Musical Futures Australia and Trinity College London Rock & Pop Classroom Integration Pilot

Find a workshop near you

Background

In 2018 Trinity College London and Musical Futures Australia worked together in partnership to develop and test some new resources and approaches for music learning, bringing together teachers from the Musical Futures Australia communities with the aim of engaging more students with music for longer.

The two organisations share a deep commitment to ensuring that musical learning is always a powerful and personal experience for young people. Through Musical Futures’ focus on pupil agency in music teaching and learning, and Trinity’s commitment to nourishing young people’s musical identities through creative and personalised musical assessment opportunities, the project aimed to explore what happens when informal learning and examinations meet in the classroom – and what this can offer young people and their teachers.

The initial pilot focussed on integrating Musical Futures' tried and tested pedagogical practices and approaches to informal learning, with Trinity’s exciting new Rock & Pop 2018 syllabus songs and award-winning practice app, Play Trinity Rock & Pop, with teachers and students immersed in creating live and digital musical experiences.

The partnership aimed to encourage the development of a broad range of musical skills and understanding, which could be celebrated through the assessment of their musical progression against Trinity’s robust assessment framework.
​
The pilot was evaluated by Emily Wilson and Neryl Jeanneret from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and you can download the full report here:

Download The Report
File Size:	1364 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

---

Key Findings

• teachers were able to integrate the Trinity materials and resources into their established Musical Futures-based approach
  
• teachers who implemented the materials and assessment strategies noted positive outcomes for themselves and their students
  
• ​a range of small-group and large-group music making activities were implemented using the Trinity materials
  
• responses to the Rock and Pop app were overwhelmingly positive.
  
• when able, teachers who made use of the notated material in the songbooks found it useful for a variety of reasons
  
• teachers found the Trinity Rock and Pop assessment criteria useful, making use of them in several ways including rubric construction, self- and peer-assessment and evidencing progress.
  
• ​​the flexibility of the Musical Futures approaches combined with the Trinity materials and resources embodies many aspects of the Victorian Quality Music Education Framework.

---

Success Factors

• access to the high-quality online materials and print songbooks were available free to participants
• the collegial community created via social media and face-to-face workshops
• ongoing connection and interaction within the online community
• additional resources created by the participants and shared freely

---

Teacher Created Resources

One of the outcomes of the pilot came from teachers creating their own approaches to integrating Musical Futures with the Trinity Rock & Pop materials. Michelle Lewis in Adelaide used the project to revisit her approaches to assessment, creating some new rubrics and asking students to take ownership of how their work was assessed and monitored. Luke Peak in Mildura integrated students choice and aural learning that is central to Musical Futures Informal Learning with the Trinity Play Rock & Pop App with his Year 10 group. 

Find out more about Michelle's approach to assessment

Find out more about Luke's year 10 Billie Jean Lesson

---