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January 31, 2021 - Distal Goal & Reasoning

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January 31, 2021 - Distal Goal & Reasoning

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When deciding upon my distal goal for this project, I thought about a lot of what we have learned in this course so far about self-regulated learning and goal-setting. Thinking about one of the readings from module 1, the chapter from Schunk & Zimmerman's Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, Research, and Applications, we need to think deeply about what motivates us and which motivators will be essential to us specifically to move us forward. Thinking about my motivators around learning how to play the ukulele; first, knowing I will record myself playing and share it with people I care about at the end of the month is quite motivating! I want to do a good job and have others enjoy my playing and see that I have worked hard at it; secondly, it is something I have always wanted to learn how to play (hence, why I have one at home, to begin with), but I have never felt the drive to get started or stick with it.

My goal also made me think back to Eduardo Briceño's TedTalk from earlier in this module. While learning how to play the ukulele, I will have opportunities to be in both the learning and performance zones; however, I will be spending more time in the learning zone, which is a good thing since it will allow me to make mistakes and scaffold my learning. It will also let me learn from others, be it videos of ukulele teachers online or virtual lessons from friends. Briceño mentioned the importance of "breaking down abilities into component skills" - learning the ukulele gives me the perfect opportunity to do this since I will need to start with the basics, e.g., how to hold the ukulele, how to strum it, finger placement, etc., before getting to playing the songs and practising them.

The article from Schunk from activity one in this module, Self-regulation Through Goal Setting (2001), was where I first read the terms 'proximal' and 'distal' regarding goal-setting. One of the essential ideas from Schunk's article, "Subdivide a long-term goal into proximal sub-goals. Help learners determine what sub-goals must be accomplished to attain their long-term goals." (p. 4), seems particularly important here and tells me that my goal may be a good one because it will allow for my distal goal to be broken down into smaller, proximal ones, which will help motivate me and keep me on track to accomplish my goal.

And from the articles in activity two of this module [Schunk (1990) and Locke & Latham (2006)], I noted that your goals should be "Goldilocks" ones - just right for you. Your goals should be challenging and meaningful, they should motivate you, and they should allow opportunities for self-reflection and growth throughout. Schunk's 1990 article also dug deeply into the idea of self-efficacy, which is vital here as well - for me, the goal of learning to play the ukulele is one I think I can achieve! I believe in myself, and I can't wait to prove I can get this goal accomplished!

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Alright, it's time to get this show on the road.
What did I do?

My mentor, Mark (a friend and neighbour who is a musician), played the first song I will learn for me: Untitled 11 by John Frusciante. It’s a beautiful and unique song but also relatively short and uncomplicated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds6fxy73DbI

He showed me how to use a tuner, and we worked on strumming

We worked on the first three cords we would need for the song (Em, F, and Am)

Reflection:

It was a good start, and I’m happy I could start working on my goals on the day I said I would. The song I’m learning is lovely, but I haven’t got the tune memorized yet. I’m a little worried it might be too much for me as a first song, but I’m going to do my best! I’ve got to work more on my strumming and on pressing a little harder on the strings with my fingers.

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What did I do?

Mark played two versions of the song for me from Youtube
Worked on tuning, strumming, and fingering
Practiced the three same cords from Monday

Reflection:
I was exhausted today, and my fingers were sore from yesterday. Today was a short session. Mark had to encourage me to practice as I felt burnt out from teaching and taking my son skating in the afternoon. However, I’m glad I did some work, and I noticed that I remembered the three cords from yesterday.

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What did I do?

Practiced tuning, strumming, and fingering with Mark
I listened to Mark play the song again for me
Practiced the three chords from the past two days
Learned three new chords for the song - C, G, and Dm

Reflection:
Today was better. I wasn’t as tired, and my fingers weren’t as sore. I’m worried I won’t learn three songs in three weeks - I think I may have to readjust my distal goal. However, I have fun and enjoy learning the ukulele, which I feel is the most critical piece.

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What did I do?

Practiced tuning, strumming, and fingering with Mark
I worked on the six chords I learned the past few days

Reflection:
Things are going well. My hands are only slightly sore, and I’m enthusiastic to keeping working and learning the ukulele. Not a lot to say today, but I’m thinking about some possible changes to my goals and my practising habits.

