Empowering Artists of the Future Through a Transformational Feedback Model

Empowering artists of the future through a transformational feedback model

Executive Summary

The Guildhall School’s mission is to “train and educate musicians, actors and theatre technicians to the highest international standards”. Our alumni, as in many specialist institutions within the performing arts, include some of the world's most recognized names from these disciplines. Our teaching staff are also typically outstanding practitioners in their field. Such an environment provides particular pedagogical challenges in furthering the abilities of our students and in building on the artistic strengths of the teaching staff. These challenges include a) ensuring that students, who are often highly sensitive and self-critical, receive and learn to offer constructive feedback that is personalised, rigorous and motivating, supports them in taking ownership of their development process, and avoids becoming overly focused on correcting deficit at the expense of creative, divergent thinking; b) addressing the “halo” effect that can result from the professional standing of our artist-teachers, and a tendency to assume that what it currently takes to be at the top of your game in the arts provides the complete blueprint for rapidly evolving futures;c) empowering teachers to professionalize their teaching/mentoring in ways that connect with their artistry, while also engaging with established theory and cross-sector standards.

To meet these challenges, our project aimed to embed and evaluate a radical feedback framework in the performing arts within the learning environment at the Guildhall.This frameworkis based on two interconnected pedagogies that we have been exploring in the last three years:

Critical Response Framework (CRP), a feedback system for work in progress, developed by American dancer and choreographer Liz Lerman: to date rarely used in music or theatre;
Coaching in and through the performing arts: integrating coaching skills (drawn from executive coaching in leadership/management contexts) within learning, teaching and mentoring, including within one-to-one instrumental/vocal tuition in music, the core of the discipline’s pedagogy.

Central principles include how to listen for and illuminate meaning; how to ask the questions that prompt new learning; how to balance support and challenge with confidence and grace; how to give feedback that is heard and acted upon; how to bring energy and interest to the most challenging situations; how to understand and support people through complex change; how to motivate and encourage new and creative thinking; how to prompt to action when solutions are identified and understood; how to give information and share expertise that is pertinent, timely and can be absorbed; and how to hold to account without blame or shame. Together these offer practical and rigorous tools that help diverse individuals bridge the gap between their potential and current performance, whilst at the same time continuing to champion the foundations of high-level artistic craft.

Our projecthas:

Buillt capacity at a crucial stage in the development of this work at Guildhall, through a critical mass of Guildhall staff with expertise in CRP and coaching/mentoring techniques (over 90 teaching staff are now engaged in the coaching development and/or CRP). We have offered coaching/mentoringdevelopment including a mandatory 1 day skills training workshop; 3-5 three hour seminar sessions focusing on specific topics and action learning; 3 optional master class sessions; and receiving one individual coaching session. Eightteaching staff are also registered on an ILM Diploma course, with the first having completed in March.
Undertaken systematic research to provide robust evidence of the implementation and impact on student learning and staff experience of these practices (see below);
Piloted participation from teachers/institutions beyond Guildhall (coaching/mentoring development included participation of two external guests; an international four day workshop dedicated to CRP, led by Liz Lerman, hosted 33 participants from 12 HE institutions across the globe including Australia, USA, UK and Scandinavia), beginning to explore potential for a sustainable and replicable model that can be shared more widely across the performing arts and with other disciplines, nationally and internationally. We have gained EMCC accreditationat Foundation level for our development programme from 2015/16, with encouragement to develop accreditation at Practitioner and Senior Practitioner levels (equivalent to ILM Certificate and Diploma standards).
Supported Guildhall teaching staff to gain HEA Fellowshipthrough dual pathways to professional recognition, drawing on engagement in our feedback framework (29 staff in process to Fellowship in 2016).

Research

We undertook research through a questionnaire survey distributed to all teaching staff and students, exploring theirexperiences and perceived impact our feedback framework. In addition, we have developed 9 in-depth teacher case studies, representing a cross-section of learning and teaching contexts within our disciplines, one-to-one and group environments, practical and academic content. 286 responses were received to the questionnaire (106 teaching staff (46% of population of 231 canvased) and 180 students (19% of population of 967 canvased).Overall, both students and staff involved in our feedback approaches reported a more positive outlook on Guildhall’s learning environment and their own development than students and staff not yet engaged in these approaches.

Amongst students for example, there were significantly more positive responses in grading key statements about career preparation, ownership of their learning process, aspects of learning support, resilience, and having a voice within the School, as shown in the table below.

