If the modern conservatorium is to prosper in a rapidly changing cultural and economic landscape, it will need to provide a learning experience that produces multi-skilled and adaptable graduates who are self-monitoring and self-directing. By implication, teaching practices that have dominated in the past will need to be re-thought, and alternatives considered that are likely to produce graduates with the abilities and attributes necessary to adapt readily to a changing environment. As a response to this imperative, one conservatorium has developed a pedagogical approach based on the creation of a scaffolded self-directed learning community, a master-less studio. It is embedded in a popular music program that explicitly values the development of learning characteristics that will help graduates deal with an unpredictable future. Student feedback on the impact of these practices has been gathered during the evolution of this process. It includes survey data, formal and informal student feedback, and a number of interviews in which students describe how aspects of this learning-centred approach have interacted with their music making and their career expectations. From this feedback, it is evident that greater student autonomy and self-efficacy result from the a-synchronous reflection on performance that is enabled through recording, the self-reflection that is required by self-assessing, and the reflections on the work of others that peer-based assessment demands.

The inclusion of popular music as a content area in music education is not uncommon. The musicological study of popular music is well established in higher education, and even the practice of popular music is becoming more common in both secondary education and the post-compulsory sector. However, when this occurs, it is likely to be taught in more or less the same way as other more established content areas like western classical music or jazz, with teachers being in control of the process and the curriculum, the feedback and the assessment. But popular music is usually learned in the broader community as a self-directed activity, sometimes including interactions with peers and group activities, but rarely under the direction of an expert mentor/teacher. One Australian conservatorium has adopted the pedagogy of popular music through the creation of a scaffolded self-directed learning environment within its bachelor of popular music program. This paper argues that the pedagogical approach employed in this program relates well to the prior learning activities of its students. It draws on the results of a survey of the learning experiences of students before they entered this program, as a background to subsequent research into their participation in two course activities that provide opportunities for the provision feedback to peers. The study draws on data from surveys, on-line participation in the provision of work-in-progress feedback, and written feedback provided as part of formal assessment. Students are found to have usually engaged with multiple musical activities and used a variety of ways to enhance their musical abilities before commencing their conservatoire studies. These characteristics are also found to be present in students' engagement with their degree studies. The paper concludes that these students are well prepared for this kind of peer learning activity and provide useful feedback through the structures provided by the program.

As the range of experiences offered by conservatoires expands to serve an increasingly diverse student cohort, it is no longer reasonable to assume that all students will fit neatly into the traditional expectations of institutions. In the 3P model of learning, the prior learning of students is one of the Presage factors that interact with Process factors to create Products of the system; all three sets of factors should be considered when exploring a learning system. This study explores students' preconservatoire music-learning experiences and attitudes in one bachelor of (western classical) music program in the UK and a similar program in Australia, where a popular music cohort was also studied. Results indicate that prior learning experiences and expectations differ amongst all three cohorts, raising pertinent questions about the need to reject a 'one-model-fits-all' approach to curriculum development. Working from the data, potential lessons from the popular music context are proposed for consideration in the Processes of the classical context.

S c o t t D . H a r r i s o n , D o n L e b l e r , G e m m a C a r e y , M a t t H i t c h c o c k a n d J e s s i c a O ' B r y a n

The Bachelor of Popular Music (BPM) program operates in purpose built facilities on the Gold Coast campus of Griffith University (Queensland, Australia). The degree design replicates how musicians progress outside formal learning contexts in an enhanced higher education environment, including self-directed and collaborative learning, participatory assessment, and critical listening as core activities. Graduates are independent musicians, having studied popular music history and analysis, audio production, songwriting and performance, ensuring competence in a broad range of popular music activities.While the structure of the degree remains constant, the content and processes remain fluid in response to the rapid changes in the music industry. Reflecting the increasingly artist-driven nature of the industry itself, student consultation has provided the impetus for many of these changes. The primary goal of the program was, and still is, to produce graduates who are multi-skilled and able to engage effectively with the popular music industry, prepared to adapt to the changes that are characteristic of this dynamic field.