Program Overview

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The PgCert ‘The Musician as Educator’ course enables professional practitioners working across a variety of music education settings to access high-quality CPD that can be scheduled around their regular working hours to enhance their practice. You will be introduced to a spectrum of areas relevant to the 21st-century music educator. These will include the position(s) of music in society and the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion; creative approaches to curricula and assessment strategies; and situating your practice within the wider music education landscape.

Lectures and workshops will be interspersed by roundtable sessions, facilitated by staff from RBC’s Pedagogy Department, where you will be encouraged to think about the application of learning theories and other pedagogical issues to your own practice. The rationale for this approach is to enable you (along with students working across different music education contexts) to tailor the module content to suit your own requirements, goals, and interests, whilst building and learning alongside, and from, like-minded professionals. Through group work and pre-/post- session tasks, you will share ideas about your emerging understanding, and be supported to collaborate and extend these conversations between taught sessions.

You will track your ongoing development through a reflective journal. Engaging in ongoing reflection and close professional mentoring will assist you in finding the precise focus that is of most benefit/interest to your professional development. You will be allocated a pedagogy mentor and be supported in devising and undertaking a small-scale research project in an area of your professional practice. The assessment brief contains significant flexibility to allow you to present your work in a format appropriate to you, including for dissemination in professional contexts.

This course may interest:

Conservatoire and university music graduates who have recently started teaching and do not wish to pursue classroom training via PGCE or similar routes, and are seeking to build on the pedagogical training offered at undergraduate level.

Instrumental/vocal/composition teachers at different stages in their teaching careers who are working in private practice where CPD opportunities are limited or not easily accessible.

Employers, including independent schools and Music Education Hubs, who are signposting formalised training routes for their instrumental teaching staff.

Generalist teachers of any discipline who are employed as music-coordinators in their primary school.

Musicians from a diverse range of musical backgrounds who deliver music workshops in the community.

Visiting instrumental teachers working in Higher Education Institutions.

Composers and music technologists working individually or collaboratively within the music education field.

International students will not normally be eligible for this course since it is part-time. However, students with ‘indefinite leave to remain’ can apply for this course. It may also be possible for students holding ‘pre-settled’ status to apply. Applications would need to be checked on a case-by-case basis due to multiple additional eligibility criteria. Please contact the

Course Director

for a discussion about this.

This course does not lead to QTS.

This course is

open

to

International

students.

What's covered in this course?

You can tailor the course to your own particular interests and career development needs. The course involves participation in both academic and practical activities that promote professional development relevant to your career as a music educator. Building on your professional experience, you will learn to reflect deeply on your work and situate your practice within cutting-edge thinking on effective music pedagogy.

The teaching, learning and assessment you will encounter on this course is designed to:

Nurture your creativity as a music education practitioner through inspiring and interactive CPD and practice-led research

Promote an open-minded and enquiring attitude through engagement with peer-led discussion with like-minded participants in a professional learning community

Cultivate an appreciation of key theoretical concepts and practice-based issues in music education

Develop academic autonomy through the implementation of appropriate research skills

Equip you with a range of transferable skills, such as well-developed autonomy, self-reliance, organisation, self-reflection, problem-solving and decision-making skills

Enable you to develop areas of specialism relevant to your career as a music educator

Promote self-reliance and responsibility for personal and professional development

Provide ongoing opportunities for professional development

The course will consist of one 60-credit module entitled

Professional Practice

which will broadly comprise:

Principles and theories relating to learning, teaching and assessment and their application in a range of music education contexts

Approaches to reflective practice

In-depth research methods and ethical considerations

Presenting research findings

Assessment will be via a

Professional Practice Project

.

The PgCert Musician as Educator course provides an excellent grounding for those looking to develop their careers in music education. Specifically, the ‘Professional Project’ element enables working practitioners to tailor their learning to their individual needs, ensuring it is directly relevant to current and future practice in the sector.

Birmingham Music Education Partnership

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Why Choose Us?

At Royal Birmingham Conservatoire we provide a friendly and supportive environment in which you can pursue your postgraduate studies.

You will receive specialist tuition from a highly skilled music education staff team who have considerable expertise as professional music education practitioners and researchers.

Course delivery will naturally draw on the expertise of RBC’s Pedagogy and Learning and Participation Departments, as well as our collaborative links with BCU’s School of Education and Social Work in the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, and the Birmingham Music Education Partnership (BMEP).

Practice-led education and employability skills are at the heart of the course, promoting excellence in developing the pedagogical expertise of highly-trained musicians, and supporting transformative practice change in the music education sector.

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Studying with us during the Covid-19 pandemic

The University has put in place

measures in response to Covid-19

to allow us to safely deliver our courses. Should the impact of the pandemic continue in future years, any additional or alternative arrangements put in place by the University will be in accordance with the latest government public health advice, health and safety legislation, and the terms and conditions of the

student contract

.