Royal Holloway is home to one of the forefront research-led music departments in the UK.[1] This post deals with identified prevalent trends in higher education curricula, specifically in music, and the extent to which this has influenced my teaching experience.
Paul Kleiman, in a chapter entitled ‘Dance, drama, and music’ in A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, refers to a process that he argues is apparent in performing arts across a variety of institutions: that of ‘de-centering.’[2] Such a process, he argues, leads away from the traditional areas of teaching, such the history of drama and a canon of plays and towards exploring theories of performance and devising performances.[3] He then goes on to state that similar analogies can be used for both music and dance.[4] Whilst this is undoubtedly true to some extent, the undergraduate curriculum in the music department at Royal Holloway retains core modules on the history of Western classical music, its harmony and analysis, alongside a range of other modules that fit in with the shifts identified by Kleiman.
As someone who has exclusively taught on modules based on the history and analysis of Western classical music, Kleiman’s narrative is more fitting when considering the type of relationship that it is expected I will have with my students. Kleiman argues that rather than the transmissive relationship between teacher and student that was previously prevalent in these disciplines, there is now a more equal partnership: ’The teacher, more often than not, now acts as a mentor, guide and critical friend, and the student is regarded as a partner in learning.’[5] This is a particularly accurate point with regards to teaching assistants: the students often seem to regard teaching assistants as occupying a position between that of the student and the lecturer. As a teaching assistant, I have answered a number of questions from students that they have confessed they are reluctant to ask the lecturer - the teaching assistant is a less remote figure to approach.
Therefore, it can be seen that even when the subject matter being taught remains fairly traditional, the dynamics in the classroom are changing in accordance with Kleiman’s claims.
Paul Kleiman, ‘Dance, drama and music’, pp. 261-77, in Heather Fry, Steve Ketteridge, and Stephanie Marshall (eds.), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Fourth Edition, (London: Routledge, 2015), p. 262.
Royal Holloway is home to one of the forefront research-led music departments in the UK.[1] This post deals with identified prevalent trends in higher education curricula, specifically in music, and the extent to which this has influenced my teaching experience.
Paul Kleiman, in a chapter entitled ‘Dance, drama, and music’ in A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, refers to a process that he argues is apparent in performing arts across a variety of institutions: that of ‘de-centering.’[2] Such a process, he argues, leads away from the traditional areas of teaching, such the history of drama and a canon of plays and towards exploring theories of performance and devising performances.[3] He then goes on to state that similar analogies can be used for both music and dance.[4] Whilst this is undoubtedly true to some extent, the undergraduate curriculum in the music department at Royal Holloway retains core modules on the history of Western classical music, its harmony and analysis, alongside a range of other modules that fit in with the shifts identified by Kleiman.
As someone who has exclusively taught on modules based on the history and analysis of Western classical music, Kleiman’s narrative is more fitting when considering the type of relationship that it is expected I will have with my students. Kleiman argues that rather than the transmissive relationship between teacher and student that was previously prevalent in these disciplines, there is now a more equal partnership: ’The teacher, more often than not, now acts as a mentor, guide and critical friend, and the student is regarded as a partner in learning.’[5] This is a particularly accurate point with regards to teaching assistants: the students often seem to regard teaching assistants as occupying a position between that of the student and the lecturer. As a teaching assistant, I have answered a number of questions from students that they have confessed they are reluctant to ask the lecturer - the teaching assistant is a less remote figure to approach.
Therefore, it can be seen that even when the subject matter being taught remains fairly traditional, the dynamics in the classroom are changing in accordance with Kleiman’s claims.
See https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/music/news/newsarticles/successatrhul.aspx
Paul Kleiman, ‘Dance, drama and music’, pp. 261-77, in Heather Fry, Steve Ketteridge, and Stephanie Marshall (eds.), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Fourth Edition, (London: Routledge, 2015), p. 262.
ibid., p. 264