Supervision of independent projects in music in higher education

• Since the Bologna Declaration in 1999, the independent project on the undergraduate level, also called bachelor essay or degree project, and the independent project on masters level has a special role in ensuring and maintaining the relevant learning outcomes. Our preconceptions in this paper is that most of the higher education institutions in Sweden are in a similar position concerning student’s independent projects: the independent projects in music needs to be more influenced by current research and needs, on the basis of such research, to be further developed. The purpose of this paper and conference presentation is to highlight different aspects of the independent project in higher education in music, to report experiences from a national conference on independent projects in music and to present some theoretical suggestions for future development. This is a work in progress.At the national conference on independent projects in music, 13 to 14 October, 2016 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, many different aspects were discussed such as, supervision strategies and qualification requirements for supervisors, the size and scope of independent projects, different forms for examination as well as the balance between formality in education and students' artistic ambitions. A challenge for higher education is that there are different possible models for how the independent projects can be performed by the students according to their own aspirations, wishes and requirements as well as different offered conditions at different institutions. Our analysis shows that the learning outcomes seem to have been interpreted in a similar way in various Swedish higher music institutions. But on the other hand the evaluation criteria’s are less discussed and usually not explicitly expressed.The supervision of students’ independent projects may, obviously or not, have a most significant impact on both the students’ performance and the quality of their projects. However, our analysis shows that there is a big difference between how the independent project is carried out by different students and also big differences in how the supervision is designed and performed in different study programs and at different institutions. Thus there’s a big difference between, for example, solo projects for violin at an institution for classical music or song writing at an institution for music production, even if they are at the same college or university. But regardless of what orientation the individual students have on their independent projects, all institutions that participated in the national conference on independent projects in music reported that they have organized regular supervision during the students’ independent projects. It was also found that it is rather the exception than the rule that the supervisors have received special training in supervision. Likewise, the awareness among the supervisors of the latest current research and literature on tutoring was almost non-existing. Therefore, the National Conference agreed that a national coordination for on-going professional development for tutors and discussion on supervision issues should be arranged.The framework for this article is based on a socio-cultural and dialogical perspective, which proposes that learning and understanding develop in context through interaction and dialogue (see e.g. Bachtin 1981; Vygotskij, 2001). Independence, as in the independent project, is thus something that can be explored in interactions of different kinds. Literacies are seen as social practices where epistemologies and identities are crucial.In this project we aim to develop a model for supervision in music based on Mick Heeley’s model Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (Healey & Jenkins 2009, 7; Healey, 2005, 70). Healey’s model uses two dimensions where the first dimension is a stress field with emphasis on research content versus emphasis on research processes and problems in the outer positions. The second stress field has outer positions where the students either are participants or audience. As a result the curriculum design is described in the model in four different positions, firstly: the research- tutored: engaged in research discussions; secondly: the research-based: undertaking research and inquiry; thirdly: the research-led: learning about current research in the discipline, and fourth: the research-oriented: developing research and inquiry skills and techniques. As a result we expect that a model for supervision in music based on Healey’s model may work as a bridge between the polarisation of research based on either scholarship or artistic practice. This is a work in progress and we look forward to present our preliminary results and discuss suggestions for future development.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

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