Music Monday - How does an increasingly data-driven education system affect growth and satisfaction in music learning and performance?

A few weeks ago, I ran into a high school music teacher friend. She has decided to retire at the end of this school year. Why? Well, like many of us, she is of an age where retirement is a possibility. But more significantly, a driving force in her decision was what she perceived to be the increasing demand for data collection across all aspects of the education system. 

This teacher’s retirement will mean a true loss for that school and its students – she is  passionate and dedicated worn down by the demands of the system.

There is no doubt that as teachers we are asked to be increasingly accountable – and that can be a very good thing. But it does seem to come at a cost. For every step of the learning journey there is a marking rubric to be filled out, both in schools and in universities now. Again, a marking rubric does provide a level of moderation, but can it ever tell the whole story?

For many years I have prepared year 12 secondary school students for their exit performance exams in music. We spend years 11 and 12 practising songs with a close eye on the marking rubric and ensuring that melodies and rhythms (to name just two criteria) are accurately performed. I teach in a specialist music theatre program, so this is sometimes at odds with how the songs would be performed in the real world. 

Many of my students go on to audition for places in the various tertiary music theatre courses across Australia. Those auditions take place around the same time as the performance exams but have very different expectations. It is much less about the accurate processing of notational information and much more about demonstrating potential in story-telling and vocal flexibility. The final voice lessons for year 12 students tend to be a slightly crazy mix of ‘now let’s try the song in exam style’ or ‘sing it this time as you will for your audition’. Two versions of the same song – the less ‘correct’ one often the more authentic.

Similarly, the tertiary course where I teach music theatre and acting students,  has taking up the use of marking rubrics for assessment. For the final year music theatre students there is often a disconnect between preparing for the assessment and preparing for their careers as performers.

I don’t pretend to have answers. I know we needed to move on from the old days of ‘I just know what an A grade sounds like’ or ‘this student deserves an A; they have worked so hard’ to something more accountable. But in so doing, have we sacrificed a little of the joy? I hope not. 

My soon to be retired teacher friend mentioned at the start worked incessantly to maintain the joy. But in doing that she perhaps burnt herself out.