The Art of Layered Teaching

Developed by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), ZPD or the principle of the zone of proximal development suggests that a child learns to extend his or her own capabilities further when placed in a social setting witha “more knowledgeable other” (Yasnitsky 2018) than they would on his or her own. American psychologist James Bruner would later expand Vygotsky’s idea into that which we know today as educational scaffolding: the way the adult guides the child’s learning via focused questions and positive interactions (Balaban 1995).

While both Bruner and Vygotsky developed this idea with psychology in mind, the philosophy is easily transferrable to the teaching of a stringed instrument. Beyond the obvious example of the private studio lesson, we see it in orchestra classes when a weaker player is paired with a stronger player, or in more established string education programs where practice buddies or mentors help less advanced students.

Figure 1: Layered Teaching

Teachers of string instruments often rely upon hands-on corrections and instructions to facilitate learning. This comes as no surprise as all string instruments—bowed or plucked—require various degrees of bilateral integration,
or the ability for two sides of the body to perform different actions simultaneously (Toyka and Freund 2006). With the work of Klaus et al. as a starting point, I have found that the purposeful breakdown of complex skills into layered and sided development followed by meaningful approaches to bilateral integration yields better technical facility and faster progress when working in a web-based teaching environment.

By addressing different sides of the body in a methodical sequence (see Figure 1), students are better able to manage the development of complex physical, aural, integrated, and coordination-based skills.

This method is a closely related variation on/expansion of Vygotsky’s idea of the Zone of Proximal Development and Bruner’s principal of Scaffolding as it is dependent on the teacher limiting the difficulty of each potential step. As such, each layer of the process must consist of only one skill element—the ability to hear, feel, see, integrate, coordinate, and so on, or a sub-section thereof. It is worth noting that there are multiple possible subsections of each skill classification as outlined in Figure 1; for example, the actions of both the right shoulder and deltoid muscle of a violinist’s bow arm would fall into the category of “gross motor” of skills, but the particular movements of each would need to be broken down and taught as separate layers of the gross motor development phase of the process.

Figure 2: Vygotsky’s Zones of Proximal Development

Each layer must start from a point of comfort and manageability for the student in an effort to ensure confidence and success in the absence of a teacher’s skillful hands to offer correction. Progress is made by layering one skill set or sub-set on top of the next, stretching the student’s abilities from a place of impossibility to a place of automation (see Figure 2) as they progress through each layer. Once both sides of the body have been methodically developed, it is time to actively engage in the process of coordination and bilateral integration.