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What did I do?

Break day
Time to reflect (more than usual), rest, and reassess

Reflection:
This was a long week! I’ve enjoyed learning the ukulele and working with my mentor, Mark. Some thoughts as I move forward: I need to extend the length of my distal goal, I need to adjust my distal goal, I need to spend some of my learning time on my own and try to work through issues without my mentor, and I need to forgive myself when I am tired and just can’t do it all. I also need to work more on a couple of my proximal goals: online research/videos and recording myself playing.

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What did I do?

Practiced tuning, strumming, and fingering with Mark
Learned how to play accompaniment using the six chords
I worked on the six chords I learned the past few days

Reflection:
I’m happy with my playing so far. I’m also glad I readjusted my goals. I now see they were unrealistic given how much I have on the go in my life. Doing things slower is better than stressing myself and not getting them done at all. It was nice to try the accompaniment activity and not worry too much about practising specifically for the song I am learning. It was also better playing on the weekend when I don’t have to work, and I’m less tired.

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What did I do?

Mark and I worked on chord phrasing and chord transitions
I worked on fingering, with an emphasis on making smoother chord transitions

Reflection:
This was fun. The practice went smoothly, and I observed noticeable growth in my confidence and with transitions. Again, working on this on the weekend makes it much easier as I’m less tired and have more time to work during the day. As I figured, I didn’t learn a song in a week, but that’s ok.

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What did I do?
Worked on chord phrases, fingering, chord transitions

Reflection:
Today was more challenging than yesterday, and while I have been in the learning zone this entire time, I felt more so there today because I noticed my mistakes more readily and have identified areas of weakness where I need to improve. I am generally doing well with most of the chord transitions, but now it’s clear to me that I struggle with the transition from the G chord to the D minor chord - this is where I need to focus more of my practising time and try to be more mindful around these transitions.

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What did I do?

Rest/Break day.

Reflection

I’m tired. I could have pushed myself today, but I need a break. Honestly, that’s about it.

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What did I do?

chose the second song I was going to learn
I listened to my new song - “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGJTaP6anOU

Wrote down the chords for the new song
Practiced the chords on my own
Recorded myself practising

Reflection

It was nice to start thinking about my second song even though I haven’t completely learned my first one. Change is good, you know? Because I have been working intensely on learning the first song and memorizing the chords, the new song’s ones have come more easily to me. Awesome! I’m feeling much more confident these days. I guess recording myself playing is a bit of evidence that proves it. :)

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What did I do?

I played the chords for Mark
I worked on the second song
Practised tuning, strumming, and transitions between chords

Reflection:

Not a long amount of time spent practising today, but I’m glad of any time I get to work on my playing. I’m feeling good, and I’m finding I want to pick up the ukulele at random times throughout the day and play a few chords here and there. While I have lots to learn, I feel like I know enough to play around a bit, and it’s fun!

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What did I do?

break/reflection day

Reflection:

Where am I at? I haven’t completely learned my first song yet, and that’s ok. Will I have to extend the length of my distal goal again? Possibly. I don’t want to shorten my goal to learning only one song because I think I will become bored of playing the same song again over and over without anything different in between. I’ll keep at it this week and see how things go before changing any of the goals.
Additionally, I'm coming to realize that what I was using as my monitoring document is not working out for me, but, instead, my learning and progress log (this) has become my monitoring document. And my proximal goals? While I have them broken down into pieces...I can't say that I will have any one of them mastered by the end of all this. They are all important components of my learning and I will think of them both as individual items and as a whole.

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What did I do?

Played entire Frusciante song (phrases/cords) by section
I listened to Mark play the song in its entirety twice
Worked on chords for the Elvis song

Reflection:

Good practice, good day. Weekends are easier for working on music. The next thing I need to work on is singing the words to the John Frusciante song while  I play. This may take some time to figure out. I like how the two pieces I am working on are quite different from each other - one being a fairly standard ukulele song (Elvis) and the other not. It’s keeping things interesting for me and continuing to help me feel motivated and engaged in this process.

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Sunday, February 14, 2021

What did I do?

