Vurderingskriterier i utøvende musikk – et verktøy for pålitelig vurdering av studentenes bachelorkonsert?

At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Music (IMU), new assessment guidelines were implemented during spring 2019, which had consequences for the assessment of bachelor concerts. The assessment guidelines offered two substantial new tools for external examiner use in summative assessment: They contained predefined assessment criteria and mark descriptions adapted to the expected learning outcome on the main instrument. In this chapter, I attempt to find out how the new tools function in practice and whether they clarify the task for the external examiners and increase transparency. A focus group interview with six examiners who used the guidelines at IMU is used to shed light on different aspects of the summative assessment. Sadler’s theory of qualitative assessment and the twin concepts of holistic and analytic assessment are used as a basis for my discussion.

Dilemmaer i skandinavisk korlederutdanning

Within higher education, programmes in choral conducting are offered of varying kinds and at different levels, from dedicated programmes to single courses that are embedded in other music programmes. The choral practice field is varied; choral leadership is partly a generic music competence and partly a profession. The variety and social reach of the choral movement suggest that the educational offering in choral conducting should be manifold in type and quantity in order to supply the practice field with qualified conductors. n this chapter we take a renewed look at material from three previous studies: (1) a mapping of Scandinavian choral leader education, based on document analysis and interviews with tutors and newly graduated conductors; (2) a quantitative survey on choral conducting competencies, where more than 600 conductors in Norway, Sweden, and Germany participated; and (3) an interview study of twenty Norwegian choral conductors on their professional careers. Although the findings from these studies were salient enough, the implications for choral conducting education were not equally clear. The point of departure for this chapter is that this is due to a series of difficult trade-offs, and we ask the question: What dilemmas do we face when educating choral conductors, and how might we understand these in light of the composite data? The material is analysed by drawing on established pedagogic categories, Wenger’s theory of communities of practice (1998), Jansson’s competence model for choral conductors (2018), and Varvarigou and Durrant’s discussion framework for choral conducting (2011).

Experiences and Perceptions of Multiculturality, Diversity, Whiteness and White Privilege in Music Teacher Education in Mid-Norway – Contributions to Excluding Structures

This article focuses on how staff in musical teacher education institutions experience and perceive the terms multiculturality, diversity, whiteness and white privilege, and how this might contribute to excluding structures. The author suggests through a post-qualitative rhizomatic analysis some ways through which excluding structures might be maintained, some touchpoints between different fields of practice, and some marginal practices with enough power to create alternative norms. The author also suggests some points of immanence, what can be seen as remaining within (unspoken of) the practices and a list of possible excluding practices and/or possible consequences for the marginalized groups.

Er jeg musikalsk? Barnehagelærerstudenters oppfatning av egen musikalitet

This article presents results from a quantitative study of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) student teacher’s relationship to music and musicality. Survey data was collected among first-year students at a university college for ECEC at the start of studies in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. The survey consists in its entirety of ten different questions. This article discusses four questions from the survey that deal with the students’ perception of their own musicality and what it means to be musical. 1,019 responses have been registered, which gives a response rate of approximately 91% of the total number of students in the four study years the survey was conducted. Frequency analyzes and cross-table analyzes have been performed. Results show that perceptions of one’s own musicality can be put in context with different understandings of what it means to be musical. Musical activity in close family in childhood is important when it comes to musical interest and perception of one’s own musicality. The article discusses the significance of the results in relation to music teaching in higher education.

Organ Teaching for Children in Norway: An Educational Field in Development

Teaching children how to play the pipe organ represents a radical revision of a well-established instrumental education field. This article provides an overview of organised teaching praxis in teaching children to play the organ, established in Norway in the early 2000s. Commentary on the limited previous research in organ teaching for children is provided, and based upon the findings in these studies and on praxis experience, areas which necessitate further research are identified. The practical teaching experience of the author provides a frame of reference throughout. Selected instrumental teaching studies related to teaching philosophies, motivation and organisational frameworks, as well as teaching materials (textbooks) are also included in the discussion. These aid in identifying areas in which potential and existing tensions in perceptions and methodologies call for study, evaluation and revision. The primary aim of this article is thus to identify and map the educational field’s structural parameters (organ schools) and praxis in Norway, and identify areas where further research is required, in order to understand how childhood introduction to organ playing may inform organ education and the organist profession in general.

A Mozart Concert or Three Simple Chords? Limits for Approval in Admission Tests for Swedish Specialist Music Teacher Education

Against the background of problems with unarticulated concepts of quality and assessment criteria when assessing music, this article concerns how the limit for approval is constructed and legitimised by jurors when assessing entrance auditions to Swedish specialist music teacher education. The data comprise video documented auditions, focus group conversations, and stimulated-recall based interviews, involving jury members at four music education departments. Social semiotic theory is used to study how jurors assess applicants’ knowledge representations in main instrument tests, what is considered decisive for an approval, and how this set limit is legitimised. Four approaches have been constructed: the demanding education and profession, the supposed capacity of the applicant, the flexible admission situation, and the care of the applicant. What is considered to be the minimum requirement for approval in these constructions differs markedly, which shows a striking difference between the views of jurors within and between institutions on how the applicants’ musical performances on a main instrument should be assessed. These findings are discussed in relation to two possible scenarios of revised admission tests.

