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This socio-cultural study investigated the assessment of group composing for
a secondary school qualification, and the implications such assessment might have for
teacher practice. It examines the validity of the contributions of group-composing
students and classroom music teachers to the common purposes of learning, teaching,
and assessment.
The...
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Citations
... I also had the intended outcome of creating an experience of learning music in a group, emphasising the creative and social aspects of music making, rather than focusing on improving technical aptitude. The process of analysing key features of informal musical genres or styles with the purpose of bringing this to an formal educational setting has been explored by other educational researchers working in pop music (Green, 2002) and collaborative composition (Thorpe, 2015). Thorpe describes this process as 'back-engineering pedagogy' (2015, p. 164), however it is important to appreciate that in both contexts; students were collaborating towards a piece of music that had to be recognisably in a style within the popular music genre. ...
... Contrastingly, in the free improvisation activity, my position as a teacher was to allow maximum freedom to the children which had the consequence of affecting the following discussion, which I will discuss further in the next section. In Thorpe's (2015) study, she applied Reinharz's (2011Reinharz's ( , 1997 concept of different research 'selves' into a music education context. These selves were described as research, brought and situational. ...
... Söyledikleri melodilerin ritmik kalıpları onları şaşırtmakta ve sekiz notanın değişik süre değerleri ve bunlardan oluşan ritim kalıplarıyla nasıl farklı şekillerde verilebildiğini fark etmelerine neden olmaktadır. Thorpe (2015) tarafından yapılan deneysel çalışmada katılımcılar, beste yapmanın çoğunlukla zor bir etkinlik olduğunu ve bir grup içinde beste yapmanın tek başına beste yapmaktan daha kolay olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Besteleme çalışmalarında genellikle grupla yaratma ortamı tercih edilmiştir. ...
... Kocabaş ve Erbil (2013), öğretmen adaylarıyla yaptıkları çalışmadan, işbirlikli öğrenme yöntemiyle yapılan dersin, öğrenciler açısından zevkli ve eğlenceli olduğu, birlikte çalışmayı ve öğrenmeyi sağladığı, aynı zamanda öğrenmeden de zevk aldıkları sonucunu elde etmişlerdir. Thorpe (2015) grup çalışmasının, bazı öğrenciler için yalnızca müzik öğrenerek bestelemeye veya yaratıcı sürece geçerli bir katkı sağlamadığını, aynı zamanda olumlu psikososyal sonuçlar elde edilmesi bakımından grup arkadaşlığı için de katkısı olduğunu belirtmektedir" (250-251). ...
... Principles from the work of educators in the 70s, such as accommodating children's needs and preferences or encouraging self-directed learning, are accepted as relevant for teaching young children today (Education Scotland, 2006 Thorpe, 2015 (p.164) approach in taking creative processes from an existing adult creative practice and repurposing for educational contexts, has also been seen in the work of Green (2002;, Stevens (2007) and Thorpe (2015). All of these methods are designed for secondary school pupils (Green and Thorpe) or teenagers and adults in a community music setting (Stevens). ...
... Researchers in pop music (Green, 2002) and collaborative composing (Thorpe, 2015) have analysed key features of informal musical genres or styles with the purpose of bringing them to a formal educational setting. Thorpe describes this process as 'back-engineering pedagogy' (ibid. ...
... Reflecting on my activity system reveals the complex roles, negotiations and inherent tensions in teaching improvisation. It also shows the process of 'pedagogical decisions in the moment' (Thorpe 2015) when teaching open-ended creative activities in a group. It has revealed a detailed account of the values, principles and process in the workshops and my position in them. ...
... Group composers communicate musically and gesturally as well as verbally and often an outside observer such as a classroom teacher may not be able to perceive what is happening (Thorpe, 2009). Group composers may not know what they are achieving nor have the appropriate vocabulary to explain to their teacher what they are doing, or plan to do (Thorpe, 2015). Groups of students may work together in ways that are more creative and productive than when working alone (Engeström, 2015;Wenger, 1998). ...
... The model is derived from earlier research into group composing in garage bands (Thorpe, 2008) and informed by the work of Fautley (2005Fautley ( , 2010, Webster (1990), Guildford, (1950, and Wallas (1926). Consistent with other research into group music making in contemporary styles (for example Biasutti, 2012;Campbell, 1995;Green, 2002Green, , 2008Jaffurs, 2004), group composing usually begins with a 'messy' phase when group composers jam together, looking for ideas upon which to base their composition (Thorpe, 2015). While this may look to an outside observer like the same activity as social jamming, the object is quite different. ...
