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.

New publication: Research into Higher Music Education

In case you are interested to order "Research into higher music education: an overview from a quality improvement perspective" by Harald Jörgensen (mentioned in my previous post) I would like to give you some more information.

Novus Press, Oslo
EUR 33.50
ISBN 978-82-7099-538-7
novus@novus.no
Fax +47 2271 8107

"Higher music education institutions are numerous and spread all over the world. What does research tell us about these academies, conservatoires and schools of music? How can research be utilized in the institutions' quality improvement process? These are the basic questions addressed in this book. The book is the first international overview of research into higher music education, and includes a presentation of nearly 800 studies. The studies address basic charasteristics of the institutions, their resources and internal processes, as well as their relation to external sectors. The book is primarily written for leadership, staff and students in these institutions, but is also aimed at people engaged in or interested in higher education, especially education in arts subjects."

Harald Jörgensen: Research into Higher Music Education

The RAIME conference started with an opening paper by Harald Jörgensen, Norges musikkhögskole: "Research in and about higher music education: an overview". The speaker had made an impressive investigation of a vast amount of studies in the field, recently published (2009) in the book "Research into higher music education: an overview from a quality improvement perspective".

This research field is quite young - more than 90% of the studies have been published after 1980! There is a complete dominance of research from the US. The second most productive country is Great Britain. A big problem is that studies published in smaller languages unfortunately will be invisible in an overview like this. The author had, however, included studies in Norwegian;-)!

The speaker urged his colleagues to treat the reports and assessments the regularly do as research, by adding theory and reflection - then publish them. Institutions must establish and encourage research within their own walls. Sadly it turned out that several participants shared a common experience, namely that the management of the conservatoires simply does not want such research to be carried out. Especially not if it is critical to the work of the institution.

In his speech Harald Jörgensen was actually focussing on what topics have been neglected by researchers so far. Most studies concern processes taking place within institutions, but there are almost no studies of the institution's missions and goals. The list of topics was quite long - apparently there is a lot of more work to be done. This is good, I guess, since the research community is growing drastically year by year.

Conference with Research Alliance of Institutions for Music Education (RAIME)

At present, my place of work "Artisten" is hosting the 10:th conference of Research Alliance of Institutions for Music Education (RAIME). The first meeting took place in Stockholm 2010. About 40 researchers have gathered here in Gothenburg, mainly from the US and Northern Europe. RAIME consists of nearly thirty institutions from all over the world. The research themes presented at their symposiums are very diversified. Since I have the kind permission from the organizers to attend I will be happy to give you short summaries of some of the presentations.

Offer from the Masterclass Foundation

Dear colleagues,

I am so sorry that I don't have time to write more often on the blog, but I suppose you know how it is...

I just wanted to forward a message from Joanna Pearson at the Masterclass Foundation, since I am very fond of their Masterclass DVDs.Our library has all of them and the students are very enthusiastic!

"The Masterclass Foundation" is announcing a special offer to IAML members. Some of you may have come across our products during the IAML-IMS conference in Amsterdam in July. By placing a firm order for a full set of 28 Masterclass DVDs in October, you will receive a duplicate set completely free. To take advantage of this offer, please contact Joanna Pearson at joanna.pearson@masterclassfoundation.org and put in the subject line ‘IAML OFFER’. In the body of the email give your name, job title, College or delivery address, VAT number (if relevant) and whether you are likely to pay by credit card or would prefer to receive a pro-forma invoice. The Masterclass Foundation will then be in touch with you personally about your requirements."

IAML Newsletter - "Special Amsterdam Issue"!

Dear colleagues,

I just wanted to alert you on the fact that a new issue of the IAML Newsletter now is available on the IAML web site. The editor, Michael Fingerhut, who always did a great job with the newsletter has this time surpassed himself! It is his last issue with a focus on the Amsterdam conference. Enjoy!

