Service, Servicing & Service-Learning: What’s Best for You, the Music Major.
So some days ago I wrote a blog titled, 5 Pro Tips to Help You Pick the Best Higher Education Music Training for You, and I received several approvals and shares (thank you!).
I also received multiple questions on how to differentiate service-learning from service.
A quick recap of those terms:
Service – an action that supports, assists, or aids an organization such as a department, school, or college. The service may be volunteer, earned, or responsibility after determining a degree program, accepting a scholarship, enrolling in an ensemble, etc. The intent of the service may not be designed for your direct benefit but can function for your benefit if you decide to learn and grow from it.
Service-Learning – A planned service that benefits the student or students doing the work more educationally. The focus is on your intentional learning and the service is secondary. Students are involved in the pre and post-stages, and not only the action of service.
And it got me thinking...
How to Make Service Opportunities Work for You
As a music major, you’ll be expected to provide services throughout your career. The majority of those opportunities will happen as performances. Some of those performances will be opportunities exclusive to you, your instrument, and/or the ensemble you participate in at the time.
This is not a “bad” or “good” thing in and of itself. They are simply opportunities.
Opportunities that you, the music major, can make fun and rewarding – or taxing and difficult.
You determine the outcome of the service opportunity by how you engage the service.
Sure, sometimes the service won’t be a performance, but will still be expected of you. It’ll be because “we’ve always done it this way,” or “it’s tradition,” but no matter the service opportunity – it’ll be up to you to determine the result of the service.
You.
You have to determine the service’s value.
For you.
For example, you’re asked to perform the National Anthem at a women’s home game (pick a sport). You can choose to engage, challenge yourself, concentrate on overcoming your anxieties, and prepare expertly – or not.
You’re in control of the opportunity.
But to the faculty who selected you, and to the athletic department that asked for someone, and to the audience that loved hearing your performance live – you’re simply providing a service.
Of course, everyone wants and/or expects you to do your best. Of course, they do.
But this is not service-learning, it’s a service.
Afterward, you may learn a great deal from this opportunity, and quite possibly, discuss the outcomes with your professors – especially your applied music professor. You and your professor(s) could watch the video of your performance, discuss pros and cons, and even consider new practice methods to address issues discovered in your post-performance meeting.
But this is still not service-learning, it’s a service.
You recorded the performance. You brought the audio/video to your professor(s) attention for further analysis. You engaged in the service opportunity and made the most of it. This is a great example of a service used as a positive addition to your overall education.
All while providing the service that your faculty, athletic department, and community wanted.
You did it!
For you.
Epic.
But what would make this particular example a service-learning event?
Well… Service-Learning is a tricky term.
Service-Learning
Robert Sigmon, an associate for the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), composed an article for the 1994 CIC annual report titled, “Serving to Learn, Learning to Serve. Linking Service with Learning.” In it, he provided a “universal definition” for Service-Learning (Figure 1):
My article alluded to and included his two definitions that most benefits the student:
service – LEARNING where the learning is the primary goal and the service is secondary.
SERVICE – LEARNING where service and learning are weighted equally and each improves the other for all participants.
Either version of service-learning is going to increase your engagement and advance the depth of your learning experience – more than service alone.
With this in mind, let’s go back to our original scenario and answer the question, “What would make this particular example a service-learning event?”
Two major distinctions:
Intentional Learning
Planning & Preparations
Intentional Learning
Intentional Learning means that the service event has a specific purpose or purposes that the student is aware of, and focused on during the event. Plus, the student has studied the learning outcome or outcomes in an academic setting well before the event’s occurrence.
To provide more specific context, let’s add more details to our scenario:
You’re asked to perform the National Anthem at a specific women’s home game.
You’re aware of the performance’s exact date and time.
You’ve received this information 5 months before the event’s occurrence.
Your applied voice professor is also aware of this information in the same timeline.
In this scenario, you and your applied voice teacher can begin the process of outlining a service-learning experience. This is a distinction of service-learning over simple service: planning and preparing.
Since your applied voice teacher (typically) has an agenda and curriculum for you each semester, year, and the entirety of your college career, they can easily turn this into a service-learning opportunity.
This agenda focuses on specific skills and attributes you need as a developing vocalist. Knowing you’re working on these specific skills five months before, your applied voice teacher can adjust their curriculum to accommodate this future performance – while not missing any of the agenda’s original goals – and now give you specific targets to engage in a safe space.
