Research Shorts: Working Together Well – Amplifying Group Agency and Motivation in Higher Music Education

This week I’m talking to Jacob Thompson-Bell at the University of Lincoln about his research in supportive group work in higher music education, exploring ‘how teachers and students can work together well, based on mutual care and collective motivation’. Jacob has recently published the work as an open access book chapter, and is talking to us more about it today. 

His work is particularly interesting given the recent wider push, as Jacob says, in HE practice towards individual-focused student-centred learning ‘in which individuals are offered tailored support to fulfil their own career or study goals.’ This project ‘aims to temper this individualistic impulse by reflecting on the importance of peer-to-peer interaction in creative arts teaching.’ The project is rooted in ethics of care, which as regular readers will know is a reoccurring theme in lots of music education practice. I asked Jacob about the findings of the work: 

“When managed effectively, group learning environments can foster a more collective outlook, empowering students to mutually shape and broaden one another’s foundational values, beliefs, and aspirations.” 

The project is ‘a reflection on almost a decade of leading peer-to-peer feedback sessions for music master’s students working on individual music composition, production or performance projects’. The publication comes out of that, outlining Jacob’s ‘approach to working with groups of learners at varied career stages, from different musical backgrounds’. He explains: 

“My hope is that this research will be applicable for music educators in group teaching settings, and perhaps also for students themselves, who are thinking about how to spark creative ideas in group settings and meet the needs of diverse learner groups. I found the theories I have adapted to explore peer-to-peer creative learning helpful in sparking new thinking and refreshing my outlook on foundational educational principles like freedom of expression, so I hope others will too.” 

Jacob is a composer, curator and researcher, with over a decade’s experience teaching music in conservatoires and universities. He is a composer and an artistic researcher, ‘combining music with other art forms and thinking about the social and environmental responsibilities and opportunities of artists’. 

Read more:

Read the full book chapter from this story: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0398.08   

Visit Jacob’s website and University of Lincoln staff page. Connect with Jacob via Instagram.  

Interview by Dr Sarah K. Whitfield – Research Manager for Music Mark