... When we consider cost in relation to social jamming and NCEA group composing, it is in relation to how much engaging in one activity might limit another (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). To create a structured and coherent piece of music, composers must to move out of divergent creative processes into a more convergent, focused activities related to the final product (Thorpe, 2015). There is a social cost to doing this if hedonic enjoyment in social jamming is the only motivation. ...
The purpose of this article is to contribute to existing literature about how activity theory might be used in music education research. It draws from the author's doctoral action research into the assessment of group composing for New Zealand's secondary school qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). It outlines and explains how activity theory was used to examine three interacting activities: social jamming, group composing and achievement in the NCEA. Analysis revealed a relationship between students’ identities, their achievement in NCEA group composing, and socio-economic disparity.
... In order to give useful feedback, support the students' creative musical processes, and ultimately arrive at valid summative grades for each member of the group, the teacher requires an understanding and knowledge of the group's processes, stylistic ways of knowing and the multiple forms of authorship associated with contemporary music cultures (Burnard, 2012b;McPhail, 2014). To do this effectively, validly and safely, a shared understanding between teacher and students of relevant conceptual and stylistic knowledge related to their composing is a crucial aspect of pedagogy and assessment (Thorpe, 2015). Therefore, how both the teacher and the students perceive the creative processes in which they are engaged and the purposes for which they will be used, are crucial. ...
This article examines a unique music curriculum and assessment environment through the findings of a practical action research project carried out in secondary schools. I address two current international educational issues: the relationship between formal and informal learning in music, and how individuals’ contributions in collaborative groups might be summatively assessed. Following this I present a model of group composing and explain how it was used as a pedagogical tool in secondary music classrooms. The purpose of this was to help students and their teacher to conceptualise collaborative composing, thereby leading to a clearer understanding and more valid assessment of the processes in which they were engaged.
... In New Zealand, there has not been a dedicated curriculum-based programme such as Musical Futures, but the inclusion of students' personal music choices within the senior school assessment systems (in performance and group song writing, in particular) has meant more authentic practices associated with popular music have by design and default found their way into the classroom (McPhail, 2014b). Music teachers have been working with differentiated project-style programmes (often smaller senior classes make this easier to achieve) and group assessment for many years, aided by the choice provided by NCEA achievement standards (Thorpe, 2015) and choice within those standards in relation to student interest or pre-existing skill. Teachers also choose works of music for study that will connect with student interest. ...
Many ideas from the discourse of 21st-century learning are already present in much secondary school music teaching in New Zealand and have been for some time. The adoption of these ideas has resulted in many positive changes in students' experiences of music at secondary school. On the other hand, there have been some unintended consequences which are potentially less positive. The changes in music education therefore may be instructive for educators in a range of subject contexts in negotiating the tensions between different understandings of knowledge and pedagogy in the shift towards 21st-century learning. A case is made for finding a balance between music education's practical application and conceptual knowledge. There is a risk that in the drive for relevance, the subject has become less able to provide the grounding and conceptual depth necessary for access to the discipline's generative concepts.
... Within the world of popular music, composition and performance are very often integrated (Green, 2002). Recently, group composition has become an option in the NCEA to reflect this musical reality and Thorpe's doctoral work considers the new and multi-dimensional challenges for music teachers in incorporating collaborative composing into their programmes, particularly for learning how to effectively assess them (Thorpe, 2015). In her review of the literature she concludes that "the summative assessment of peer-mediated, non-written, practical or informal learning for qualification is highly problematic for teachers, requiring complex practice responses and sophisticated assessment knowledge. ...
... She found that, in some contexts, written feedback was virtually ignored by some students but, along with her teacher participants, she developed various visual/diagrammatic means to communicate progress with students. For the group composition context Thorpe (2015) developed a conceptual model that was shared with, and used by, students to assist them in assessing where they were in the process of composing in moving from 'the messy phase' of composing -unstructured, mucking around, jamming -to the 'focused phase' , where decisions are taken and the piece begins to take shape. One teacher in Thorpe's study noted that the model allowed the students to explain to him what they were doing (p. ...