Questionnaire about the future activities of the LIMTI Branch

Dear colleagues,

At the last session with "LIMTI" in Amsterdam I handed out a questionnaire about the future activities of our branch. I realize that not everybody has the privilige to attend IAML conferences or did attend the session but had no time to fill in the form. Therefore I put the same questions on the blog. I would be most obliged to receive your comments. In case you prefer to send them by fax, this is my fax number: +46 31 786 40 59.

1. What do you think about today's session?

2. What topics do you think would be interesting for future conferences?

3. Do you have any suggestions regarding other activities for our branch?

4. Do you have any comments regarding the web site?

5. Do you have any comments regarding the blog?

Visit to AEC in Utrecht

Dear colleagues,

I am now back from the IAML conference in Amsterdam - trying to digest all the impression. The conference was a great success in every aspect: Great professional and social programme plus a lot of music wonderfully performed by various artists such as "Fugimundi" with Eric Vloeiman, Louis Andriessen, Ton Koopman and Nederlands Kammerkor. The conference staff was kind and obliging and the organization just perfect. The Organizing Committee is worthy of great praise!

Friday July 3, a couple of days before the conference started, I went to Utrecht to visit the office of "AEC" - the European Association of Conservatoires. Gabriela Rojková, office manager, and her team gave me a warm welcome and introduced me to the work of the organization. Of course, I took the opportunity to inform as much as possible about IAML and the Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions Branch. I had already met the president, Johannes Johansson, director of Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and invited him to give a talk at next IAML conference in Moscow. My idea is that one of the sessions with our branch will focus on Bologna and Music.

It turned out that the office team had just recently discussed the importance of involving librarians working at music conservatoires around Europe in the work of AEC. Perfect timing! They are very eager to receive contact information such as:

1. The name of the institution
2. The name of the head librarian
3. E-mail address
4. Phone number
5. If you would like to be included in the newsletter distribution list

Please, send the above information to: aecinfo@aecinfo.org

Kind regards,
Pia

See you in Amsterdam! ...and plans for Moscow!

Dear colleagues,

I am looking forward to seeing (some of) you in Amsterdam! As you may have noticed in the programme the session with Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions will take place on Friday at 11.00. We also have a joint session with Public Libraries Branch on Wednesday at 11.00.

This Friday (July 3) I will visit the "AEC" office (The European Association of Conservatoires) in Utrecht to discuss a possible future collaboration. I thought it would be a good idea to invite speakers from AEC to our session in Moscow. Topics to discuss could be:

1. "What will happen to Bologna after 2010?"
2. "Artistic research and research education"
3. "Quality assurance and accreditation"
4. "Information literacy"

Any response on the above would be grately appreciated!

~Pia~

Are we properly prepared for the role as pedagogues?

Dear colleagues,

The last question from the conference in Reykjavik:

Group no. 7

Is there something like “library pedagogy”? Are we properly prepared for the role as
pedagogues?

"Yes, of course, “library pedagogy” exists and we are pedagogues
whether we like it or not. A problem is that many librarians are not sufficiently trained for the
role. We simply don’t have time to enter the role as pedagogues, as we are usually
overwhelmed with other library tasks. In most libraries we also need more librarians to be
able to cope with this pedagogy role.
The library at the Department of music and media in Piteå belongs to Luleå University library,
where LRC, Learning Resource Center, is growing stronger and stronger. LRC is an
organization unit for the University’s researchers, teachers and students. LRC offers
pedagogical service and support for the learning process in all kind of ways.
The library has also the responsibility for all publications at the university."

Elisabeth Hansson, Musikhögskolan i Malmö
Yvonne Suopanki-Lakso, Musikhögskolan i Piteå

Library anxiety

Dear colleagues,

There are now only two questions left from the conference in Reykjavik. Group no 6 dealt with the following: How do we deal with “library anxiety” – a term often used to describe the feeling of inferiority among library users?

Please, share your experiences with your colleagues!

~Pia~

Progression in information literacy education for music students

Dear colleagues,

I now post question number 5 from the conference in Reykjavik about Bologna related topics.


Group no. 5

The Bologna agreement talks about progression. How do we apply a progressive approach
to information literacy education for our music students?

