Peer assessment in popular music

This paper discusses the development of a peer-learning and assessment method involving undergraduate popular music students in group performance modules. What is learned through rehearsing and performing in a band is intrinsically collective and this poses problems where we are obliged to give individual participants discrete scores for their contributions. Peer assessment may assist in this and improve student learning in group work. An approach that involves band members assessing each other on the basis of personal attributes is explored

Rehearsing popular music: Exploring opportunities for supporting learning in the pop/rock band

There seems little reported about group-based rehearsals of popular music and the peer learning opportunities that might arise from this activity. Although there are an increasing number of studies exploring approaches to the assessment of musical ensembles, these often focus on performance rather than rehearsing and, typically, do not specifically address popular music courses (Hunter, 2006)

Raising standards in performance

Over the past few years, instrumental performance has been subject to considerable research in this journal and elsewhere. A great deal of this research has concentrated on the practice strategies and individual lessons, which most students undertake in preparing as performers. Little has been done on raising standards of performance on a larger scale within the context of a large music department. This article describes the outcomes of a two-year programme undertaken with undergraduates at Barnsley College. It looks speci®cally at the scope for curriculum changes over that period and the way the various individual aspects of performance lessons are brought together through a weekly class which focuses on the demands of a public performance and the strategies required to prepare for that event

Rehearsing Popular Music In A Band

There seems little reported research about rehearsing popular music and the learning opportunities that might arise from this activity. Indeed, popular music arguably, is typically learned in the broader community as a self-directed activity, including interactions with peers, rather than under the direction of a mentor or tutor. As such, a tutor, involved in facilitating undergraduate bands in popular music, can be somewhat different to other rehearsing contexts. Not only, for example, can band members learn from each other, and about themselves during their group rehearsal, but the tutor may similarly learn from engaging in this participatory experience. Students may also invite their tutors to join them as a ‘band member’ attending their rehearsals, and sharing their rehearsal life-world. Being a tutor might, in this way, be likened to an ethnographic experience. It is in this context that my practice as a performance tutor is situated. Being a performance tutor for popular music band rehearsals involves engagement in various activities, including facilitating, mentoring, providing feedback, encouraging a positive rehearsal vibe and promoting teamwork. it is from this engagement that my research interests have developed. As such, and given the apparent lack of literature on, and pedagogical resources for, band rehearsing of popular music, I embarked on research in order to help provide a contribution towards filling that gap. From its genesis as an informal study conducted during 2001–2003, with its aim being to inform annual module evaluation, it developed into an action research project exploring personal attributes and peer assessment in band rehearsals. Continuing from 2008, the action research investigated wider aspects of the band rehearsing process and tutor interaction. The module itself has incorporated various pedagogical refinements and techniques that have arisen from the eight year study. The impact of the research on myself as a tutor, and my practice involving the life world of the band rehearsal, has been significant. It is hoped that practitioners, performance tutors, and those interested in researching their practice will find this paper helpful and consider how using an action research apporoach might have relevance to their own work

EuPathDB: the eukaryotic pathogen genomics database resource

The Eukaryotic Pathogen Genomics Database Resource (EuPathDB, http://eupathdb.org) is a collection of databases covering 170+ eukaryotic pathogens (protists & fungi), along with relevant free-living and non-pathogenic species, and select pathogen hosts. To facilitate the discovery of meaningful biological relationships, the databases couple preconfigured searches with visualization and analysis tools for comprehensive data mining via intuitive graphical interfaces and APIs. All data are analyzed with the same workflows, including creation of gene orthology profiles, so data are easily compared across data sets, data types and organisms. EuPathDB is updated with numerous new analysis tools, features, data sets and data types. New tools include GO, metabolic pathway and word enrichment analyses plus an online workspace for analysis of personal, non-public, large-scale data. Expanded data content is mostly genomic and functional genomic data while new data types include protein microarray, metabolic pathways, compounds, quantitative proteomics, copy number variation, and polysomal transcriptomics. New features include consistent categorization of searches, data sets and genome browser tracks; redesigned gene pages; effective integration of alternative transcripts; and a EuPathDB Galaxy instance for private analyses of a user's data. Forthcoming upgrades include user workspaces for private integration of data with existing EuPathDB data and improved integration and presentation of host–pathogen interactions

Assessing personal attributes in the group rehearsal

This is a study of the marks that were awarded for students’ personal attributes, used as peer assessment criteria, in their band rehearsals. Successive cohorts of first-year undergraduate students, from 2001 to 2009, were involved in the research comprising of 191 students and 84 bands. Data analysis focused on the strength of marking agreement and the variances between self- and peer-assessments. Personal attribute assessments that exhibited the greatest strength of marking agreement arose from when criteria were formulated together by bands, especially those attributes to which the group,as a whole, aspired; to a lesser extent, personal weakness criteria formulated by bands for each member. High flyers and female students underestimated themselves in their self-assessments,compared with those awarded by the band, especially when using criteria arising from their personal weaknesses; weaker students over-estimated themselves. In considering such misjudgements, this study raises questions about band members’ self-efficacy belief. Keywords: popular music rehearsals; peer assessment; personal attributes; selfefficacy; group wor

‘Knowing yourself through others’: peer assessment in popular music group work

This enquiry investigates the experiences and responses to peer assessment of group work involving cohorts of undergraduate popular music students over a five-year period. Working within the context of band rehearsing and performing, the enquiry focuses on how intra-peer assessment impact on students’ personal attributes and their learning. The literature review presents an overview of peer learning, group work, peer assessment processes, and a survey of the peer assessment literature on music in Higher Education reveals a lack of research into popular music group work. An action research design was established to study developing peer assessment activities of group work involving nineteen rehearsing and performing cycles. This allowed interventions and refinements to be made from cycle to cycle from which qualitative interview data and quantitative peer assessment data were collected. The analysis and interpretation of this data explain the key themes that arose from the students’ experiences of peer assessment in the action research. These include the development of awareness and knowledge about their personal attributes. Confidence, feedback and a moral dimension, often involving honesty and trust, were of particular significance. A new process model of intra-peer assessment is proposed. It offers a sequence of graduated stages of personal attribute usage, which create experiences over a period of time, that support students’ learning about themselves and about others through intra-peer assessment activities. The key activity, which also gives the model its particular distinctiveness, involves bands decide for each of their members appropriate personal attributes to be used as criteria for intra-peer assessment. The enquiry emphasises the importance of providing experiential and interactional contexts for intra-peer assessment, as important learning opportunities arise from such settings. This study provides a social constructivist explanation for the development of students’ personal attributes and the building of trust and honesty in the rehearsing and performing cycles