Learning and unlearning: New challenges for teaching in Conservatoires
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Author(s)
Carey, Gemma
Draper, Paul
Lebler, Don
McWilliam, Erica
Year published
2006
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Show full item recordAbstract
This presentation takes up the challenge of Erica McWilliam's recent call for educators in general to focus on the importance of 'unlearning' as well as learning and thence applying this challenge to teaching in the Conservatoire. It does so by indicating what the value and limits are of traditional pedagogy in the Conservatoire. For young people who will increasingly experience a 'portfolio career' they will need to 'unlearn and ' 'forget' certain practices processes and at the same time learn and embrace others. Getting the mix of learning and unlearning right will be more important for new generations of learners than ...
View more >This presentation takes up the challenge of Erica McWilliam's recent call for educators in general to focus on the importance of 'unlearning' as well as learning and thence applying this challenge to teaching in the Conservatoire. It does so by indicating what the value and limits are of traditional pedagogy in the Conservatoire. For young people who will increasingly experience a 'portfolio career' they will need to 'unlearn and ' 'forget' certain practices processes and at the same time learn and embrace others. Getting the mix of learning and unlearning right will be more important for new generations of learners than merely sticking to time-honoured habits that mark a former stable social world. The implication is not that the Conservatoire should throw out long-term teaching techniques, but rather that it will need to be more open to innovative pedagogical possibilities if it is to work against the current trend of a shrinking clientele and audience for its expertise. The presentation provides a rationale for a new conceptual architecture in teaching (mixing learning and unlearning) before moving to consider how the Conservatoire might experiment cautiously with this imperative. Examples are given of such experiments already happening within a Conservatoire in Australia.
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View more >This presentation takes up the challenge of Erica McWilliam's recent call for educators in general to focus on the importance of 'unlearning' as well as learning and thence applying this challenge to teaching in the Conservatoire. It does so by indicating what the value and limits are of traditional pedagogy in the Conservatoire. For young people who will increasingly experience a 'portfolio career' they will need to 'unlearn and ' 'forget' certain practices processes and at the same time learn and embrace others. Getting the mix of learning and unlearning right will be more important for new generations of learners than merely sticking to time-honoured habits that mark a former stable social world. The implication is not that the Conservatoire should throw out long-term teaching techniques, but rather that it will need to be more open to innovative pedagogical possibilities if it is to work against the current trend of a shrinking clientele and audience for its expertise. The presentation provides a rationale for a new conceptual architecture in teaching (mixing learning and unlearning) before moving to consider how the Conservatoire might experiment cautiously with this imperative. Examples are given of such experiments already happening within a Conservatoire in Australia.
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Conference Title
The Reflective Conservatoire Conference: Apprentices and Sorcerers
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2006. The attached file is posted here with permission of the copyright owners for your personal use only. No further distribution permitted. For information about this conference please refer to the publisher's website or contact the authors.