Group Size
?
1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any
Small group (teams of 4-6)
Learning Environment
?
1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special
Special
QAA Enterprise Theme(s)
?
1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
1Creativity and Innovation
2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation
3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5Reflection and Action
6Interpersonal Skills
7Communication and Strategy
Students should gain an understanding of music’s role within the community including the nature of teaching and learning in music, the benefits and challenges of musical participation, and the range of contexts in which music creates and defines communities. The course will develop students’ research and group work skills through an extensive project based in the community.
This 20-credit undergraduate module at the University of Sheffield has brought civic/community engagement and enterprise to the music curriculum in exciting new ways: students were commissioned by two external partners to produce feasibility studies for community music projects to support mental health service users and refugees and asylum seekers. The external partners came to the first lecture of the module to brief the students, who then worked in groups of 6-8 to develop a strategy for fulfilling the given brief.
In order to fulfil the brief, the teams of students had to engage in activities which were a form of market research and customer validation. One group devised plans for the development of a community choir, which has involved liaising with other singing groups in the city to find out what already exists, and what might work well with these clients. Two groups worked with a music therapist at an NHS Trust in Sheffield to observe existing musical activities and suggest new possibilities, with one team developing plans for a drumming group and another a singing group. The groups presented their feasibility studies to the external partners at a culmination event at the end of the semester.
Teaching comprised 10 weekly sessions, with a mixture of mixture of formal lectures, presentations by guest speakers, and mentored small group work, with supporting materials on group roles to help the students work effectively on a sustained and complex task.
The students have certainly learnt cultural agility and demonstrated respect for diversity, and we have all acquired a greater understanding of the place of “university music‟ in the wider arts world of Sheffield, and the potential for our students’ and graduates’ skills and energy to make a contribution to enriching the city and its diverse population.
We aspire for the feasibility studies to be developed into working projects, either by the external partners, or through the continued involvement of our students and graduates with further support from University of Sheffield Enterprise.
The students found the projects challenging. Their reflective diaries reveal issues of communication and problem solving in group work, and in working with external partners. They also illuminate moments of insight and discovery as they experienced their client groups in action and understood the adjustments needed to apply their musical and academic skills in new contexts.
The examples of curriculum development for enterprise related outcomes were originally outlined by Neil Coles at the International Enterprise Educators Conference under the heading 'From Archaeology to Zoology; an A-Z of enterprise in the curriculum'. For his work in contextualising enterprise for any subject, Neil won the 2013 National Enterprise Educator Award.
For further examples of embedded enterprise within music, see ‘Music – Music Business Module’, and ‘Music - Developing Music Industry Knowledge Through Expert Panels.’
