Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the broader learning benefits
for students who participated in a collaborative contemporary music project (Collab Week)
at the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand (MAINZ). A key educational goal for the
project was to help learners build the necessary ‘real world’ skills to perform well in groups,
by means of successive experiences of collaborative group interactions through making
original music recordings and performing them live. Collab Week allowed students to
regularly gauge their understanding of what to expect in the music industry and evaluate
their current standing relative to this. This research identified principles and benefits of
collaborative learning that may be transferable to other learning settings.
The qualitative single-case study research design used phenomenological techniques and
was devised around Collab Week as a music education programme. The investigation was
carried out through interviews and focus groups of Collab Week participants, and it was
determined that participating students not only learned first-hand about the music-making
practice, but that there were broader learning benefits including learning relevant skills,
developing their personal agency, and learning to work effectively as a team by means of
social praxis. Participants’ accounts of their experiences in Collab Week identified that a
combination of mitigating strategies, the provision of helpful tools, and relevant and
reflexive support from educators were optimal for success of the project. The research
found that most participants identified the learning activity (project) as challenging but
achievable and learning conditions were favourable for them if they viewed them as
relevant.
