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THEORIES OF LEARINIG AND ADULT LEARNING: REFLECTIONS ON FOUR WEEKS COURS OF LEARNING SITAR, IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATORS

Musa Ali Khan Dainik
Valley Ishkoman District Ghizer

Introduction

             I was doing a course of curriculum, teaching learning and assessment from a private university in Karachi. As this was the part of Master in Education (M.Ed) therefore, the course participants were asked to learn a skill from their counterparts within four weeks. Therefore, I requested to one of my colleagues to teach me sitar during the given period. To my wonder he agreed. Then we developed a curriculum, action, monitoring and assessment plan together.

            So during those four weeks, the teacher taught me for one hour daily. I learned, practiced and wrote reflections on my learning and challenges on every day and finally produced this paper. So, I have critically reflected on my particular learning in the light of learning theories, such as behaviourism, activity based learning and constructivism because to me what I learned during these four weeks related to these theories.

The learning process

 Our teaching and learning process took four weeks. My teacher taught me for one hour daily about different parts of sitar, sitting posture, holding the sitar, function and tuning of strings, practices of different fingers’ movement, harmonizing among different fingers, taping and moving of fingers back and forth to produces notes. I tried to learn these by using various learning approaches which I am going to discuss as under:

Learning by observation:     

My teacher showed me different parts of sitar and their functions. For example, I saw that it had long wooden body, four strings and pegs, thirteen frets are made of metal rods tied to the neck with finishing lines. The neck of sitar is about 1.3 metre long. The player holds at a crossway to his/her body and vibrates the strings with the help of five fingers of his/her right hand. On the left hand index and middle finger play important role to transfer the sounds into notes and melodies. Furthermore, the fore finger holds first and second strings together while the rest strings also play the role of drone (see in the picture). A sitar player moves his/her index and middle fingers from fret to fret for the purpose musical tune. The first three frets on the neck close to each other and they give high sounds and next three have more distance therefore, they give relatively high and the last three give low sounds. In the middle of neck, there is a fret ( pardai saaz) ( see the in the picture) main playing string. Nearly all the playing can be learned by the help of main playing string because it gives different sounds than those of drone strings. The sitar has five tuning beads. These can be used to adjusting the pitch and making sound high and low. 

Then I observed my teacher’s sitting posture, holding posture and movement of the fingers. Further I was taught that sitar was a delicate instrument and should be handled gently. As Cutchey (2001) says “treat the sitar as you would your own body. If you fell cold and hot, so will the sitar” (p.2).

So while observing the sitar and the teacher, I developed my cognitive aspect of learning. Here, mostly my memory developed through observation, discussion and interaction with sitar, teacher, literature and friendly environment. Therefore, as an adult, I came to know that friendly environment, teacher, and concrete observation are some of the basic components to develop the cognitive aspects of adult learners.   

The strings are also delicate and needs careful exercises while playing in the beginning. As an adult learner I could memorize the function of different parts of sitar, however, there were some technical names of different function which I could not memorize while observing therefore, my teacher shifted his style towards trial and error based learning.

Learning through trial and error

            First the teacher taught about finger ups and down, back and forth movement. I did the activities half an hour for three days without sitar as an assignment. This was an exercise to shape my behaviour in a particular way. As Samson (1972) developed seven psychomotor categories. According to this theory, I started my activities from third stage that is ‘guided response’ the early stage of learning a complex skill which includes imitation. Most of the exercise I did in this learning through trial and error method. As Zakir (2005) says that to validate the learning the learner must actively engage in trials and errors method of learning. It was my past experience as I was learned to ride on bicycle, and then typing through trial and error basis. During this particular course, I repeated my task again and again, resultant I felt improvement. Although this theory has been designed for the children yet it works well in the matter of skill development for adults. However, many times I became frustrated while doing the exercise because, I could not move my finger in a proper way. Although my teacher used extrinsic motivation for instance, good, excellent etc yet there was little intrinsic motivation as I was not satisfied from my trial and error based practice. Therefore, my teacher started activity based learning dividing task into small parts.

