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Episode Summary
In this episode, Sally and Sharon from The Curious Piano Teachers share eight types of questions we can utilize in our lessons, from what they call “skinny” or easy, closed questions to meta-cognitive, emotional, and more.
Guest Host Bios
Sharon Mark-Teggart, MA is the Co-Founder of The Curious Piano Teachers. Sharon says: “Being curious has taken me to places I never thought I’d reach. As a piano teacher, with incredibly humble beginnings, I’d never have moved on without my sense of curiosity and my courage to change.”
In 2007 Sharon achieved a Masters of Music Education with distinction. She has 20+ years of piano teaching experience and since 2012 has delivered Associate and Licentiate teaching diploma courses to groups of piano teachers – with well over 100 piano teachers successfully gaining accredited piano teaching diplomas.
Sharon has been described as being a visionary entrepreneur within the world of music education. After founding evoco in 2012 (Northern Ireland’s Music Education Organisation, specialising in piano teacher training) she founded The Curious Piano Teachers in 2015 with Dr Sally Cathcart.
Sharon lives close to the beautiful Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland, with her husband Philip, their 6 year-old son Reuel and 10 month-old daughter Damaris.
S
ally has many years of teaching experience both as a piano teacher and as a classroom music teacher. After her travels as a Winston Churchill Fellow, Sally founded the Oxford Piano Group as a place for pianists and teachers to collaborate and share experiences. She was awarded a PhD from the Institute of Education, UCL in 2013. Her topic was the first comprehensive study of UK piano teachers, exploring common practices, expertise, values, attitudes and motivation to teaching.
She is very involved in teacher training and is a Principal Tutor on the Piano Teachers’ Course (UK). Furthermore, she is a trained Kodály practitioner a senior musicianship practitioner of The Voices Foundation. Sally is an examiner for ABRSM and is on the ABRSM Music Education Advisory Committee. She is a Fellow member of the ISM.
Items Mentioned
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8 Types of Questions
- Skinny Questions – closed questions that are easy to reply with a yes or no answer
- Fat Questions – inviting them to think for themselves and consider their responses
- Low-order Questions – factual questions that test their knowledge
- High-order Questions – questions where they need to analyze or problem-solve
- Emotional Questions – how the student feels
- Meta-Cognitive Questions – encourages them to reflect on themselves and the process they just went through
- Imposter Questions – avoid them because they’re not really questions – they’re just a piece of advice with a question mark at the end
- Awe Questions – And What Else
Transcript
Do you ever have memories about random things that are really of no consequence at all, and yet they, of all things, stick with you?
The first time I heard about The Curious Piano Teachers website was one of those for me. There’s not even a good story with it. I just clearly remember my friend Joy back in maybe 2015 or 2016 asking if I had heard of them yet, and until then, I hadn’t. From then on, I remember paying close attention to all they were doing for piano teachers through their blog and membership site.
Well, today is one of those moments that may easily stick in your memory – except it will be for good reason as Sally and Sharon – who together are The Curious Piano Teachers – bring us eight types of questions we can use in our lessons from what they call “skinny” or easy, closed questions to meta-cognitive, emotional, and more.
If you’re new around here, I’m Amy Chaplin, the regular host of this podcast, but today, as we do every six weeks or so, I’m leaving you in the capable hands of a guest host.
If you’ve missed any of the other guest hosts this year, scroll back to find Olivia Ellis & Davis Dorrough from The Creative Piano Teachers, who, in episode 83, talked about the benefit of lead sheets and chord charts. In episode 73, composer Chrissy Ricker gave us a peek into her past experience with travel teaching. Episode 66 was our Australian friend Samantha Coates covering how to NOT give makeup lessons. Melody Payne walked us through steps for improving our businesses in episode 62, and finally, the first guest host of 2023 was Abigail Proffitt in episode 58 on motivating students with ADD and ADHD.
And now… I’ll hand it over to the ladies.
The Curious Piano Teachers was founded in 2015 by Dr Sally Cathcart and Sharon Mark- Teggart. Both are outstanding practitioners and communicators, as well as researchers in music education. They realized the power of learning from each other to make their lessons work better, pursue new opportunities, and increase their love of teaching piano. Together, Sally and Sharon created their unique online Community that is now helping hundreds of piano teachers from across the globe to learn as much as they teach.
A full transcript of the content for guest hosts is not available
8 Types of Questions
- Skinny Questions – closed questions that are easy to reply with a yes or no answer
- Fat Questions – inviting them to think for themselves and consider their responses
- Low-order Questions – factual questions that test their knowledge
- High-order Questions – questions where they need to analyze or problem-solve
- Emotional Questions – how the student feels
- Meta-Cognitive Questions – encourages them to reflect on themselves and the process they just went through
- Imposter Questions – avoid them because they’re not really questions – they’re just a piece of advice with a question mark at the end
- Awe Questions – And What Else
Thanks again, Sally and Sharon for taking the time to chime in and share with us today. Be sure and follow them on social media at The Curious Piano Teachers.
As we wrap up, today’s tiny tip is to put a little TLC into the stacks and piles on your desk and around the room. Believe it or not, I don’t mean clear them out entirely. Yes, that would be idea but, I’ll admit, I find I almost always have one or two stacks of something on my desk and another somewhere else in my studio no matter how often I try to clear them away.
I hate them, but they just always seem to be part of the space no matter how hard I try. I find that rather than having them be ruly, if I can at least be conscious of keeping them straightened up, it eases the stress of them being there.
This is just one tiny tip from me to you. Stay tuned next week for our next teacher talk episode, which will feature one of my favorite Indiana colleagues who was also the recipient of our state’s teacher of the year award! See you soon!
