Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-h6jzd Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-03-01T19:25:20.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Student-centred strategies for higher music education: using peer-to-peer critique and practice as research methodologies to train conservatoire musicians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2022

Jacob Thompson-Bell Open the ORCID record for Jacob Thompson-Bell [Opens in a new window]
Jacob Thompson-Bell*
Affiliation:
Leeds Conservatoire, 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7PD
*
Email: j.thompson-bell@lcm.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents some arguments in favour of a student-centred learning and teaching approach for higher music education (HME), with specific reference to conservatoire settings in the United Kingdom. In support of student-centred pedagogy, theoretical modelling is undertaken to offer a model of motivation accounting for both individual and group learning environments, thus drawing together diverse pedagogical research into learner “self-efficacy,” “distributive” classroom agency and partnership models of learning and teaching. Based on the author’s own teaching practice with MA Music students at Leeds Conservatoire, two student-centred classroom strategies are outlined: Critical Response Process (CRP) and practice as research. These strategies are evaluated via theoretical and, in the case of CRP, primary research data from a questionnaire presented to MA Music students reflecting on their experience. Finally, an overarching student-centred framework for HME course design is proposed, cross-mapping different learning activities, knowledge paradigms and forms of motivation based on the previous discussion.

Keywords

student-centred learningresearch-based teachingdistributive pedagogiesconservatoire educationCritical Response Processpractice as researchcurriculum design
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 20 - 33
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ANON. (2019). REF 2019/01 Guidance on Submissions. Research Excellence Framework. https://ref.ac.uk/publications/guidance-on-submissions-201901/. Accessed 5 August 2021.Google Scholar
BAYLEY, A. (2016). Trans-forming higher education. Performance Research, 21(6), 44–49. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2016.1240930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BAYLEY, A. (2018). Posthumanism, decoloniality and re-imagining pedagogy. Parallax, 24(3), 243–253. doi: 10.1080/13534645.2018.1496576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BENNETT, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter. Durham and London: Duke University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv111jh6w.Google Scholar
BLAIN, M. (2016). Practice-as-research: a method for articulating creativity for practitioner-researchers. In Haddon, E. & Burnard, P. (eds.), Creative Teaching for Creative Learning in Higher Music Education (pp. 78–92). Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
BOLTON, G., & DELDERFIELD, R. (2018). Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development (5th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
CLARK, L. (2018). Research-based education: engaging staff and students in praxis. In Shaping Higher Education with Students (pp. 87–96). UCL Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt21c4tcm.16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FRANESELLA, F. (2005). The Essential Practitioner’s Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology (p. 312). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
HARRIS, L. (2016). Thinking, making, doing: perspectives on practice-based, research-led teaching in higher music education. In Haddon, E. & Burnard, P. (eds.), Creative Teaching for Creative Learning in Higher Music Education (pp. 65–68). Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HASEMAN, B. (2006). A manifesto for performative research. Media International Australia, 118(1), 98–106. doi: 10.1177/1329878X0611800113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HEALEY, M., FLINT, A., & HARRINGTON, K. (2014). Engagement through Partnership: Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. HEA.Google Scholar
HOOD, E. J., & KRAEHE, A. M. (2017). Creative matter: new materialism in art education research, teaching, and learning. Art Education, 70(2), 32–38. doi: 10.1080/00043125.2017.1274196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JAMES, A. (2017). Connecting research, enquiry and communities in the creative curriculum. In Carnell, B. & Fung, D. (eds.), Developing the Higher Education Curriculum (pp. 160–172). London: UCL Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt1xhr542.17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAND, S., HANNAFIN, M., & OLIVER, K. (2012). Student-centered learning environments: foundations, assumptions and design. In Land, S. & Jonassen, D. (eds), Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments (2nd ed., pp. 3–26). New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LERMAN, L., & BORSTEL, J. (2003). Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything you Make, from Dance to Dessert. Takoma Park, MD: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.Google Scholar
MIKSZA, P. (2011). A review of research on practicing: summary and synthesis of the extant research with implications for a new theoretical orientation. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 190, 51–92. doi: 10.5406/bulcouresmusedu.190.0051.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MORLEY, D. A., & JAMIL, G. (2021). Applied Pedagogies for Higher Education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-46951-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NELSON, R. (2006). Practice-as-research and the problem of knowledge. Performance Research, 11(4), 105–116. doi: 10.1080/13528160701363556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NELSON, R. (Ed) (2013). Practice as Research in the Arts: Principles, Protocols, Pedagogies, Resistances. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/9781137282910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NERLAND, M. (2018). Beyond policy: conceptualising student-centred environments in higher (music) education. AEC & CEMPE Platform for Learning & Teaching 2018: Becoming Musicians: Student Involvement & Teacher Collaboration in Higher Music Education. Norwegian National Academy of Music, Oslo, 24-26 October 2018.Google Scholar
RITCHIE, L. (2012). Music, research and self-efficacy in higher education. In Miller, A., Sharp, J., & Strong, J. (eds.), What is Research-led Teaching? Multi-disciplinary Perspectives (pp. 38–45). CREST.Google Scholar
SMITH, H., & DEAN, R. T. (2009). Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TONG, V. C. H., STANDEN, A., & SOTIRIOU, M. (2018). Shaping Higher Education with Students. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt21c4tcm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar