Leading together, learning together: Music education and music therapy students’ perceptions of a shared practicum

Abstract

The health benefits of musical engagement extend across the lifespan, with research documenting developmental and quality of life outcomes in senior adulthood. Whilst the psychological functions of music include three broad domains: cognitive, emotional and social, the social factors of music consumption have been, for the most part, ignored. This project is predicated on the understanding that students “construct” their own knowledge through engagement with others. It also reflects the belief that it is possible to link the world of learning with a world of action through a reflective process with small cooperative learning groups. This article reports on a collaborative creativity leadership project implemented by music therapy and music education students. In particular, it explores the perceptions of the students as they employed a teaching/therapeutic intervention with ageing participants from a local private retirement village. The project involved lyric rewriting and singing performance. Drawing on the students’ reflective journals and interview transcripts, four themes emerged relating to students’ perceptions of the learning experience. These themes were: learning about facilitating, learning about self, learning about the musical process, and learning about the context/ageing. Each of these themes is explored before conclusions about the process of leading a creative collaboration are drawn. The implications of this analysis extend beyond the context of a retirement village, and into various educational and therapeutic contexts where creative collaboration is facilitated.