From Reearch to Practice Wendy Sims, Reearch Chair
Social Comparison: Implications for Music Teachers by Laura Kitchel, University of Missouri-Columbia What is Social Comparison?
People have a drive to know their place in the world and evaluate their abilities and opinions. The American psychologist Leon Festinger proposed that when there is no objective, non-social means for evaluation, people will compare themselves to others (Festinger, 1954). This gave birth to the theory of social comparison, a premise that can have dramatic implications for music teachers who teach in a field where they are often evaluated subjectively, and which lacks definitive measures for their performances. Without the concrete standards of state and national testing that other teachers experience, many music teachers will look to each other to measure their own level of success or failure. Social comparison can lead to inspiration and motivation, but it can also create feelings of burnout and job dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is important that music teachers have a greater understanding of how social comparison works because it can have both positive and negative effects.
Benefits of Social Comparison
People socially compare on an upward, downward or lateral
winter 2016 |
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scale (Dikstra, Kuyper, van der Werf, Buunk, & van der Zee, 2008), meaning, they compare themselves to people that appear to be doing better, worse, or the same as they are. Each of these comparisons has powerful emotional and cognitive consequences. For example, when teachers compare themselves to colleagues they perceive to be doing better than they are (upward comparison), they can feel like it is possible to attain the characteristics of the other teacher and be inspired to do better and work harder (Van Yperen, Brenninkmeijer, & Buunk, 2006). In a study of high school agriculture teachers (similar to music teachers because of their many after-school commitments, competitions, and conferences), teachers that used upward social comparison felt inspired by others and good about their job (Kitchel, Smith, Henry, Robinson, Lawver, Park, & Schell, 2012). Authors of these studies found that social comparison had a positive effect, allowing teachers to be inspired and giving them a model for what they could achieve in the future. This positive effect also could be due to the fact that using social comparison to evaluate performance has been tied to sustaining intrinsic motivation (Mumm & Mutlu, 2011).
There are many examples of how positive upward comparisons can occur in music education—a healthy relationship between a student teacher and cooperating teacher, for instance. The experienced teacher can model excellent teaching and the student teacher can use upward comparison to be inspired about what kind of teacher she could be in the future.
Conferences are another great place where teachers can find encouragement through upward social comparison. Looking up to teachers that are more experienced or creative for new ideas can give teachers motivation to try new rehearsal techniques or literature. Listening to different ensembles can provide new sound models and help teachers think about ways to improve the quality of their own group. Engaging in positive upward comparisons can be uplifting, and many teachers walk away from state conferences feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
District meetings might be another place where teachers can engage in healthy upward comparisons. These meetings can lead to discussions regarding curriculum, programing, and
See KITCHEL, pg. 28 27
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