MUED 376

6 September 2023

Morgan Brown

Mayhew Article Reflection

The Monumental Impact of Mayhew’s Teacher Effectiveness Research Project

Mayhew’s article served to be a very insightful resource to outline the monumental

impact of highly effective teaching techniques through the measurement and analysis of

quantitative data. While reading Mayhew’s article, I made multiple transfers about how I have

observed many (if not all) of the effective teaching techniques discussed within this article in Dr.

V’s, Nikos’, and Addie’s rehearsals over the past year. Upon more reflection, I recognized the

patterns of terminology within the article that are incorporated within my MUED curriculum

classes and how I am learning how to utilize effective teaching skills and techniques to assist me

throughout my Music Education career.

Throughout the first portion of the essay, I noticed that I was fascinated by the data

behind Yarbrough’s high-magnitude teacher intensity study. Specifically, I found Yarbrough’s

experiment involving the collection of student teachers and their personal opinions about the

effectiveness of their teaching to be quite interesting due to what I have learned from my

personal observations of my teaching videos. Reading about how quickly the student teachers

were able to implement highly effective teaching strategies into their teaching and their ability to

confidently “diagnose” the effectiveness of teaching styles helped me to transfer how I have

grown in confidence within my teaching style as a result of Dr. V’s contributions. Over the past

three years, I have grown tremendously as an Educator by observing highly effective teacher

intensity levels throughout my daily class schedule. By observing highly effective educators in

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my life as a student, I have become more aware of the impacts of highly effective or highly

ineffective teacher intensity levels and their impacts on my personal perception of learning. With

my impending transition from being a full-time student to being a full-time educator, I recognize

that I have a unique perspective as to how I analyze my teaching style in comparison to how I

would perceive a specific range of teacher intensity levels as a student.

After reflecting on the profound impact of teacher intensity on effective learning

environments, I noted the impact of non-verbal behaviors (transfer from last class), conducting

behaviors, and teaching patterns within the realm of effective teaching. In regard to non-verbal

behavior, I reflected on my experiences with past ensemble directors and how their facial affect,

level of eye contact, and conducting affect impacted my perception of them and how that

baseline perception determined the level of effort I naturally contributed to the ensemble.

Additionally, I found myself considering how highly effective Dr. V’s rehearsals are in TMS as a

result of her artfully chosen conducting decisions that demonstrate her teacher preparedness and

highlight its impact on the effective nature of her rehearsals. In reading about teaching patterns, I

made a transfer about the “academic, social, reinforcement, off-task” model that Dr. V discussed

in class on Tuesday and how the combination of the four realms impacts the effectiveness of

teaching patterns within the classroom on a daily basis.

Later in the article, Mayhew discussed a research study conducted by an individual

referred to as Bergee where he claimed that the most important skills and behaviors to allow for

effective music teaching are conducting technique, student-teacher rapport, and instructional

skills. Before reading this article, I likely would have questioned Bergee’s reasoning, however, I

now understand that Bergee’s argument complements the impact of effective teacher intensity

levels. I found that I was encouraged by the results of Wayman’s survey of new and older

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Undergraduate Music Education students’ perceptions of the most effective skills (personal,

musical, or teacher skills) within the classroom. Specifically, I appreciate how the data from

Wayman’s survey demonstrated agreement among a diverse group of Music Education students

about the importance of personal skills and teaching skills (both over musical skills) since this

survey supports Dr.V’s claim about learning being the intersection between the academic and

social spheres (transfer from TMS today). In reviewing Kelly’s survey, I noted that the responses

associated with highly effective teaching strategies resonate with student-centered learning

models, representing the shift to the “New Paradigm” within the world of Music Education.