Group cooperation, inclusion and disaffected pupils: some responses to informal learning in the music classroom. Presented at the RIME Conference 2007, Exeter, UK

Abstract

This paper examines some personal and interpersonal issues concerning group work and informal learning in the music classroom. It analyses data from a recent research project, which adopted and adapted the informal music learning practices of popular musicians, for use in the classroom. The discussion focuses on three aspects of the project. Firstly, it considers the issue of group cooperation, or the ways in which pupils interacted to organise their learning in small groups. This includes various approaches, identified as ‘group learning’, ‘peer-directed learning’ and ‘leadership’. Secondly, the paper addresses the topic of inclusion in relation to how individuals with differing needs and experiences were able to respond to the project, and the extent to which the learning practices allowed differentiation. Thirdly, weaving through the first two strands, the paper examines the inclusion of pupils who had been identified by their teachers as disaffected. This involves considering the roles of imaginative play and personal identity in the music classroom, with relation to both music's cultural delineations and its sonic properties.

Keywords:

• music
• informal learning
• classroom
• group cooperation
• disaffected pupils
• inclusion

Notes

1. Scandinavian countries are probably the closest to employing similar approaches, although of course within Scandinavia this differs from country to country and school to school. See, for example, Faulkner (2003), Stålhammer (2006), Tagg (1998) and Vakeva (2006) for discussions and information. There is a growing literature on popular music and informal learning practices in relation to music education. For general discussions, see, for example, Lines (2005), Rodriguez (2004), or the special issues of the journals, Research Studies in Music Education 13 (1999), or International Journal of Music Education 36 (2000).

2. For discussions, see, for example, Bennett and Dunne (1992), Bielaczyc and Collins (2000), Kincheloe and Steinberg (1998), Slavin (1995) and Watkins (2005); with relation to creativity, e.g. Jeffrey and Craft (2001); and with relation to music education, e.g. Faulkner (2003), Morgan, Hargreaves, and Joiner (1997) and Wiggins (2006).