Sara McCall, music graduate student, recently returned from a six-week stay in Ghana, where she studied the teaching techniques used at the Dagbe Cultural Institute in Kopeyia. McCall said she hopes to use what she learned there in classrooms here.One of the techniques used at the institute is teaching by doing.”Their teaching style is very quick,” McCall said. “Sometimes the teachers would demonstrate a part, we would perform it together and then go right into something else. You had to really pay attention.”The teaching style is also characterized by repetition. One of the videos McCall shared in her presentation showed her learning a traditional song called “Gahu.” The teacher would sing a line and have McCall repeat it until she got it right. McCall studied the techniques by participating in classes and learning along with students. The center teaches traditional African music, art and crafts to anyone willing to learn and was founded in 1962 by traditional music master Godwin Agbeli. McCall said she has always been interested in African music because she loves the unusual sound.”My advisers always encouraged my interest in African music,” McCall said. McCall’s undergraduate degree is in vocal music education. She said she wanted to be a middle or high school chorus director when she first started at the University. “I decided later that I wanted to teach elementary school, but I didn’t think that I would get the opportunity to do research in Africa,” McCall said.Along with music and dance, McCall also learned batik, a traditional African craft where cloth is stamped with wax then dyed.”I did a lot of batik pieces,” McCall said. “It’s a very methodical and precise process. It was a nice break after listening to drums all day.” Even though she stayed in a rural village, McCall had one link to the outside world — a cell phone.”Everyone is in love with their cell phones there,” McCall said. “Everyone has one, always charged and always with minutes.”McCall said there was also an Internet café, but the service was unreliable.”It was a 30-minute walk from the village,” McCall said. “And sometimes the power would go out randomly. If that happened, you lost your money.”McCall said her favorite part of the trip was the people.”The culture is very welcoming,” McCall said. “Everyone wanted to make sure that I was comfortable and that I felt at home.” —-Contact Mandy Francois at [email protected]