How We Learn 101

voiceped for real life

Because: when we know better, we can do better.

HERE’S THE THING:

Voice pros are so busy actually teaching that they don’t have the spoons to do a deep dive on all the other things.

How We Learn 101 has entered the chat.

The Vocal Instrument 101 LIVE creator, Dr. Shannon Coates, wearing teal-framed glasses, a grey shirt with wing arms, and black pants, strikes a jaunty pose with her arms crossed in front of her body. She smiles widely at the camera.

You’re a voice teacher (or coach, or classroom educator, or choral director … GAH! You get the picture; you’re someone who works with singers!) who keeps hearing about things like, locus of attention, and external vs internal motivation, and embodied cognition, and student-led learning …

but who is too busy actually teaching to figure out what these things mean and how they apply to actual teaching.

And you’re starting to realize that almost everything you learned about teaching (maybe from that one semester voiceped class you did in undergrad or maybe from observing the way your teacher worked with you) might just be based on some waaaay outdated information about how we learn …

And there isn’t much out there that is concise AND immediately applicable to teaching voice in an indepent studio setting.

Not only that, but you have a sneaking suspicion that all you need is a super-clear, laser-focused information session AND a chance to ask about implementation so you can apply this stuff in your teaching and you’ll be an even more effective voice teacher than you already are.

WHICH IS WHY CINDY & I CAME UP WITH THE “HOW WE LEARN 101” TWOFER:

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one two-hour, lecture-style class w me (Shannon!) outlining what we know about how we learn

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one two-hour panel w Cindy Dewey & me with all the practical application we can cram into 120 minutes

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delivered live over zoom

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replay available until the end of January

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buy the class AND the panel together and save $$

tell me how to subscribe to The VoicePed 101 Library & get instant access to the How We Learn 101 Live lecture Recordings

HOW WE LEARN 101

class with

SHANNON COATES

If you’re a voice teacher who finds their way to an online forum or two, you’ve likely seen a post (or several) about how new discoveries in neuroscience and cognition are being combined with so much of what we already know about how we learn, and how it all can be applied in the voice studio to uplevel our teaching so we’re tapping into singers’ intrinsic motivation and supporting student agency and encouraging deeper learning in the singers we work with.

Aaand … if you’re anything like me? You save those posts to an appropriately-named folder (such as, I don’t know, “stuff about motor learning”*) and then never think about them again (because: out of sight = well and truly out of mind).

EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW that this information could be pivotal to your teaching game and could result in even more effective learning in your voice studio.

So, you know what I did?

I went through folders with all the saved posts and I read the books and I went to the presentations and I applied it in my own teaching and I worked with voice teachers as they applied it in their teaching and then I made this, here “How We Learn 101” class.

And then I invited Cindy Dewey to do a How We Teach 101 Panel with me so you could hear from someone who has been doing this whole thing for a lot longer than I have.

Which: this is the class and panel that I wish someone had made for me way back in the day. (so, you’re welcome for that)

BECAUSE:

WE DIDN’T LEARN THIS STUFF IN OUR UNDERGRADS**

WE SURE AS HECK DON’T GET SUMMERS OFF TO STUDY UP ON IT***

OUR STUDENTS DESERVE THE BEST GOSH-DARNED TEACHING WE CAN DO … WHICH WE CAN ONLY DO WHEN WE UNDERSTAND HOW THEY’RE LEARNING

HOW WE TEACH 101

panel with

SHANNON COATES & CINDY DEWEY

Knowing about how we learn is only half the battle, though, isn’t it? Because, in order for all of that awesome knowledge to actually be useful?

You’ve gotta’ apply it to your teaching.

Which is why I couldn’t be more excited to be joined by the one and only, Dr. Cindy Dewey**** for a 101 (aka introductory) panel on HOW WE TEACH (aka allowing everything we know about how we learn to change how we teach).

I first heard Cindy talking about the practical application of motor learning theory (and, specifically, the external locus of attention) at a conference about a decade ago.

And I went straight on back into my voice studio and swapped out the lists of directions I gave the singers I was working with for exploratory, externally-focused directives based on the feedback they were giving me about their own process.

Not gonna’ lie:

IT * WAS * TRANSFORMATIVE

The singers I was working with:

got out of their heads
got into their flow
developed language to describe their own process
developed agency
became better coordinated (almost overnight!)
found more joy in practising
needed me less*****

And my teaching? Was a lot more effective with a lot less effort because the singers were finding everything they needed within themselves.

Friends, I’m not saying that having a better understanding of how we learn and then applying that understanding to how we teach is MAGIC.

I’m just saying it feels like magic.

And I want you and the singers you work with to experience that magical feeling.

BECAUSE: DEEPER LEARNING WITH LESS EFFORT SEEMS LIKE A DANGED GOOD DEAL TO ME.

* may or may not be the name of an actual folder in my saved items.

** TBH? I didn’t really learn this in my graduate degrees either.

*** and even if we have created a business where we DO get summers off (which: congrats on that, friend!)? we wanna’ use those summers for things like, going to the beach, and catching up with family and friends, #amiright?

**** I know, I KNOW: sooo maaanyyy DRs. I promise it won’t get (too) weird.

***** this sounds like a bad thing but -TRUST ME- it’s a very, very good thing. #pinkyswear

tell me how to subscribe to The VoicePed 101 Library & get instant access to the How We Learn 101 Live lecture Recordings