MUS8029 - Music Education, Community & Wellbeing
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Ms Nancy Kerr Elliot
- Owning School: The School of Arts and Cultures
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
- Capacity limit: 100 student places
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| Total Credits: | 20.0 |
Aims
Music Education, Community and Wellbeing explores current theory and practice in music education, community music, music therapy and music in healthcare. It critically considers interrelationships between the fields and conceptualises music learning and participation as lifelong and occurring both within and outside formal educational contexts.
Students analyse a range of global data on the potential benefits of music, while broadening their own research skills including via reflective and practice-based methodologies. Practitioners provide experiential learning in a supportive environment, building students’ confidence as facilitators of participatory music-making in a range of settings relevant to their chosen field. In short, the aim of the module is to advance students' theoretical and applied knowledge and consider how these might be synthesised into a reflective and evidence-based music pedagogy.
Outline Of Syllabus
Topics covered may include the following:
- Tradition, learning and community
- Music in early childhood
- The elements of music, improvisation & repertoire
- Therapeutic music through the lifespan
- Applied ethnomusicology & global community partnerships
- Composing for communities
- Measuring impact: quantitative methods for policy making
- Singing and health
- Music technologies for SEND
- Reflective writing: perspectives from clinical music therapy.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | Present in person lectures |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Present in person seminars |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshop | 5 | 2:00 | 10:00 | Practical workshops |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 6 | 2:00 | 12:00 | Drop-in/surgeries |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment Preparation and Completion | 1 | 75:00 | 75:00 | Preparation and completion of assessments |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 75:00 | 75:00 | Reading and research |
| Total | 200:00 | ||||
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Present-in-person lectures convey knowledge about music as a potential agent for positive change and broaden the student’s critical understanding of different types of relevant theory and practice. Learning from lectures is consolidated in small group seminars that support students to develop their research and practice skills for their chosen field. (K1; K2; K3).
Practical workshops support the student to build confidence as a facilitator of participatory music-making as part of a diverse, client-centred music pedagogy. (S2; S3). Drop-in sessions provide opportunities for individual guidance from the module leader as the student progresses through the curriculum.
The learning and teaching models support the overall approach to the assessments, which encourage the communication of new knowledge and experience gained in the lecture-workshops and explored in small-group discussions and through independent study. (K3; S1 - S4).
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessments:
| Description | Semester | When Set | % | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop-leadership exercise | 2 | M | 30 | Practical facilitation exercise. Each student will lead their peers in a single musical activity. This could be teaching a piece of repertoire; facilitating a group improvisation or warm up, or another musical interaction suitable for an educational, community or wellbeing setting. Includes reflective writing task. |
| Presentation | 2 | A | 70 | 10-minute recorded presentation. Each student will design and demonstrate a participatory musical activity for a chosen age range, key stage, client/community group or other setting. The presentation may employ a range of media to illustrate aims, session plan, musical content and other relevant research. |
Assessment Rationale and Relationship
The assessment strategy enhances planning and delivery skills for the communication of research findings using a range of media and modes of delivery as appropriate.
Assessment 1: Workshop-leadership exercise (30%) (K1; S1; S2):
This supports the development of music leadership skills as part of practitioner-supported workshops, generating feedback towards the planning and content of the recorded presentation. Feedback will focus on the creative and appropriate use of the elements of music in a specific context.
Assessment 2: Presentation (70%) (K1, K2; K3; S3; S4):
A 10-minute recorded presentation tests communication and planning skills, outlining a musical intervention based on current research and knowledge of a specific context. Additional task-specific assessment criteria are as follows:
1. Evidence of a theoretically and analytically rigorous definition of a subject of music education, engaging with appropriate primary and secondary research.
2. Demonstration of how to employ the elements of music in a specific context.
3. Ability to make meaningful conclusions about the relationships between - and boundaries separating -community music, therapeutic music and music education.
4. Coherence and structure of the presentation and critical analysis, including appropriate academic tone at postgraduate level and effective display of examples and analysis.
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/