Students experiencing coaching/mentoring approaches who strongly agree/agree with the statements / Students not experiencing coaching/mentoring approaches who strongly agree/agree with the statements
Guildhall gives me the information to make informed choices about my career / 70.5% / 47.7%
Guildhall provides support for me both artistically and personally / 81.4% / 60.7%
I know that I have people to turn to in times of trouble / 79.5% / 64.8%
The staff are open to receiving feedback / 58.1% / 48.9%
My suggestions, complaints and concerns are listened to and acted on / 61.9% / 40.5%
Students experiencing coaching/mentoring approaches who feel their response to statements has improved during study at Guildhall / Students not experiencing coaching/mentoring approaches who feeltheir response to statements have improved during study at Guildhall
How secure I feel that I am on the right artistic path / 69.8% / 59.6%
How much I feel able to make my own decisions / 75.0% / 70.5%
How much I feel included by my fellow students / 68.2% / 53.4%
How fairly I am treated by my teachers / 52.3% / 42.7%

The qualitative case studies of teaching staff demonstrated that they are experiencing a transformational and challenging journey. They haveoften come to the work with deep seated worries about teaching: “one of my fears is: ‘Am I doing this right? What’s my map? How do I know if I’m teaching right?’” Equally they have come with hopes “…Well, I wonder…if it’s a step towards the impossible thing of helping an actor to be self-sufficient… You want to enable them…. you want them to do it for themselves.”

They are finding the development processes are transparent and practical:“The light touch …it’s not mystical. It’s not kind of guru-like, and pretentious…. It’s about how do you help somebody practically. …and … to some degree, handing responsibility back.”There are nevertheless plenty of challenges along the way, in responding to a learning process as a teacher, and for example in managing students’ expectations:“… students ….feel like: ‘I want value for money.’ And… a lot of the time … they perceive that as… wanting a lot of dissemination of information, a lot of direct instruction; a lot of modelling; a lot of… ‘traditional’ teaching”.

However, powerfulbenefits are emerging:“I wonder if I would have spoken to that boy in quite that way yesterday at the end of the class…I was unapologetic. I wasn’t cruel, but I just passed the responsibility back to him…So I was clearer about myself yesterday.”

“….one thing I’m less afraid of now is pauses, is silence…when the student – or the coaching class, whatever – goes quiet, that’s a sign that there’s new thinking going on…they’re not just falling back into repeated patterns of thought, but there’s some new thinking. So I’m less… worried about silences.”

“…it sort of challenged my preconceptions…challenging those preconceptions that I’ve got that make me think I’m not doing a good enough job.”

At the very core of these journeys seem to be a value and deep understanding of listening. Listening is important in all our artistic disciplines, and by applying these skills to the teaching process, our staff are finding that this opens up a mindfulness in exchanging ideas, giving and receiving,responding, being physically connected to the student and the teaching space, and creating an open channel of communication within the classroom and beyond – into the corridor, the staffroom, the coffee queue.

Long term impact

Our feedback frameworknow forms a key part of the Guildhall’s growing commitment to professional development for staff, which together with the Reflective Conservatoire Conference (CRP featured in keynote from Liz Lerman on this in 2015), received special commendation in the commentary from HEFCE to a favourable income from the Review of Institution Specific funding, May 2016. This initiative has enabled usto refine the framework, and to make significant progress towards embedding long term impact.The next stepswe have identified include:

Embedding the feedback framework within the School’s strategic plan as a central plank of professional and talent development in the School; this to include administrative as well as teaching staff;
Ensuring timely and full induction for all Guildhall students to the feedback framework, this being a core part of the Guildhall learning environment and ethos;
Introducing modules for students that enable them to take ownership of the feedback framework as facilitators and teachers themselves, and apply it flexibly in diverse contexts;
Developing an integrated and comprehensive approach across learning and teaching, organisational leadership and management, to fully realize the feedback framework within the culture of the School, piloting this initially within one department (2016-17);
Sharing further training in both coaching/mentoring development and CRP with key partners such as the Barbican Arts Centre and London Symphony Orchestra to enable and enhance exchange and processes of working together (from 2016-17).
Offering training in both coaching/mentoring and CRP as a CPD package to practitioners in the arts beyond the Guildhall to extend its reach;
Building our portfolio of EMCC accreditation with Practitioner and Senior Practitioner status;
Developing a coaching service targeted at professionals in the performing arts industries;
Developing consultancy to engage wider arts and HE constituencies in coaching/mentoring development and CRP within their own particular contexts.

Contact details

Those interested to discover more detail about the project should contact Katy McNamara.