Modelling effective choral conducting education through an exploration of example teaching and learning in England

摘要

A growing corpus of research provides evidence of the musical and non-musicaludbenefits from choral participation, yet the preparation of individuals for their role asudchoral leaders and conductors within educational environments has not been givenudsimilar attention. Whilst choral leaders within schools, community or church contextsudmay emphasise the inadequate support mechanisms for choral education, there seemudto be very few courses in the United Kingdom (UK) that deal with the preparation ofudchoral conductors.udA new socially-located, heuristic framework has been developed, influenced by theudtheoretical constructs of Cognitive Apprenticeship, Situated Learning, and theories ofudexpertise, as well as educational research on effective teaching and learning withinudhigher education and the workplace. The framework encompasses five interconnectedudparameters, as part of an investigation into effective choral conducting educationudwithin several educational environments in the UK. These parameters relate toudbiographies, expectations, values and behaviours connected with (i) the tutor, (ii) theudlearner, (iii) the sequence and amount of training (process of preparation), (iv) theudlearning outcomes and (v) the socio-cultural contexts, including the teaching contexts,udwhere choral practice takes place. A predominantly qualitative approach has beenudused for the collection and analysis of the data, concentrating on the participants'udwritten self-reflective narratives, interviews and questionnaire responses. Five choraludconducting education courses have been observed; three offered within higherudeducation and two by independent bodies. Although data analyses suggest that noneudof the observed courses encompassed all the ingredients suggested by the framework,udthe framework itself offers insights and related methods of examining choraludconducting education contexts.