This is a combined workshop – paper presentation on the Kokas pedagogy, with the proposed session outline:
1 Philosophical considerations – initial framing (15-20 mins) (Eva Vass)
• What is embodiment?
• How is ‘thinking through presence’ understood in the arts, natural sciences, cognitive sciences or educational science?
• What is Kokas Pedagogy? What is Kokas Philosophy?
2 Immersive experience (45-50 mins) (Monique Fuss)
3 Reflective discussion and pedagogical path finding (15-20 mins) (Eva Vass)
• Sharing and reflection on embodiment
What did you feel in the beginning, where did your mind go, when did you start to feel in your own body?
• Reflections on engagement
What surprised you about your learning? What was the tricky part? What did you enjoy the most? What helped you the most?
• Reflections on musical encounters
How does musically inspired spontaneous movement constitute learning and teaching, in your experience?
How did the musical encounters facilitate creative ideation and shared imagination?
In what ways does the Kokas pedagogy help us orient ourselves towards each other as creative resources or companions?
How did the sharedness of imagination emerge through movement and embodied dialogue?
What’s the significance of these embodied encounters for the understanding of self, others, music and music pedagogy?
What transformative potentials are there in the Kokas pedagogy (transforming the self, transforming the professional, transforming the relationship with music, transforming the pedagogue
What potential barriers and challenges are there with the use of this pedagogy in classroom contexts?
Context and rationale for the combined session
The natural mind has an inherent disposition to engage in a receptive-responsive dialogue with its natural and human environment (Rayner, 2017; Vass, 2019). In order to cultivate such receptive-responsive orientations, it seems crucial to legitimise and re-introduce bodily ways of knowing and experiencing as fundamental to learning. The role of the moving, interacting, feeling, perceiving and responding body is well-recognised in creative arenas of human experience (Anttila, 2007). Such opportunities for collective experience are more than just a preliminary step towards learning: they may actually constitute learning. Despite the pioneering work on embodiment by second generation cognitive scientists (Johnson, 2008; Gelernter, 2016), our understanding of teaching and learning as an embodied practice of receptive-responsive dialogue is rather limited. Does education – with its reliance on objectivistic perception – actually work against the natural orientation of the mind towards thinking from presence? Does the narrow focus on objectivistic perception dislocate us, severing the self from the world?
This session focuses on learning and teaching through presence. We build on the Kokas pedagogy as our explorative context. The unique gift of the Kokas pedagogy is its aim to sustain and nurture students’ somatic, experiential understanding of classical music. It combines active music appreciation with Kodaly’s singing-based music pedagogy, mainly targeting the early and primary years. In doing so, it goes beyond the structural analysis (or ‘science’) of music that is prevalent in traditional Western music education. As such, it is optimal for the explorations of the nurturing of the embodied mind.
Klára Kokas’s experimental program emerged over two decades of working with children. It was the children who gave her the information she needed to formulate her method steeped and respected by the teachings of Kodaly. Her program is formulated around evoking a physical response to Art Music that is neither aesthetic nor with a prescribed performance outcome. It is a break away from the formulaic use of movement in music programmes, recognising that it is through the body one truly absorbs and learns in a way that their knowledge can be applied creatively, deliberately, authentically and with awareness, respect and appreciation. This results in knowledge application that is truly complete. “Freedom of movement makes the perception of music much more profound” (Kokas, 1999, p. 22). Exposure to music, through folk singing and high quality recorded Art Music recognises that language is first experienced as a whole and that our brains are designed to experience learning as complete entities where analysis proceeds as opposed to precedes. An environment for learning is created that tells the learner that the meaning lies in the motifs and phrases of melodies rather than individual notes. Through this pedagogy the language of music flows around and through the learner to establish a thirst for inquiry based on music as a form of communication embedded within form and structure.
Possible resources for the immersive phase:
Andrew Bird: Ellipse (Andrew Bird – Echolocations: River, 2017. Ⓟ Wegawarm Music Co.)
Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel (Sally Maer & Sally Whitwell – Classical Music for Mindfulness, 2016. Ⓟ Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Philip Glass – Opening (Sally Whitwell – Classical Music for Mindfulness, 2016. Ⓟ Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 88: II Brâul {Sash Dance} (High Wolff & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra: Bartók : Divertimento, Romanian Folk Dances & Kodály : Marosszék & Galánta Dances (- Apex). 1994. Ⓟ Warner Classics International)
5 Elegias: No 1, A Béla Bartók (Eurico Carrapatoso – Cariòn: Schauspiel. 2014. Ⓟ Ars Produktion
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Album for Children, Op. 39: (Arkady Sevidov – Tchaikovsky: The Seasons/Children’s Album. 1995. Ⓟ Arte Nova Musikproduktions GmbH)
Marche des Soldats de Bois. Moderato
Contre de la Vielle Bonne. Moderato
Le Petit Cavalier. Presto, staccato
Le Poupèe Malade. Moderato
Maurice Ravel: Ma Mère L’oye: M.60.3 Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes For Piano Duet (Katia & Marielle Labèque – Sisters. 2016. Ⓟ KML Recordings)
Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek (for children): Sz. 42: Volume 2 – XXI. Swine-heard’s Dance – “The Cricket Marries” (Deszö Ránki – Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek (for children)
Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek (for children): Sz. 42: Volume 1 – X. Children’s Dance – “The Wallachians Wear Wooden Shoes” (Deszö Ránki – Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek (for children)
Frédéric Chopin: Préludes, Op. 28: No 10, Molto allegro (Marc Laforet – Best of Chopin. 2012. Ⓟ Edel Germany GmbH)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Variation 8 a 2 Clav. (Glenn Gould – Remastered the complete Columbia album experience. 2013. Ⓟ Sony Music Experience)
Claude Debussy – Clair De Lune (Single. 2011. Ⓟ Claude Debussy)
Elena Kats-Chernin: Butterflying (Tamara-Anna Cislowska – Butterflying: Piano Music by Elana Kats-Chernin. 2016. Ⓟ Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
References
Anttila, E. (2007). Mind and body. Unearthing the affiliation between the conscious body and the reflective mind. In L. Rouhiainen (Ed.). Ways of knowing in dance and art. Theatre Academy: Helsinki.
Gelernter, D. (2016). The tides of Mind. Uncovering the Spectrum of Consciousness. New York: Liveright Publishing Co.
Johnson, M. (2008). The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kokas, K. (1999). Joy through the magic of music. Budapest: Distributed by Akkord Zenei Kiadó.
Rayner, A. (2017). The Origin of Life Patterns. In the Natural Inclusion of Space in Flux. Springer Briefs in Psychology and Cultural Developmental Science. Berlin: Springer.
Vass, E. (2019). Musical co-creativity and learning in the Kokas pedagogy: Polyphony of movement and imagination. Thinking Skills and Creativity. Vol 31, pp. 179-197. Available online 10 Dec 2018 at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.12.004
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