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That’s a great question, Grace. I had a conversation recently about this exact thing with Molly Gebrian, the UArizona viola prof who I think I probably reference a time or two in the course, and who has some great videos on YouTube that I think you’d enjoy if you haven’t already seen them. And I don’t know that we came to a real one-size-fits-all sort of consensus, as there can be some tricky individual differences between students to overcome.
Did the rubber duckie debugging help at all? I’d be curious to know if creating that extra bit of distance between the self and the strategy/technical adjustment helped at all with changing their emotional experience of practicing.
I’m guessing that you’re already familiar with Carol Dweck’s work on growth vs. fixed mindsets, but if not, that part of the course might be helpful (Mental Resilience – 2.0 – Your Mindset). It’s admittedly a bit more abstract, and a more direct application might be helping your students experiment with cultivating a more coach-like (vs. critic-like) inner voice in the Building Confidence – 1.2 – Coach & Critic lesson. The Becoming Fearless part of the course might also be a fun thing for students to try – especially the Becoming Fearless – 2.0 – Building Courage section. Especially the practice challenges #20 and #21.
Let me know if any of those sections seem to help with approaching challenges with more curiosity and play, and help to reduce some of the shame/etc. that can sometimes arise.
Noa