Our group started the discussion by defining the term “progression” as “kunskapsutveckling”
(development of knowledge). We had an idea that it might be easier to measure progression
in other subject fields than music.

According to the Bologna agreement progression should take place between the three levels
Bachelor, Master and Doctorate as well as within each level. Johan Söderberg,
Musikhögskolan Piteå, the only person in our group, who had experience of “formalized”
teaching meant that the needs of the students at bachelor and master level do not differ.
Therefore his library offers information literacy education only to the bachelor students. The
education includes an introduction to the library catalogue, the library homepage, evaluation
of sources etc. The teaching has the individual degree projects as the reference point. The
library staff meets the students again at the doctoral level. The teaching now focuses on
specific databases, handling reference tools (for example Endnote), the publication process
etc.

Another approach to information literacy education is a more personal contact, based on the
students individual needs and interests during different stages in their education. Inger-Mari
Malm from Tromsö shared her positive experiences of inspiring the students to use the
library for finding information. She mentioned a few examples:

• Collecting groups of instrumentalists with their teachers and showing them relevant
resources, sometimes with themes such as early music, folk music and old
recordings.

• Collecting students from the rock/pop/jazz department (“rytmisk linje”) with the
resource “American Memory”, available at the web site of Library of Congress, as the
theme.

• Exhibitions, with bibliographies and listed subject terms, on themes like jazz, female
vocalists, bluegrass etc.

Finally we all agreed that the conditions for information literacy education for our music
students vary a lot. One important factor is of course the size of the school. An institution like
the Sibelius Academy with 1.700 students probably needs to work in a more formal manner
than many other smaller schools. We also agreed that different programmes need different
approaches. Our experience tells us that the needs, interests and attitudes of the persons
studying classical music versus rock/jazz are quite different. We have to take this into
consideration.

Pia Shekhter

Student's motivation

Dear colleagues,

I now post the fourth question from the conference in Reykjavik about Bologna related topics.

How do we motivate the students to consider information literacy as something important?

Group number 4 in Reykjavik answered like this:

"At master level let the student choose their own topics to use in the course in the library.
Tell them to take responsibility on their own learning. In few words, explain that "quick and
easy" is not the way to go for any scholar, show subject headings and thesauruses.
Every encounter with the students is a chance to teach (preach?) information literacy.
Give the music student a chance to control their own process in search strategies and finding
key words. Information literacy as a tool in a life long learning process. Make library catalogues more accessible. The librarian as a information specialist and in Europe at least, not a teacher."

Kirstine Folmann, University of Bergen Library


Any comments?
~Pia~

Registration of scientific publications

The reason why I have not written for a long time is that I have been busy registering publications from our school in the database "GUP" - Gothenburg University Publications, which is a bibliographic system for the registration of scientific publications authored by researchers at Göteborg University. After some negotiations we are now allowed to include not only articles, books, reviews etc. but also musical compositions and compact discs. This was a big step forward since the administrators of the database needed to reevaluate the meaning of the concept "publication". We are, however, not allowed to include concerts or other types of performances. I am curious to hear about how it works elsewhere and my questions are:

1. Does your school have a similar database?
2. What type of material is included?
3. Who is doing the registration - the librarian or the author?

Pia

Librarian - Teacher collaboration

Dear colleagues,

It is now high time for the next question discussed at the Nordic Music Academy Libraries Conference in Reykjavik, 16th – 18th June 2008. Unfortunately there was no written summary from group nr 3, which I could include here, but I think all of you have some experience of the subject. Please, share your thoughts!

How do we promote the collaboration between the librarian and the teachers?


Pia

Test

Dear colleagues,

This is just a test to check if the RSS function of this blog is working.

Pia

Subscribe to the blog - new RSS function

Dear colleagues,

Best wishes for the new year!

I just wanted to draw your attention to the possibility to subscribe to the blog (RSS) if you would like to be alerted when a new post or comment have been added. Please, find the symbol at the top in the column to the right.

Pia