Geir Johansson, Norwegian Academy of Music RAIME)

Geir Johansson from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo was talking about the students in the music teacher's programme and the relationship between their feeling of identity and their approach to learning: Deep or surface learning. Surface learning is categorized by words like memorizing, reproducing, passivity and a negative attitude to learning in general. Deep learning is consequently the opposite. The student’s judgement of what is relevant in his or her education is very much formed by this experienced identity: Am I a musician och a teacher? It is difficult to handle these two parallel identities and transform them into a “core identity”. The supervisors at the training field may act as a bridge between these different arenas.

The RAIME Conference in Gothenburg

One of the lecturers during the conference was Cecilia Hultberg from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She presented a case study of a typical situation in a conservatoire: The one-to-one lesson. This type of lesson is difficult to handle in different ways. One is the uneval power relation between the teacher and the student. Another problem is the difficulty to handle student evaluations and to clearly define both learning content and learning outcomes.Teachers often feel isolated at work and without support when problems occur.

Cecilia Hultberg wanted to investigate the role student expectations had on their learning. It turned out that the students were very much focusing on instrumental skills and technique and were not susceptible to what the teacher actually was talking about. During interviews after the lessons it turned out that the students often had missed the central points the teacher had intended to convey, Typical answers were; “The lesson didn’t give me anything, but I appreciate the teacher as a good guitarist.” or “Well, I know about musical things myself”. Many times a student want to have a particular teacher because of his or her status. This may turn out to be a disappointment. Over time they start to be interested in the best teacher instead of the best performer. It may take a long time before the students realize what they have actually learnt during their education.