Activity based learning

Having been lot of trial and error and imitating my teacher, then I moved to experiential learning. I have recalled my past experiences and the experiences of my trial based learning. For instance, the teacher and I divided the topic into small parts. The teacher himself produced different sound from different strings and then he let me to produce the same sound by using sitar. Then he let me work with the sound strings and the (pardi saaz) the main strings. Learning by doing, I came to know that every string and frets have different sound. In that particular process my teacher played the role of pedagogical leader (one who helps from behind of a child ever needed). It was a student centred learning, as (Zakari, 2005) cited in Phillips, 1995) “actively, the knower learns by practicing and doing, not by watching” (p.46). (Dewey, 1899-1938) was the greatest proponent of situated learning and learning by doing. He says that freedom and power are legitimate of every child without it growth is impossible (Simpson & Jackson, 1997). In learning by doing I was curious because there was one teacher for one learner. Further- more, the teacher was friendly and available any time. However, in real life situation, in schools and classrooms, it would not be easy to implement this method for the reason lack of resources, teacher, materials and friendly environment as my teacher was.      Thus, it is evident that, making task into small parts, going from easy to difficult also important for adult learning. Furthermore, friendly teaching and learning, assessing, evaluating and giving constructive feedback on time make the adult learning more meaningful for the learners. Also, the encouraging words such as good excellent had also impact on my learning in a positive way. Thus, I learned that not only child but also adult need encouraging word during learning process.

Assessment

            My teacher was assessing my learning after every lesson and performance and was giving me feed back. As my self assessment is concerned with my sitting posture, holding sitar is excellent because, I can do it. I also know the different parts and function of sitar. I know how to care and protect sitar. As for playing sitar is concerned I can play one note but there is much of practise need. I will learn it and automatize it in near future.

Implication

            Firstly, this process has implication on my three domains of learning, cognitive, effective and psychomotor. In simple words, it changed my knowledge, skill and behaviour. For example; (i)I can tell the name and different parts of sitar (cognitive learning); (ii) I can move my fingers and produce sound (this is psychomotor); (iii) and I showed respect to my teacher, attended my class in proper time and developed care to deal the sitar in a proper manner (these are effective learning). So, the curriculum that I was taught is a balanced, because it focused the three domain of learning. Therefore, teachers, educators and curriculum developer should bear in mind these three components of learning when they teach, developed or enrich curriculum for the learners.

            Secondly, has profound implication in my personal life and professional practices. This opportunity enhanced my knowledge about different learning theories to apply the in further teaching and learning.

            Thirdly, I will play sitar in my spare time for entertainment. Moreover, I will be able to participate in various cultural shows and programme with more confidence.

It also increased my typing speed because the concentration and moving of the fingers are the same in typing and plying sitar.

            Lastly, as teacher educator, I learned that the teacher educators are not for teaching and lecturing but they are also learners too. Furthermore, I came to know that how various learning theories are important for teacher educators to facilitate adults in my school and context.

Conclusion

            Learning is a long life process. Therefore, adult learning depends on the will and curiosity of a learner. So, in adult learning different approaches of learning must be involved. Behaviourism plays an important role to learn by trial and error and practise. Moreover, the curriculum, which the educators developed, should focus on the three domains of learning to make the learning meaningful for the students. Also the need and interest of learners also play a key role in curriculum development, teaching and learning. Properly monitoring the learner, assessing and constructive feedback are also important in adult education. But it has lots of challenges as sometime a learner gets confused and gives up the learning if further guidance will not be provided. Therefore, cognitive approach, experimental and constructivist approach must be manipulated for meaningful learning for the adults.

 APPENDEX A

 Different parts of Chitrali[1] sitar

                                                                                Neck 3

                Point.8                                   

Nail.9                                      Drones strings      1                                              main fret 5                              7  hook  

General frets 4                                                                      

                                                                                                                      Peg6                                               

Playing string       2                                                                                                                                                                                                      

 APPENDEX B

Term use for different parts of sitar in Chitrali and English language and its functions