These “targets” I’m referring to can be anything:
Projection
Annunciation
Articulation
Voice location
Etc.
The audience and athletic department aren’t going to care if you satisfy these “targets” as long as the performance is (a) completed and bonus (b) “good” (to be defined by each listener subjectively… Ah, art...).
Planning & Preparations
Service-learning signifies to plan, prepare, and predetermine learning outcomes from the event while providing a service. Once the event passes, there should be a period of reflection and analysis to find more value from and for the experience.
In this scenario, service and learning can be weighted equally to improve each other for all participants. However, to accomplish this in this scenario, the learning outcome goals would center on the quality of the performance itself (as opposed to specific factors that the general listener may or may not perceive).
In other words, the performance (service) is the only factor the audience will understand. The applied voice professor and you will be listening much more critically and specifically. This will allow you to receive the best feedback possible and see ascertain if your predetermined outcomes were achieved in reflection (learning).
Servicing
So far I’ve been clarifying the differences between service and service-learning. I hope that’s clear – and that you find many opportunities to engage in both to improve your overall quality of education.
However...
You should know that students, staff, faculty, administration, trustees, etc. – everyone is expected to provide any number of services during their time with a college or university.
Everyone.
You (the student) should know that there’s a dangerous and unfortunate byproduct of this expectation particularly within the staff, faculty, and administration – servicing.
Hold up.
Let me be clear.
I’m not referencing – in any way – the “urban dictionary” definition of this term.
Stop it.
No.
Servicing is my term for college/university music professors who do their job. They show up on time and complete all the required tasks. This includes duties outside of their expected teaching loads such as committees, advising, recruiting, and planned events.
Wait... isn’t that doing what’s expected?
Yep.
Isn’t that a good thing?
Of course, it is…
But when servicing occurs, there’s more to the story.
Allow me to explain.
In my experience, I’ve witnessed (way too) many music professors who do exactly what I described above – do their job, show up on time, complete required tasks and services, etc. – but in their proficiency, they forget an important aspect…
Educating.
Hey! You said they do their job!
I did.
But education, like a good service-learning event, requires preparation, targeted learning outcomes, execution, evaluation, reflection, and plans for future improvement.
Here’s a hypothetical: Let’s say I’m teaching music history. It’s a two-semester sequential course. The curriculum I create should reflect a forward-thinking action plan that allows you (the student) the understanding of what’s expected – continuous throughout both semesters – including due dates, exam structures, and homework expectations.
However, if my execution each semester results in student failures, misunderstandings, and confusion – especially in my testing measures – then I’m not evaluating or reflecting on my execution. And I’m certainly not thinking about future improvements if students are consistently failing.
In this (unfortunate and all too common) scenario, I’m not educating, I’m servicing.
I’m providing the required coursework at the required times. I show up, lecture, grade homework, and provide a clear calendar for the course. I even offer office hours for assistance – so I KNOW it’s not me – it’s you.
Uh oh.
This fictitious professor is servicing the college, not the student… and certainly not your education.
Worse still, while they’re completing their job, they’re creating an illusion of good education. Through their manipulations, transfer their poor educational techniques onto the students so that the student’s failure becomes a badge of honor.
What?
That’s right.
This fictitious professor of music history projects students’ failures as proof that their course is arduous and important to accomplish in regards to the major.
And let’s say this fictitious professor has a long career. I don’t know, 35 years or so, at a small department of music. Maybe 1 of 4 full-time music faculty members. Hypothetically speaking. Maybe even the chair of the department.
Well then.
Servicing becomes the norm.
So Who Is Professor Fictitious?
Professor Fictitious is well-liked by peers, has done an adequate job fulfilling the responsibilities of the position, hasn’t caused any “waves” to disrupt the administration’s goals… and even has the respect of their students because students:
Don’t know better,
Don’t have a perspective on how education should operate, and
Do believe the faculty – including Professor Fictitious – have their best interests in mind.
And when servicing becomes accepted, then faculty (and others in authority) can use servicing to easily deceive.
How?
With any number of methods, intentionally or unintentionally, such as:
Passivity – Faculty tending not to take an active role in course results, students, or education.
Deflection – Faculty blaming course results on student’s lack of abilities or focus.
Willful Ignorance – Faculty “plays dumb” when confronted with course results.
Lack of Education on Being an Educator – Faculty degrees and training in something other than education.
