Dance, Drama and Music Briefing
November 2011
CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Increased funding (up to £1500) for hosting HEA workshops – proposals welcome
- Assessing Group Practice archive now available
- Mapping Masterclasses: new publication
- What Works? Retention and Success project and conference – call for papers and case studies
- 'Painting by Numbers' - report on arts employment and the economy
- HEA events and resources
- Sign up to 'My Academy'
Welcome to this HEA briefing for the HE dance, drama and music communities. It continues the pattern set by PALATINE, the subject centre, of providing regular updates about the Higher Education Academy's activities, and other news and information that we hope will be of interest, use and value.
We are keen to engage with individuals, departments and institutions in dance, drama and music through our support for discipline-focused events, the funding for which has recently been increased (see below); through our various other funding opportunities such as the Teaching Development Grant scheme, and our support for professional recognition and accreditation. Click on the tabs at the top of this web page or visit the HEA website at www.heacademy.ac.uk for further details of the Academy's work.
These are particularly challenging times for the art and humanities disciplines, and it is our aim to help and support individuals, departments and institutions to meet those challenges - particularly in relation to supporting and enhancing learning and teaching. If you have ideas for workshops, pedagogic research, projects and collaborations, if you would like some help with aspects of learning, teaching and assessment strategy and practice, and if you have some news and information about the work you do that might be of interest and use to the wider sector, please get in touch with us by contacting Paul Kleiman, the Discipline Lead for Dance, Drama and Music.
Funding for Events
INCREASED FUNDING FOR HOSTING DISCIPLINE WORKSHOPS/SEMINARS
The HEA has increased the funding it provides to departments and institutions for proposing and/or hosting discipline-focused workshops and seminars. Funding has been provided to enable us to offer a grant of up to £1000 to institutions to host and deliver a workshop or seminar on teaching and learning in a discipline context. An additional fund of up to £500 is available for speaker expenses. We, once again, invite and welcome proposals for events from colleagues in dance, drama and music on any topic that is likely to be of interest to our various communities of practice in relation to learning and teaching in our disciplines.
Full details about the workshop/ and seminar scheme can be found here:
Discipline workshop and seminar series
Please contact Paul Kleiman (paul.kleiman@heacademy.ac.uk) to discuss any ideas or if you have any questions.
(note: the increased funding applies to proposals already received, if there is a good case for an increase)
Resources
ASSESSING GROUP PRACTICE - archive now available
We are pleased to announce that the entire website of the FDTL2 Assessing Group Practice (AGP) project - a collaboration between CSSD, Dartington, Goldsmiths:University of London, and the universities of Leeds, Salford, and Ulster - containing all the original papers, case studies, workshop ideas and resources, is now available to access or download.
AGP explored questions such as:
- What are collaborative skills and how should they be assessed?
- Should we assess individuals or groups on projects involving collaborative working?
- Can we reward creativity that goes beyond the stated learning outcomes?
The project aimed to ensure that assessment of collaborative activity within the performing arts can be demonstrated to be fair, robust and practicable across the sector. The identification and sharing of successful practice was seen as a key means to this end.
The specific aims were:
- To identify and address the range of issues that can contribute in making the assessment of group practice problematic;
- To explore students' and staff's experience of the assessment of group practice;
- To identify, support and share successful practice in this area, both across the consortium and across the sector
The AGP resource archive can be accessed:
- via the HEA Dance, Drama and Music main page (under 'Resources')
- directly via http://www.lancs.ac.uk/palatine/AGP/index.htm
The AGP archive is also available on CD-ROM, by request to Paul Kleiman paul.kleiman@heacademy.ac.uk
Research and Publication
MAPPING MASTERCLASSES - new publication
The outcome of a major piece of research into HE music education, funded by PALATINE, has just been published. Mapping Masterclasses, led by colleagues at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, investigates a whole range of issues around the subject of the 'masterclass'.
From the Executive Summary: "In adapting to the impact of cultural, social and economic changes to the working environments of professional musicians in the early twenty-first century, masterclasses at the Guildhall School have been developed to mirror a variety of work-place oriented approaches, including for example master classes that reflect the audition process. Our focus in this project has been to construct a map outlining the development of specific musical skills and generic transferable creative thinking skills observed in each master class format".
Mapping Masterclasses (PDF 3.53MB)
What Works? The HEA’s retention and success project.
Call for papers and case studies
The HEA (in partnership with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation) has been leading the What Works? project investigating retention and success in higher education. The HEA invites colleagues from subject communities to a workshop to discuss the interim findings of the project, and also invites case studies about improving retention and success in the disciplines of dance, drama and music.
The project includes an analysis of the 2010-11 HESA statistics by discipline and student characteristics in relation to retention and achievement. The aim is to produce 28 discipline level guides for dissemination in autumn 2012. This information will help show how your discipline compares to others for retention, and allow departments to benchmark themselves nationally. It will also show which student groups are retained less well, and have lower achievement levels.
The interim findings will be presented at the ‘What works? Student retention and success conference’ on 28-29 March 2012 at the University of York, and there will be a panel discussion learning and teaching and student retention and success, chaired by Professor Craig Mahoney. The HEA particularly welcomes delegates from subject communities. Full details and a programme are available here: Conference details and programme
The HEA is also compiling a Compendium of Effective Practice: Proven ways to improve student retention and success. We are very keen to include effective examples from as many discipline areas as possible, and we invite and welcome contributions from colleagues in dance, drama and music. Full details and the invitation to contribute are available here: Compendium webpage
'Painting by Numbers' - report on arts employment and the economy
An interesting small article appeared in The Economist recently about employment in the arts and the contribution to the economy. It is based on research in the USA, but it would be interesting to consider if such research would be possible here in the UK.
The article is available here: Painting by Numbers article
Forthcoming HEA events can be viewed here: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events
HEA (ex-PALATINE) dance/drama/music resources can be accessed here. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources
Using 'PALATINE' as the keyword will currently reveal 117 documents (research reports, development award reports, event reports, etc.) Note: the 'Thematic' and 'Resource Type' boxes currently do not work (i.e. they come up with '0' resources!), this ought to be fixed in the not too distant future.
Sign up to 'My Academy'
My Academy (formerly Academy Online) gives you access to a secure website where you can:
- Manage your account and update your contact details
- Change your log-in details
- Sign up for bulletins, news and funding alerts
- View a list of HEA-organised events then book onto and pay for events of your choice (note: this 'book and pay' facility does not include events hosted and organised by institutions)
Compiled by Paul Kleiman
HEA Discipline Lead for Dance, Drama and Music