too late; you have lost a semester or even a year.

A big problem in education in general is grade inflation. If a student deserves a D, you do give a D?

Even a grade at the end of the semester isn't enough. You should consider a grade for every class and lesson, with clear understanding that each lesson will factor into the final grade.

I know from personal experience how hard this can be to do. Hard (actually FAIR) grading can lead to tension with students. You have to be willing to tolerate some level of dissatisfaction. And you have to accept the fact that some students will fail (and they should fail; failure will get them to a better place sooner than wasting time in a program they don't care about).

I bigger problem I had as a director of a program in a different field was that I was at risk of endangering the enrollment of the program by discouraging the students. If you are in a situation like this you have to take an extremely hard look at yourself: are you compromising your standards by letting students get away with mediocre (or worse) performance in order to protect your program and your job?

Hup

I have gone a couple different ways with my grading. I don't really like the concept that a grade is tied to musical achievement, so the first few semesters I was extremely lenient. This year I have been far more strict with my grading and have been giving students weekly scores, with emails summarizing the lesson and why they received the score they did. Neither of these strategies has been effective. I gave one student a very much deserved bad grade one week and they came back the very next lesson talking about changing their major. I have students who either don't care about a grade or don't respond well to any sort of tough talk or negative feedback.

And yes, I am very much in danger of eliminating my own job if I get tough on them. This has been the real headache of the issue. If I had more students I could just let the ones who don't practice or deliver results fail out without much worry. I have been in a considerable amount of stress because I should be failing my students when they are not meeting my expectations, but if I do I am almost 100% positive that they will quit. I'm really trying to build a program, and if I keep chasing students off with my expectations that is going to be difficult to do. Then on the opposite side, if I just let students who can't play skate through, it won't be much of a program will it?

As a psychologist, I can see that you have quite a problem here. The suggestions about taking them somewhere where they can hear what motivated students are doing is a good one. Also setting up fun gigs for them. Maybe there are other positive motivators you can use.

If students don't practice, perhaps mandated practice sessions...more band practice or someone to actually sign them in and out of practice sessions...a monitor...would help. They sound a bit directionless, so if you say that they have to sign up for a scheduled practice session and attend, maybe they would respond to the structure.

Once you have exhausted positive rewards, scheduled practice, weekly feedback grades, etc., if things are not working, then perhaps it is time to move on to somewhere that life as a teacher is a little easier. When I went to engineering school many years ago, it was common knowledge that you could flunk out of our program and go down the street to X Institute, where grading standards were easier. Your students seem to want an experience that provides a piece of paper while not asking them for anything more than high school effort. Is this true in other areas besides music? Do the English profs accept less than literate students, students who can't write a grammatical sentence?

As a student, I came from an urban environment where academic competition was expected. Your students seem to come from a rural environment where there is no expectation of study or academic excellence.

I think one can become acculturated to standards or the lack thereof. One keeps trying without success and that becomes a way of life. After trying every creative thing you can think of, if you can't move the students because of a pervasive culture, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else where your talents will be appreciated and valued and where students come expecting to be challenged and to practice regularly.

When I was a student, daily practice wasn't a top priority for me until I started seeing the end of the tunnel (graduation). That's when I buckled down and did the hard work I should've been doing all along.

Also, once we got enough kids to call ourselves a "low brass studio", we started getting together regularly and playing for each other. Not just performing, but work-in-progress stuff, where we could talk about our rehearsal process and share ideas about how to improve. I think it greatly helped the very introverted players, because they got to see us brash players work through our own struggles, helping them to feel less alone. As a group, I think that's when we improved the most quickly.

As others have said (internal) motivation and a role model (something to aspire to) will help. Perhaps you can invite "famous" tuba players to do master classes and solo with your groups? I hear Carol Jantsch can work wonders.........