Exposition

Fostering Creativity in Higher Music Education through the Category Game (last edited: 2024)

Felix Schlarmann
open exposition

About this exposition

This report on research was supported by the Lectorate of Music, Education, and Society at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague. The following work explores the endeavor to integrate creative concepts and artistic exploration into the Bachelor's curriculum at conservatoires, with the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague serving as a case study. It presents the researcher's ideas for innovative content and structures related to creative practices and interdisciplinary collaboration, compiled in a playful structure known as the ‘Category Game’. This article provides a comprehensive list of tools designed to facilitate these creative collaborative processes, which were either developed during my work with students or gathered from relevant literature, colleagues' contributions, or other academic programs. During the course of this research project, I engaged in discussions about interdepartmental and creative activities in higher music education with both teachers and students, conducted projects and case studies with various student groups, and ultimately designed a toolbox in the form of a game. Background: In recent years, my educational interests have centered on fostering creative interdepartmental collaboration among music students. The initial phase, exemplified by the research project ‘Learning Pods,’ involved practical case studies where specific forms of creative interdepartmental work were experimented with and analyzed. These 'learning pods' paired students from different departments for semi-structured creative sessions, demonstrating significant positive impacts on learning, autonomy, motivation, confidence, self-efficacy, and performance experience. Subsequently, during the 'Crossing Borders' initiative, a series of case studies with diverse formats was conducted, involving musicians from various institutions and collaborations with fellow educators. The complexity of creative cross-genre projects became apparent, influenced by students' personalities, musical backgrounds, genres, and departmental affiliations. While students displayed varying levels of confidence in exploring new artistic territories and collaborating across departments, a collective desire for increased interdepartmental exchange emerged. As my focus expanded to encompass 'the creative act in higher music education' more broadly, a central question arose: What tools and structures could be easily applied to facilitate a creative process for an interdepartmental group of music students in an easy and playful manner, regardless of their prior experience in creating or improvising? This inquiry necessitated an examination of the existing study offerings and their structure within the institution. Do these activities significantly contribute to interdepartmental collaborations? What modifications or additions might be beneficial? Further inquiries addressed the role of improvisation, the management of definitions, and the potential contribution of jazz—a genre and attitude toward improvisation and creation that appears underexplored in the institution's discussions.
typeresearch exposition
keywordscreative, act, interdepartmental, cross-genre, music, felix, schlarmann, royal conservatoire
date05/01/2024
last modified09/07/2024
statusin progress
share statuspublic
copyrightF Schlarmann
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2470446/2470447


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