Can We Buy Virtue? Implications from State University Funding On Musical Instrument Performance Teacher Mandate

Recent world developments have put a strain on the humanities in general, and higher education music performance study degree-programmes in particular. In an educational system currently promoting consumer-product relationships where the music performance teacher is very much accountable for the students’ development into professional musicians and, recently, also sustainable world citizens, we must give more attention to what, whom and why we educate? This chapter is an armchair analytical philosophical continuation of a paper published elsewhere (Rolfhamre, 2020). Taking the lead from Julia Annas’ (2011) virtue-as-skill, I will, here, elaborate on what implications the Norwegian state higher education funding system may have on the higher education music performance teacher’s perceived mandate from the perspectives of music pedagogy, rhetoric and virtue ethics. First, I pursue three different usages of the verb “to buy” to exemplify why I find the chapter’s title to be relevant and valid. This sets the premises for the following turn to rhetoric to highlight the starting point’s persuasive functions and incentives. Subsequently, I briefly relate the argument to Butlerian performativity to emphasise its relation to normativity, inclusion-exclusion and the theoretical possibility of “breaking free”. From this position, I draw on Aristotelian phronesis, mainly through the position held by Hansen (2007) to sketch up an ecology in which I ask how this all affects the teacher’s mandate?

The Craftsmanship that Disappeared? Investigating the Role of the Principal Instrument in Music Teacher Education Programs

This chapter investigates the role of the principal instrument in music teacher education programs that qualify people to teach music in Norwegian compulsory schools. The data material for the study is the mapping of 12 music teacher education institutions and the reflection notes from six music teacher educators. The theoretical premises for the paper are Aristotle’s concept of techné and Fullan’s description of deep learning. Techné concerns both technical skills and artistic sensitivity, and this combination provides a framework in which to discuss the educators’ reflections about the principal instrument in music teacher education in relation to deep learning, which entails commitment, perseverance, and the learner as a whole human being. This chapter leans on previous studies on music teacher education and the new curriculum for Norwegian compulsory schools, and the concluding remarks point to new perspectives that are needed to evolve music teacher education, concerning both the subject of music and what skills and types of knowledge music teachers should ideally have.

Music Teachers’ and Administrators’ Perspectives on Entrepreneurship in Norwegian Higher Music Education: An Exploratory Pilot Study

Arts entrepreneurship education has been increasingly offered in Norwegian Higher Music Education (HME) since 2011 (Watne & Nymoen, 2017). I argue that a teacher’s perspective and definition of entrepreneurship influences how they teach the subject. Using a qualitative content analysis approach (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008; Mayring, 2000), this article explores a small (n=37) pilot survey of administrators and teachers from four institutes of HME in Norway. In addition to mapping respondents’ definitions of entrepreneurship to the most influential definitions of entrepreneurship from the literature, I explore their perceptions of the need for entrepreneurship in HME and their prescriptive changes for entrepreneurship education’s integration into the curriculum. Respondents most commonly defined entrepreneurship in the “opportunity creation, recognition, and exploitation” sense, with definitions related to “self-employment” and “innovation” being the second and third most common response, respectively. 95% of respondents perceive a need for entrepreneurship education in HME. Prescribing curricular changes, 57% of respondents see a need for a more market oriented and entrepreneurial focus in the current curriculum to “some extent”, 19% to a “large extent”, 16% to “a little extent”, and 8% to a “very little extent.” Rationale for such changes is further analyzed using Bridgstock’s (2013) typology of arts entrepreneurship pedagogical approaches. I conclude by guiding educators and readers to existing knowledge and tools in the literature as they relate to each arts entrepreneurship pedagogical approach – an organization of knowledge that is important given the field’s diversity of perspectives and the power an educator has in the subject’s implementation.

Evaluering av konsertformidling i høyere utdanning

This chapter is based on an examination of the subject Dissemination and Concert Production, which is part of the bachelor program for music teacher education at Nord University, Levanger. The authors highlight challenges and opportunities that this subject gives for teachers and students, with particular focus on how to assess a subject that is about creating and presenting concert productions. The Danish model “ønskekvistmodellen” (ØM) is employed as an analysis and evaluation tool to examine the students work with improving the quality of creating, performing and evaluating various concert productions in the years 2017–2019. Data material for the chapter consists of surveys, group interviews and video observation, as well as written reports from the student’s participation at music and art festival (Vrimmel-festivalen) in the northern part of Mid-Norway.