This Young Talent project started in September 2005 and comprised: 'Teacher competencies for working with Young Talent' and 'Integrated teaching and team teaching'.
How do we give shape to the education in preparatory phases for the conservatoire/the junior departments? If we shape learning environments in the context of Lifelong Learning at the Conservatoire, the next question will be: what does this mean for the preparatory phase?
Contexts for the research and training are the pre college situation, the co-operation of the conservatoire with private teachers (whether or not in a public music school environment), and the context of the secondary school (the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague has a secondary school in-home).
Research is carried out into: mental and physical health; self exploration; aural skills; expression; collaborative practice; interdiciplinary approaches; working forms and other pedagogical issues.
In the Prince Claus Conservatoire research into integrative working methods took place, as well as into approaches to team teaching. At the Royal Conservatoire the focus was on research into interdisciplinary approaches. In both schools pilot projects took place.
Young Talent project Prince Claus Conservatoire
The Young Talent project took place between March 2006 and May 2007 at the Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen. Educating young musical talent is an important focal point for the Dutch conservatoires. The demands made on professional musicians are high. Beginning young and good guidance are of crucial importance to gain a place in the international work field as a starting musician. The Prince Claus Conservatoire has been working in the field of guiding young talent for some time, through a pre-schooling course (connected to the PCC) and a preparatory course (in cooperation with music schools). A research team of the lectorate wrote a framework of lifelong learning for the guidance of this young talent. This was done by research in the field of team teaching and the development of a new didactic concept for integrated teaching.
The project division ‘team teaching’ provided the content for a more effective way of cooperation between teachers of the conservatoire and those of music schools or private practices. Friction points were assessed in the classical as well as the jazz department. Following this, an improved approach for team teaching was written. This approach was tested and further developed in the pilot, which was held in October 2006; the final results were presented in May 2007.
In the project division ‘integrated teaching’ new didactics were developed for further integration of principal study and principal study supporting courses (ear training, musical theory, music history). It appeared that these subjects did not have a clear enough place in the principal study, which made it difficult for students to integrate the information they received in the various courses. A literature study was carried out into the advantages of an integrated approach of theory, ear training and music history for the student (especially the studying of new repertoire). Next to literature studies, three good practices in this area were described based on interviews. The next step was the development of a didactic model ‘integrated teaching’, which was tried out in 2006/2007. A report was published with recommendations for the implementation of this model.
The pilot project ‘Teacher competencies for working with Young Talent’ had as overriding purpose the further development of improving teachers’ expertise. Educational institutions are developing into knowledge centres more and more, and apart from conveying knowledge, they also work on knowledge creation and knowledge circulation. This requires skills from teachers in the area of research and product development. During this pilot research was also done into how teachers can be trained to acquire these skills, in which ‘learning on the job’ is the guiding principle.
The project group consisted of the following members of the Research Group: Rineke Smilde (professor), Peter Mak (coordinator of this project), Winfred Buma and Wieke Karsten (project division ‘team teaching’) and Robert Harris (project division ‘integrated teaching’).
Outcomes of the project, Good practices and Final report