I played the entire Frusciante song without stopping
Worked on chord transitions/voicing

Reflection:

I continue to need extra practice with my D minor chord, but other than that, the John Frusciante song is sounding pretty good!

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What did I do?

Practiced tuning, strumming, chord transitions on my own
Didn’t work on a particular song but instead spent time having fun and trying out different sounds/songs on the ukulele.

Reflection:
I've decided to change my distal goal again. I think it's important to differentiate between formal and informal practice and spend time doing both. I connected it back to one my readings:

Bonneville-Roussy, A. & Bouffard, T. (2014). When quantity is not enough: Disentangling the roles of practice time, self-regulation and deliberate practice in musical achievement. Psychology of Music, 43(5), 686-704. https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1177/0305735614534910

"Formal practice can be contrasted with informal practice, which has been defined in various ways in the literature. Informal practice also involves playing alone with the instrument, but includes activities that are less formal, such as playing by ear, improvising, ‘messing about’ with the instrument and playing one’s favourite music (McPherson & McCormick, 2006; Sloboda et al., 1996)." (Bonneville-Roussy, A. & Bouffard, T. (2014). p. 689).

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What did I do?

Worked on tuning, strumming, chord changes
Played through chords for Frusciante’s song with Mark

Reflection:
Nothing new, just keep on keeping on.

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Research reflection:

Thought about some quotes from one of my readings:

Bonneville-Roussy, A. & Bouffard, T. (2014). When quantity is not enough: Disentangling the roles of practice time, self-regulation and deliberate practice in musical achievement. Psychology of Music, 43(5), 686-704. https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1177/0305735614534910

"...in the field of music, a consensus has emerged to the effect that only the cumulative amount of formal practice time – as opposed to informal practice time – predicts higher levels of performance." (Bonneville-Roussy, A. & Bouffard, T. (2014)., p. 687).

AND

"...formal practice is considered to be a goal-directed, focused period of practice that includes both self-regulation and deliberate practice strategies." (Bonneville-Roussy, A. & Bouffard, T. (2014)., p. 697).

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Thursday, February 18, 2021

What did I do?

Worked on Frusciante song with Mark
This time, I took the lead with the song for the first time.

Reflection:
All went well!

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Friday, February 19, 2021

What did I do?

Worked on tuning, chord changes, strumming
Played chords for Frusciante’s song with Mark. I'm feeling very much in the "learning zone" and today I was thinking a lot about the TedTalk we watched in Module 2 by Eduardo Briceño entitled, "How to Get Better at Things you Care About".
Because...I'm getting better at something I care about!

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Saturday, February 20, 2021

What did I do?

Worked on tuning, chord changes, strumming
Played Frusciante song twice with me leading

Reflection:

Not feeling as confident today
Need to work on:
Voicing
Dm still
Have picked up a bad habit of not lifting fingers as much when I transition between chords and it is muddying the sound.

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February 21, 2021

What did I do?
Reflection day.
I realize that I haven't worked on the Elvis song in a while. It may not end up being one of my goal songs...and that's ok. I've also been playing the John Frusciante song for what feels like a long time and I'm fairly comepetent with it - I'd like to take a break.

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Reflections.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about one of the articles I'm reading:

Pike, P. D. (2017). Exploring self-regulation through a reflective practicum: a case study of improvement through mindful piano practice. Music Education Research, 19(4), 398–409. https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1080/14613808.2017.1356813

This piece of the article spoke to me quite a bit:

"It is acknowledged that experts rely on a deep store of knowledge and highly refined schemata to self-regulate effectively (Chaffin, Imreh, and Crawford 2012; Hallam 2001). However, novice musicians tend to lack such schemata (Hallam et al. 2012), which would allow them to correctly identify problems, readily avail of appropriate practice techniques, self-evaluate effectiveness, and adapt strategies, as necessary." (Pike, P.D. (2017). p. 399)

I am so glad I have my mentor to work with on this learning journey. I see how important it is to have a mentor/teacher/colleague to work with when working towards goals and assessing progress.

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Reflections.

I've been thinking about one of the first readings from this course:

Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (Eds.). (2012). Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications. Routledge, 1-30.

