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| 2. |
- Ferm-Almqvist, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
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Assessment as learning in music education : The risk of "criteria compliance" replacing "learning" in the Scandinavian countries
- 2017
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In: Research Studies in Music Education. - : Sage Publications. - 1321-103X .- 1834-5530. ; 39:1, s. 3-18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent reforms in England and the USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice, and public display of schools' and pupils' performances. Educational activities in the Scandinavian countries have increasingly become dominated by obligations regarding assessment and grading. A common thread is the demand for equal and just assessment and grading through clear criteria and transparent processes. Torrance states that clarity in assessment procedures, processes, and criteria has underpinned widespread use of coaching, practice, and provision of formative feedback to boost achievement, but that such transparency encourages instrumentalism. He concludes that the practice of assessment has moved from assessment of learning, through assessment for learning, to assessment as learning, with "assessment procedures and practices coming completely to dominate the learning experience" and "criteria compliance" replacing "learning". Thus, formative assessment, in spite of its proven educational potential, threatens to be deformative. In this article we will explore to what extent and how this development is visible in two cases, presenting music education in one Norwegian and one Swedish compulsory school setting. Three thematic threads run through this exploration: quality, power, and instrumentalism.
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| 3. |
- Ferm, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
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Assessment as learning in music education : The risk of ‘criteria compliance’ replacing ’learning’ in the Scandinavian countries
- 2014
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Assessment as learning in music education - the risk of ‘criteria compliance’ replacing ’learning’ in the Scandinavian countriesRecent reforms in England and USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice and public display of schools’ and pupils’ performances. Educational activities in the Scandinavian countries have increasingly become dominated by obligations regarding assessment and grading. A common thread is the demand for equal and just assessment and grading through clear criteria and transparent processes. Torrance (2007) states that clarity in assessment procedures, processes and criteria has underpinned widespread use of coaching, practice and provision of formative feedback to boost achievement, but that such transparency encourages instrumentalism. He concludes that the practice of assessment has moved from assessment of learning, through assessment for learning, to assessment as learning, with assessment procedures and practices coming completely to dominate the learning experience and ‘criteria compliance’ replacing ‘learning’. Thus, formative assessment, in spite of its proven educational potential, threatens to be deformative (Torrance, 2012). In the symposium we will explore to what extent and how this development is visible from four perspectives. Four examples of assessment investigation of dance and music education in primary, lower and upper secondary schools will function as entrances to the dilemma.The symposium will start with an introduction of assessments demands in general and in the Scandinavian countries specifically, ending up in the theories of Torrance, and the risk of assessment as learning or even. Thereafter the following perspectives and settings will be described.Professionalism in Action – Music Teachers on an Assessment JourneyIf assessment practices within education have led, as Torrance (2007) claims, to instrumentalism in the form of “assessment as learning [and] criteria compliance” (p. 281-282), how can teachers and researchers reclaim the exploratory notions of (music) education? In an ongoing collaborate Research and Development and Participatory Action Research project, a group of Swedish upper secondary school music teachers together with a researcher investigates issues regarding assessment, for instance why equality is not spelled “exactly the same thing” and how teachers balance professionalism with accountability. Demands on documentation of dance knowledge in upper secondary schools in Sweden – how does that processing assessment practice?In the syllabuses from Gy11, expressed dance performance can be seen as an embodied action. Though, students and teachers are asked to evaluate themselves and fill out a written rubric in the same way as all other subjects at studied upper secondary schools. The focus on criteria-referenced feedback can have coherence to assessment as learning instead of assessment for learning. Based on observations, conversations and written reflections teachers are expressing the insufficiency with the rubric in combination to dance. How is the demand on documentation processing the assessment practice? Through a study of grading conversation teachers´ conception of qualities are illuminated. What is the base for what is assessed and communicated and how is that effect the teaching professionalism? What is prepossessing teachers´ conceptions of qualities?An outline of an understanding of assessment as didactical self-defence strategiesThe findings of Vinge (2014) indicate a clear tendency towards a systematic criterion based assessment practice in the compulsory music of subject in lower secondary schools in Norway. This change in practice follows the implementation of the latest curriculum reform (LK06, the knowledge reform), a curriculum reform initiated to enhance student learning within the frames of international competency comparison. Music teachers make use of new assessment principles and techniques designed to enhance student learning, associated with the so-called assessment for learning concept. However, the analysis indicates that these principles and techniques are being used mainly for grading purposes and settings – assessment of learning. All though teachers seem to face lots of difficulties in the construction of various assessment schemes; once adopted they seem to become important tools in the teachers’ strive for effectiveness and control. This poses a central question, which will be elaborated in this presentation: Who is assessment actually for? Is it for the students or the teacher? Teaching for learning or teaching for documentation: on the effects of a curriculum reformThe Swedish 2011 curricular reform brought considerable change to the school system. Among other changes, grading was to take place from school year 6 and not from year 8 and a new grading regime was introduced with more grades and more detailed criteria than in the preceding curricula. In this presentation, preliminary results from a survey among music teachers in Swedish compulsory school will be discussed. The survey is based on the findings in a qualitative study of music teachers’ perceptions of this reform (Zandén & Ferm, forthcoming) and aims at giving a representative picture of the effects of the reform on music education and music teachers’ professional situation. Finally Lauri Väkevä will draw lines between the different contributions, comment critically, and conclude with with a Finnish perspective.
