Teaching and learning in unfamiliar territory

Abstract

This chapter presents an action research case study of transition from a formal master-apprentice music ensemble pedagogy to a student-led creative approach. We focus on the phenomenon of resistance to learning and the ways in which transitions to unfamiliar learning paradigms may be facilitated. Our aim is to document and to theorise the tensions that may arise in the shift to a practice that privileges collaborative, participatory creative music-making. Our action research project involved one of the authors and his instrumental music students who explored collaborative and creative practices in a weekly ensemble class. Guided by principles of critical pedagogy, the teacher transitioned from an approach characterised by methods such as repetition and imitation to a praxial paradigm focused around improvisational and creative activities including sound exploration, improvisation , and composition . While these concepts were conceptualised as being distinct from one another, the boundaries between these complementary practices were blurred or even disappeared. Our chapter highlights the resistance shown by the students as they departed from well-rehearsed approaches to learning and entered into the unfamiliar territory of the praxial approach, and the reciprocal responses required in order to scaffold learning.

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