Collaborative Learning in Higher Music Education

In this volume, which is part of the SEMPRE (Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research) series in the psychology of music, Gaunt (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK) and Westerlund (music education, jazz, and folk music, Sibelius Academy, Finland) compile 23 essays by musicians and music, education, and other scholars from Europe, Australia, and the US, who look at a unique and neglected topic: collaborative learning in higher music education. They note that knowledge transmission in music is assumed to take place in a master-apprentice setting, even though music-making is highly collaborative, and draw on educational research and practice-based research in music conservatories and universities to discuss its theoretical foundations and share examples of collaborative learning in the broad terms of intercultural, interartistic, and interdisciplinary collaboration; collaboration between novice and experts, students and teachers, or colleagues; and between learners from different musical genres, peers, students and researchers and faculty, and students, performers, and audiences. They discuss topics such as online learning, the ethics of collaboration, learning community design, aural training, master classes, one-on-one settings, assessment, popular music, social justice and democracy in music training in Africa, group studies, and co-teaching. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Helena Gaunt is the Assistant Principal (Research and Academic Development) at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, and a National Teaching Fellow (2009). Her current research focuses on one-to-one and small group tuition in conservatoires, orchestral musicians in the twenty-first century, and the role of improvisation (verbal and musical) in developing professional expertise. She is an Associate of the Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, co-editor of Music Performance Research, and a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Music Education. She chaired the Forum for Instrumental/Vocal Teaching for the International Society of Music Education from 2010 to 2012, and co-directs the Innovative Conservatoire, an international project dedicated to developing reflective practice, research and innovation in the conservatoire sector. Heidi Westerlund is Professor and Vice Director of the Doctoral School of Music Education, Jazz and Folk Music at the Sibelius Academy, Finland. Her research focuses on the theory and practice of cultural diversity, popular culture and democracy in music education as well as of teaching and learning in higher music education. She has published widely in international and national journals and has written numerous book chapters. She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Music Education, the British Journal of Music Education and Music Performance Research, and she is the editor of the Finnish Journal of Music Education. Heidi has served in the leadership of national and international organizations, such as the International Society for Philosophy of Music Education, and has organized several international conferences.