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| 4. |
- Ferm, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
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Implementation of a new assessment system – consequences for teaching and learning of music in Swedish schools year 5-7
- 2013
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the last years several reforms have influenced the educational system in Sweden. A new curriculum for the compulsory school has offered teachers and pupils a totally new system for assessment. A new credit scale is constructed and all pupils will be graded already in the 6th grade, which means that new teacher groups will have to grade their pupils’ performances. The curriculum describes criteria in three qualitative levels for each subject by defining aspects of a holistic knowing and describing three levels of competence within each of these aspects. Clarity and transparency have been steering concepts in the formulation process in order to offer parents and pupils a better possibility to understand and influence education and assessment in schools. At the same time teachers are expected to make holistic assessments of the pupils’ acquired knowledge. In a subject as music, teachers’ subject knowledge and conceptions of quality can transcend what is currently possible for them to verbalize. In several other subjects written and spoken language constitute the primary media of communication. Musical knowledge though, can be expressed and experienced in sounding forms, a mode of expression which is not easily transduced into writing or speaking. Hence, high demands for verbal clarity in aims and assessment may result in essential parts of music being excluded from teaching and learning, based on a view that these aspects are too complicated to assess equally, or impossible to communicate verbally in a clear way. There is a risk that the new demands on clarity and transparency may reduce the subject to comprise only those aspects that can be easily measured and talked about. The current study aims to systematically and critically investigate in which ways the Swedish curriculum with its new assessment- and grading regime influences music teachers’ practice and their students’ musical learning in grade 5 to 7. Earlier research has generally stated that educational reforms take time to implement, but recent reforms in England and USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice and public display of schools’ and pupils’ performances. Music education could become an easy prey for such pressures, given that music teachers lack a tradition to accompany music with words and that musical assessment criteria often are perceived as subjective, as compared to objective measurables. The demand for clear and explicit criteria offers challenges, since differences between credit levels are expressed as assessable qualities and not measurable quantities. A forced verbalisation of these quality aspects may get consequences for music teachers’ evolving understanding of knowledge aspects, as well as for their experience of and qualitative evaluation of students’ musical achievements and expressions. The first phase of the study includes interviews with music teachers teaching in year 5-7 about changes in their teaching practices as well as their perceptions of the new demands in Lgr11. The second phase will be a survey, aiming to map the implementation scenario among Swedish music teach in the same years. The third and final part gets its inspiration from Engeström’s activity theory where structural and intentional contradictions are expected to have a key function for learning and development. In this phase the teachers’ as well as the students’ perspectives are focused through participant observation, interviews, and collegial conversations. The teachers define the problems found in practice, which are discussed among colleagues who together create strategies for further development. A model for general development work will be constructed through the project. By limiting the investigation to teachers who teach music in year 5-7 the study can claim to generate new knowledge concerning a group of teachers that have been neglected earlier. In the presentation at the conference we will present the study as a whole and also communicate some preliminary results from the first phase interview study.