I'm going to quote myself here from my initial reflection on the article:

“One part of this chapter that stood out to me was about expectancy-value theory - "There are four major components of values: attainment value or importance, intrinsic value, utility value or usefulness of the task, and cost." (p. 13). Of those four elements, one of them - cost - stood out to me the most. The other three parts of values bring potential benefits to individuals; however, cost is different: its the consequences - "what's this going to cost me?", "what could I otherwise be spending my time on?", "am I going to miss out on something more fun by participating in this?" (Module 1 response)

Just a little food for thought...

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Reflections.

Today I was thinking about goal-setting, particularly in regards to the two articles on it we read for Module 2.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265-268.

Schunk, D. H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational psychologist, 25(1), 71-86.

I like what I said in my response to these articles, so I'll quote myself here:

“One central idea I got from reading both the Schunk (1990) and Locke & Latham (2006) articles was that when setting goals, you should be thinking of them almost as "Goldilocks" goals - i.e., not too hard or too easy - just right! And the 'just right' goal for one person may be drastically different than the 'just right' goal for another person.”
(Module 2)

While my distal goal continues to be reflected upon and adjusted, it is defintely within my "Goldilocks Zone" and feels achievable to me!

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Played on my own

Mark got me a book to work from:
https://www.amazon.ca/Ukulele-Songbook-All-Time-Classics/dp/1496022521/ref=sr_1_37?dchild=1&keywords=ukulele+book&qid=1615660079&sr=8-37
Learned lead/melody all in one go of Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jj4s9I-53g

Plus others.

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It's been a busy week. Lots of challenging work situations and my son's fifth birthday. I'm thinking about my goals, my playing, and this course. I stress about making sure I can complete my goals. I'll get there!

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What did I do?
Carried the rhythm
3/4 time
Differentiated rhythm from lead playing.
Scarborough fair

Reflection:
I'm having fun and feeling satisfied with my progress. Playing the ukulele feels natural to me and I'm feeling fairly competent at the beginner level that I'm at.

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What did I do?
Played Scarborough Fair with Mark a number of times through.
The playing was fun! It made me think about another one of the articles I read for this course in module 1:

Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 64-70.

Again, here's me quoting me:

“This line from Zimmerman's article brought to mind the other reading I had done: "One form of self-reaction involves feelings of self-satisfaction and positive effect regarding one's performance. Increases in self-satisfaction enhance motivation, whereas decreases in self-satisfaction undermine further efforts to learn" (Zimmerman, 2002).”
(Module 1)

Lots of self-satisfaction and enhanced motivation happening for me right now!

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What did I do?
Learned some new songs. Worked on Shortening Bread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y28w2ErHj4

Scarborough Fair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jj4s9I-53g

Buffalo Gals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TReJYGS5p8s

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I worry a bit that I'm continuing to work on songs that I like and am comfortable when I should instead be trying new things. It's making me think of one of the articles we read for Moduele 3:

Katz, S., & Dack, L. A. (2013). Towards a culture of inquiry for data use in schools: Breaking down professional learning barriers through intentional interruption—studies in Educational Evaluation.

Here's a quote from the article that stood out to me at the time and continues to resonate with me:

“Human beings, by virtue of their cognitive architecture, have a natural predisposition to preserve and conserve existing beliefs, understandings, and behaviours. They do not seek out challenge; they seek to preserve the status quo.” (Katz & Dack, p. 37)

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What did I do?
Played Buffalo Gals
and started on a new song,
House of the Rising Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHbKdI26RkE

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Reflection:
This is the end date for my goal. Have I accomplished it? YES! I can play two songs and more. Will I record them? Honestly, I will eventually, but not yet. I'm continuing to build my confidence with my new instrument, learning chords, strumming, and how to read the music. Would I have gotten this far without goal-setting, reflections, close monitoring, and a mentor to work alongside? Absolutely not. Will this change how I set goals for myself in the future? YES. Will this change how I work with students to support them with meaningful goal-setting and motivation? Double yes!

REWARDS:

What about rewards? Where are my rewards for myself in all of this? Honestly, learning to play was a huge reward for me and a big motivator in all of this. So was working hard at playing one day and then taking a break/rest the next day or a few days later. Kind of like working for the weekend, you know?