As a piano teacher, you are continually assessing your students' progress:
- What do they already know?
- What skills are they working on?
- Where do they need to go next?
(If you don't yet have a tool in place to monitor progress, check out my free lesson planning article and template!)
Taking time to periodically review big picture goals and reflect on where students are in relation to your goals is an important part of the teaching process. But sometimes you need another perspective. How are things really going in their daily at-home practice? Are there struggles (musical, motivational, or otherwise) that you are not aware of? Does the music interest your students or do they wish they could move on to more/less challenging, faster/slower, more classical/jazzier music? You may pick up on some things, but it can be helpful to hear more specifically from home.
Midway through the school year I reach out to parents to ask how they think piano lessons are going. I send an email asking for their feedback on a one-page form to be returned at the next lesson or scanned and emailed back to me. Of course, when parents drop off or pick up their children from lessons, or if they sit in and listen - these are moments when we can have a brief discussion about what their child recently accomplished or what my goals are for the coming week. But giving them a document to fill out is a nice, more formal, way to offer parents an opportunity to reflect on how their child is doing. Having to actually turn something in causes them to stop and think about what really is happening at home with practice, and they appreciate being invited to share their opinion on what is going on. Of course, you have to be open to criticism and willing to reflect on your own teaching practices and expectations if this is to be a productive exercise! But I encourage you to do it.
Parents have a unique perspective on their children's progress. They are the ones who live with your student, enforce (or don't enforce) practice, pay for your lessons, and know the child in ways that you do not. Their comments can help you see what is happening “behind the scenes” and give you insight on what you might do to help improve or continue to encourage progress.
You're welcome to use the same feedback form that I use! You can find it here.
Be open to accepting feedback from others. It is easy to get defensive and think our way is best, but the mark of a good teacher is the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of students - and this requires a willingness to hear from others and evaluate what we are doing in light of their comments. You don't have to change everything because someone else doesn't like what you are doing, but you can consider changing or adapting things if another approach might be more successful for a particular student.
What are some other ways that you reflect on your teaching? Do you have another way to elicit parent feedback that is working for you? Let me know in the comments!
Keep up with my writing by subscribing to At Home with Classical Piano on Substack.