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| 5. |
- Ferm Thorgersen, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
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Teaching for learning or teaching for documentation? : about music teachers' relations to syllabuses in Swedish compulsory schools year 5 to 7
- 2013
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the last years several reforms have influenced the educational system in Sweden. A new curriculum for the compulsory school has offered teachers and pupils a totally new system for assessment. A new credit scale is constructed and all pupils will be graded already in the 6th grade, which means that new teacher groups will have to grade their pupils’ performances. The curriculum describes criteria in three qualitative levels for each subject by defining aspects of a holistic knowing and describing three levels of competence within each of these aspects. Clarity and transparency have been steering concepts in the formulation process in order to offer parents and pupils a better possibility to understand and influence education and assessment in schools. At the same time teachers are expected to make holistic assessments of the pupils’ acquired knowledge. In a subject as music, teachers’ subject knowledge and conceptions of quality can transcend what is currently possible for them to verbalize. In several other subjects written and spoken language constitute the primary media of communication. Musical knowledge though, can be expressed and experienced in sounding forms, a mode of expression which is not easily transduced into writing or speaking. Hence, high demands for verbal clarity in aims and assessment may result in essential parts of music being excluded from teaching and learning, based on a view that these aspects are too complicated to assess equally, or impossible to communicate verbally in a clear way. There is a risk that the new demands on clarity and transparency may reduce the subject to comprise only those aspects that can be easily measured and talked about.The current study aims to systematically and critically investigate in which ways the Swedish curriculum with its new assessment- and grading regime influences music teachers’ practice and their students’ musical learning in grade 5 to 7. Earlier research has generally stated that educational reforms take time to implement, but recent reforms in England and USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice and public display of schools’ and pupils’ performances. Music education could become an easy prey for such pressures, given that music teachers lack a tradition to accompany music with words and that musical assessment criteria often are perceived as subjective, as compared to objective measurables. The demand for clear and explicit criteria offers challenges, since differences between credit levels are expressed as assessable qualities and not measurable quantities. A forced verbalisation of these quality aspects may get consequences for music teachers’ evolving understanding of knowledge aspects, as well as for their experience of and qualitative evaluation of students’ musical achievements and expressions. The first phase of the study includes interviews with music teachers teaching in year 5-7 about changes in their teaching practices as well as their perceptions of the new demands in Lgr11. The second phase will be a survey, aiming to map the implementation scenario among Swedish music teach in the same years. The third and final part gets its inspiration from Engeström’s activity theory where structural and intentional contradictions are expected to have a key function for learning and development. In this phase the teachers’ as well as the students’ perspectives are focused through participant observation, interviews, and collegial conversations. The teachers define the problems found in practice, which are discussed among colleagues who together create strategies for further development. A model for general development work will be constructed through the project. By limiting the investigation to teachers who teach music in year 5-7 the study can claim to generate new knowledge concerning a group of teachers that have been neglected earlier. In the presentation at the conference we will present the study as a whole and also communicate some preliminary results from the first phase interview study.
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| 6. |
- Fredriksson, Karolina, et al.
(author)
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Teaching and learning in music education – a meta-synthesis
- 2024
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In: Music Education Research. - 1461-3808 .- 1469-9893. ; 26:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reports a meta-synthesis of 14 qualitative studies on how teachers can support students’ musical learning. The aim of the article is twofold: to (1) contribute to empirically grounded knowledge in music education, and (2) advance the methodological development of meta-synthesis in qualitative research. All included studies have a common unit of analysis: teacher–student interaction. In the synthesis of the studies, four aspects emerged as crucial for students’ musical learning: (1) the framing of the teaching, (2) taking the learners’ perspectives, (3) teachers’ scaffolding strategies, and (4) representations of sounding music. Further, three pedagogical tensions were identified: (a) using local versus expansive language, (b) following the students’ or the teacher’s perspectives and interests, and (c) ways of approaching musical content through representations. The article also contributes to the methodological development of meta-synthesis by elaborating on how some of the challenges involved are tackled.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Leijonhufvud, Susanna, et al.
(author)
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On the developing of a Swedish national assessment support in music : context, commission, design, and possible outcome
- 2013
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sweden has adopted the principles of New Public Management by creating an educational market where private and public providers compete to attract school children and where the government is increasing its efforts to measure output and audit the providers. However, Sweden goes against the flow by emphasizing subject specific knowledge and skills instead of key competences. In an attempt to further natonal equivalence when it comes to education, assessment and marking, the Swedish National Agency for Education is issuing supporting kits in different subjects. We have been responsible for the design and production of the supporting kit in music for primary and lower secondary education. In this presentation, we will place this didactical material in a historical context, describe the process from commission to publication and discuss some of the considerations that have guided our work.
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| 10. |
- Lindgren, Monica, 1958, et al.
(author)
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Assessment and legitimation of entrance auditions to Swedish music teacher education
- 2019
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In: RIME 2019. Research in Music Education Conference, 23-26 April, Bath Spa University.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In Sweden, admission to higher education is gained primarily through either grade awarded in upper secondary school or SAT-tests. However, admittance to higher music education is restricted to those who pass specific tests of what is regarded as required musical knowledge and aptitude from the perspective of jurors at different universities. This can be seen as a challenge to democratic ideals of equal opportunities, especially since the Swedish government demands a broadened access to higher education. There are as yet only a few studies on the recruitment of prospective music teachers, and hence no firm ground for discussing neither their predictive value, reliability and validity of these tests, or the education and future profession of the applicants. In a three-year research project funded by the Swedish Research Council we are now studying entrance auditions to music teacher education in order to produce knowledge about assessment criteria, legitimacy claims, approaches to knowledge and quality as well as the tests’ relevance and reliability. Applicants’ performances during the tests have been video recorded, and these recordings have later been used as stimulus material to elicit assessments and reflections from the jurors, either in focus group discussions or through interviews. In the analysis, a multimodal social semiotic approach and the concept discourse is used in order to identify how the representations of quality and knowledge are articulated and legitimized. Although the design of the tests varies between institutions, music theory, ear training, ensemble playing and instrumental and vocal proficiency are customary content. Some tentative findings will be presented and discussed with regard to the study’s central questions of assessment and legitimization. The study generates new knowledge about admission to higher education, with special regard to procedure, transparency and relevance.
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