Reason for Being on Faculty – Faculty employed to support other “real” careers (aka performer, researcher, etc.)
And more…
And the real danger?
You, the student, are never aware of it.
You’d never know…
While researching to select an institution for your music degree training, or
While attending your selected institution, or
As an alumnus when providing feedback or advice about your institution.
Because servicing looks like service and feels like the professor is challenging you to be better, and resembles a genuine passion for your success…
It’s sinister.
Dr. Fictitious
Intended or not, you’ve got to be ready…
And one step beyond, ol’ Professor Fictitious doesn’t believe they’re doing anything wrong. They believe they’re providing that perceived service, trial, and passion just for you. And it’s because they’re “tough” they’re a good teacher...
But they’re not.
They’ll point to the few who “succeed,” but that’s not successful education, that’s a rare moment of high achievement from a pedagogy that is usually unsuccessful, aka:
Dumb luck.
A broken clock is right twice a day.
A blind pig finding an acorn once in a while.
Chance.
And many, many clichés more…
To be fair, “sinister” implies intent – and I know many of these fictitious professors are not intending to be poor educators, they simply believe their high acumen and/or musical expertise “overrides” their lack of education training.
What To Do
So now that you can recognize it, what do you do?
This is difficult to answer.
Rarely can you challenge servicing, because most professors who are servicing have done so for a long time, so it’s been perceived as “the way” for many years without challenge.
The easy answer is to work hard to be one of those “successes” Professor Fictitious will point to… but this means it’s on you.
But similar to making the best of a service opportunity, you’ll have to work to make servicing the best for you.
I wish I had better advice.
Unfortunately, servicing is a result of something that has been discussed in satire and serious research, known as:
The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle states that a competent person will earn a promotion to a position that requires different skills. If the promoted person lacks the skills required for the new position, they will be incompetent at the new level, and will not be promoted again.
Thus, you get a Professor Fictitious.
And in higher education, in particular with music faculty, you receive incompetent education.
The Peter Principle states that a competent person will earn a promotion to a position that requires different skills.
Let’s say Professor Fictitious, due to their training and experience, was initially hired to be the woodwind studio teacher. They’re to recruit for these instruments, teach 1-on-1 lessons, and direct chamber ensembles created from their various woodwind studios.
However, because Professor Fictitious is a member of a small music faculty, they’re asked to cover other courses:
Concert Band conductor,
Music History coordinator and lecturer,
Teaching conducting skills, instrumental literature, and score study…
Has Professor Fictitious been a member of concert bands and orchestras? Or completed a music history sequence during their undergraduate program? Or witnessed multiple conductors, lecturers, and coordinators?
Sure. Of course. Perhaps. Maybe?
But if Professor Fictitious’s true passion is to:
Perform
Be a (paid) member of a professional ensemble
Travel as a performer
Something other than educate
Then guess what becomes secondary…
Your education.
Side note: it could be even worse if Professor Fictitious is promoted (Peter Principle!) to the chair of the music department. Then faculty who are educating become targets to remove so Chair Fictitious’s inadequacies can remain “quality” by colleagues and the community. And guess who suffers again…. (it’s you.)
Hope on the Horizon
I have good news – there’s been a shift in higher education – that has been hastened by the effects of COVID-19*. Diminished enrollments, distance learning, and financial examinations have placed renewed emphasis on full-time faculty teaching, recruiting, retaining, and graduating with effective practices and strategies.
In other words, Professor Fictitiouses (yes, I made it plural.) across the country are receiving a second opinion. Time will tell if effective educators will be championed and supported or not, but I believe it’s a good start.
And as a student, you have some power as well.
Me?
Power?
Yes, you!
Every semester you will be asked by the university to provide feedback. Typically, it’s an anonymous online survey with a rating system and areas to comment further.
Do it.
Your feedback is a mechanism the institution uses to evaluate faculty, staff, and the college itself.
Good or bad – you should provide it.
The institution will ultimately benefit from it.
And so will your education.
I sincerely hope you find your journey through music a successful one, and your education is excellent. If you’d like to know more about being a successful music major, check out my blog on the topic.
Now go practice – and have a wonderful day!
*I sincerely apologize if “good news” and “COVID-19” are, in any way, offensive to you. This is not my intent to slight anyone’s experience with this horrible pandemic. I honestly hope all reading this have received the vaccination and/or medical treatments to ensure their safety – for themselves and everyone. Please stay healthy!
