Abstract
Although entrance test criteria seem decisive for accessing higher music education programmes, and problems and challenges with the assessment process are reported, the area is largely unexplored. This article concerns how entrance auditions, specifically primary instrument auditions for Swedish specialist music teacher programmes, are examined and discussed. The data comprise video-documented auditions, focus group conversations, and stimulated-recall-based interviews involving assessor groups at four music education departments. Social-semiotic theory is used to study how assessors judge applicants’ knowledge representations in audition performances. A music-centred assessment culture is constructed, emphasising assessments of technical, communicative, and genre-anchored interpretation skills essential for meeting the demands of the education and profession. Also, a person-centred assessment culture is revealed, emphasising the assessment of personal traits suitable for education and profession. The discussion addresses the reliability, credibility, and validity of assessing abilities in terms of being and behaving in a particular way.
Highlights
For entrance to higher music educations, admission tests with specific selection requirements have long been used as a sorting tool
In the illustrations and transcript excerpts, the applicant’s body postures, way of holding the instrument, unwillingness to tune the violin to the piano, and, the performance of the music with many wrong notes, poor intonation, and inaccurate rhythm and tempo can be related to criteria articulated in the music-centred assessment culture
We have examined assessors’ meaning-making when assessing primary instrument tests to Swedish specialist music teacher education
Summary
For entrance to higher music educations, admission tests with specific selection requirements have long been used as a sorting tool. Assessed in musical performances are non-auditory aspects such as appearance, clothing (Wapnick et al, 1998), and body language (Juchniewich, 2008) in higher music education courses, as are attendance, attitude (Russell & Austin, 2010), autonomy, commitment, expressiveness, and fun (Zandén, 2010) in upper secondary school These previous findings raise questions about the credibility and validity of admission tests, especially given the observed lack of transparency of assessment procedures. Universities in Sweden, as in many other Western countries, must strive for strengthened societal democracy by promoting equality and broader recruitment From this perspective, it is important to review various selection instruments, not least given the lack of positive results in a recent Swedish experimental study of aptitude testing and assessment procedures for access to teacher education. The data in this part comprise 27 video-documented entrance auditions on a primary instrument and 22 conversations with assessor groups, consisting of music teachers, produced during the Spring of 2018
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