Ask not what your students *should* do. Ask what they *do* do.

I was in high school marching band.  We won the Kentucky state title in my senior year.  Please hold your applause.

"I'll bet youall practiced a lot," you say.  Sure: we had summer band camps, and after-school practices equivalent to those of varsity athletic teams.

So, yes, the volume of practice time was certainly helpful to our success.  Nevertheless, we routinely defeated other bands who practiced similar hours.  How we practiced was as important as how much we practiced. 

Two questions to ask about our band director's pedagogy:

Question 1: Should voluntary participants in an elite high school ensemble, for which we were graded and earned academic credit, be expected to do independent, self-motivated practice?  Should band members come to rehearsal with their parts mastered, ready to work on fine tuning and advanced ensemble work?

Answer: Yes.

Question 1a: In actuality, out of 50 band members, how many dove into said independent, self-motivated practice?

Answer: Two.  On a good weekend.

Importantly, the band director didn't nag us about practicing our instruments on our own time.

Instead, he worked with us on difficult passages during rehearsals.  He showed us techniques that would help us improve.  So, using the regularly-scheduled rehearsal time alone, we got pretty good.  When he did need us to do some practicing outside of rehearsal time, he'd give specific goals -- "on Monday, you must be able to play measures 98-116.  I'll pick a couple of you randomly to play for all of us."  No nebulous and shaming "make sure you practice this weekend!" for us.

Question 2: Should the participants in the school's highest-level ensemble, one that expects to be competitive with the best bands in the state, have mastered basic skills prior to important mid-year rehearsals?  Should the participants retain training from practice to practice, from week to week, such that the director does not need to re-teach basic skills and already-taught elements of the competition show?

Answer: Sure.

Question 2a: In actuality, how well does the band retain skills and show content if they're not reinforced on a very regular basis after band camp ends?

Answer: Not well at all.

The band director didn't nag us about retaining skills.  He didn't complain that we should have learned these things by now.  Instead, he drilled us such that we didn't forget.

Every practice, all season, began with marching fundamentals - everyone in a block, at the command of the drum major performing a number of basic maneuvers, all the while the director and his assistants watched like hawks for uniformity of technique.  Then came the musical warm-up, reinforcing basic skills - perhaps today we did an exercise based on the E-flat scale, maybe tomorrow was a tuning/blending exercise, the next day rhythm or embouchure drills. 

This all took at least 30 minutes of a two to three hour practice.  And was worth every moment.  (It was, honestly, a bit drudgerous.  However, the first 30 minutes of practice became ritualistic, such that we felt a hole in our collective soul on those rare occasions when we didn't do fundamentals and warm-up.  I recall a couple of occasions when the upperclassmen practically demanded to start practice the "right way" when someone proposed to skip warm-ups.)

Next, we'd re-teach pieces of the competition show in small chunks on a regular basis.  By season's end, each segment of the show had been taught in the summer, then re-taught two to three times.

Physics teaching connections:  

(1) While students in an AP -- read "college level" -- class *should* be able and willing to put in many hours of engaged homework time each week, in practice they're not.  It's our job to design the course with expectations about out-of-class work which students can and will meet.  Then it's our job to find a way to use class time to develop physics skills such that students can make the best possible use of what time they do devote to out-of-class study.  We need to solve problems in-class.  We need to teach how *not* to ask for help fifteen seconds after reading a problem.  We need to teach how to start an unfamiliar problem, and how to collaborate with classmates to communicate understanding.  

(2) While students in an AP class *should* be able to retain basic facts and problem solving techniques from week to week; while elite-level students *should* come to our class with algebra skills; fact is, they don't.  It's our job to design the course to teach/reteach even things they should have already learned.  Give fundamentals quizzes.  Don't give unit tests, give cumulative tests.  Assign problems that require students to circle back to already-mastered material.  

Look, if you know anything about my classes, you know that I'm as far from a fluffy no-standards teacher as it's possible to be.  Yet teaching rigorous physics doesn't mean we have to expect monkish devotion from our students.  When we complain to our students or our colleagues about how the kids just aren't studying like they should, we alienate the audience.  Meet the class where they are, not where they should be, and everyone will be happier and more successful.  Yes, of course require the class to know and use appropriate skills as the year progresses... but continue to teach those skills in context, too, so that even those with weak backgrounds and minimal out-of-class devotion can eventually catch up.