MU2522 Introduction to Music and Communities

Delivery Tuesday 1500-1700 Course Co- Christopher Gray chris.gray@abdn.ac.uk (CC)

Wk’s 25 - 35 (Week 30 Reading Week) ordinator/Teaching Chris Aldred chris.aldred@abdn.ac.uk
MR317 Pauline Black pauline.black@abdn.ac.uk
Staff

Level Second Credit points 15

Pre-requisite N/A Co-requisite N/A Status Compulsory

Content Learning Outcomes

MU2522 The Emerging Musical Practitioner is open to, and
relevant for any musician who would like to explore wider
vocational options in music; whether as a composer, educator
(formal or informal), musicologist or performer. This course has a
particular focus on the roles of Educator and Community Musician
and is a pre-requisite for the BMus (Hons) Community Music
programme.
 Identifying how the Educator and/or Community Musician applies a defined
range of musical skills in a breadth of community and educational settings.
 Demonstrate a knowledge of the scope, defining features, and main areas
of the subject as well as an awareness and understanding of some of its
major current issues and specialisms.
 Apply knowledge, skills and understanding in carrying out routine lines of
enquiry, development or investigation into professional level problems and
issues.
 Use a range of approaches to formulate and critically evaluate evidence-
based solutions/responses to defined and/or routine problems and issues.
 Practice in ways that show awareness of own and others’ roles and
responsibilities and contributions when carrying out and evaluating tasks.
 Manage, under guidance, ethical and professional issues in accordance with
current professional and/or ethical codes of practice.
 The ability to articulate a working understanding of a defined range of
features in Education and Community Music Practice.

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19
 Assessment Assessment Guidance / Notes

You will be required to engage as an observer for a minimum of 15 hours, Stephen Brookfield in his 1995 publication Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher suggests
visiting at least 4 different community setting. The assignment will be that the path to discovering the worth of your teaching is through a process of critical
explored in full in weeks 26 and 27 of the Course. reflection.

Summative Assignment
Give a 15-minute presentation on one of your placement
experiences. Your presentation should use Brookfield’s Critical Lenses as
a framework for analysing your placement experiences and include
academic references where necessary, the following order is suggested
for your presentation:
Critically reflective teachers, for Brookfield, are excellent teachers who continually re-
evaluate and develop their personalised "authentic voice", a "pedagogic rectitude" that
reveals the "value and dignity" of the teacher's work "because now we know what it’s
worth" (46-7). Vigilant critical reflection delivers several bonuses: inspirational self-
assuredness, the regular achievement of teaching goals, and motivated, critically reflective
students.

 Introduction and assignment

 Overview of all placement experiences (the basics)
 Focused Placement
 Why did you choose this placement host for your
presentation? Who are they (the basics)? Tell us more
about them (community profile).
 Your observations using Brookfield’s Lenses
 Introduce your understanding of the Framework and
how you have used it
 Self lens
 Student lens
 Peer lens
 Literature lens
 Identify areas for your own professional
development (underpinned by Brookfield’s Critical Lenses
framework)

Your presentation will be assessed using the standard Music Department Brookfield, Stephen. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
Oral Presentation Assessment Criteria (MyAberdeen/resources for Music 1995)
Students/Programme Handbooks/Student Handbook/Section 8)

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19
 Modes of Learning This course will engage students in two Split of notational hours Lectures/Workshops: 20
distinct learning modes: Placement: 30
 Lectures/Workshops Personal Preparation and Study: 100
 Personal study Total: 150

Creating shared expectations of learning and teaching

Learning = building knowledge with other1

The teaching methodologies used within this course are based on educational concepts developed to enable students to secure ownership of both their learning and
their learning process, this can best articulated succinctly using the writing of Watkins (2006). He stipulates that:

From the stance ‘learning = building knowledge together with others’, a self-directed learner is seen to:
- Select from their environment appropriate resources they need for learning (peers, teachers, other resources);
- Generate with others motivation and goals;
- Promote and develop with others dialogue for learning;
- Interrelate learning from various contexts of their learning landscape.

Further reference can be made to the Kolb, Experiential Learning Cycle (http://cei.ust.hk/files/public/simplypsychology_kolb_learning_styles.pdf) which, as a principle,
underpins much of the session and activity planning for this course.

1
Watkins, C. Classrooms as Learning Communities: What’s in it for Schools? (Oxon: Routledge, 2006)

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19
 If you are interested in extending you reading in Learning Theories, the following two publications (available in the library) maybe of particular interest:

Bates, B., Learning theories simplified: and how to apply them in teaching (Croydon: Sage 2016)
Aubrey, K., Riley, A., Understanding and Using Educational Theories (India: Sage, 2016)

At level II students are expected to engage in their learning, and the learning process with a keen interest and commitment. It is therefore important that you
understand what is expected from you in regards to lectures, as outlined above, but also how you engage with the course topic through your personal study.

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19
 Individual Session Content
Wk Tutor Location Content
25 CA, PB, M317  Course introduction and overview of the assignment
CG  Setting class expectations and rules (Full Value Contract)
 What is education (the continuum from Formal to non-formal)?
o ECM and the blurred line between the E and the CM
 Discussion around concepts of in or through music and does a musical intervention have to be about
‘educating’?

26 CA, PB, M317  Placement learning

CG o Why placement?
o The terminology
 Including an introduction to Brookfield and his critical lenses
o The requirements (in relation to the assignment)
o Finding and engaging with placements
 Logistics, processes and procedures

27 CA, PB, M317  Building a community profile

CG o Desk research
 Doing it and critically understanding it
o Preparing for, and doing a community walk
 What is a poster presentation?

28 CA, PB, M317  Community Walk, Poster presentation

CG

29 CA, PB, M317  Using art as a stimulus for composition in community settings (exploring character, place and space)
CG o Using the paintings of L.S. Lowry

30 READING WEEK
31 CA, PB, M317  Music in schools
CG

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19
 32 CA, PB, M317  Music in schools
CG
33 CA, PB, M317  Class Check-in; how is placement going and what issues are you encountering
CG  Creating a Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI),
 The why and the how and what preparation for discussion is required

34 CA, PB, M317  CoPI discussion

CG  Incompetent parents who continue to reproduce should be sterilised.

35 CA, PB, M317  Where are we now, what have we learnt and what could come next?
CG

Reading

Reading (directed and provided by the lecturing team):

Booth, E., The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009)
Boud, D., Cohen, R., Sampson, J., Peer learning in Higher Education: Learning from and with each other (London: Kogan Page, 2001
Higgins, L., Willingham, L., Engaging in Community Music An Introduction (Great Britain: Routledge, 2017)
Kenny, A., Communities of Musical Practice (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2017)
O'Neill, S., 'The self-identity of young musicians' in Macdonald, R., (ed.), Musical Identities (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
Small, C., Musicking (Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1998)
Watkins, C., Classrooms as Learning Communities (Oxon: Routledge, 2005)

You should also become aware of the following journals (available through PRIMO):
IJME – International Journal of Music Education
IJCM – International Journal of Community Music

Websites:
Soundsense - https://www.soundsense.org
CLD Standards Council Scotland - http://cldstandardscouncil.org.uk

MU2528 The Emerging Musical Practitioner (1819 Course Descriptor) Amended 13th January ’19