![]() ![]() Put simply, the exams invite students to discuss scores with two experienced music professionals-their instructors. The oral assessment experience which we detail below reinforces the professional musician’s need to think and to communicate effectively in the language of the discipline: to engage a work of music efficiently, identify and articulate its salient features, perform it individually and collaboratively, and understand its place within the broader landscape of musical literature. Our students now engage scores-the primary materials of the discipline-from Day 1, as class time is dedicated to uncovering musical concepts directly from the repertoire and developing score-reading fluency. Today’s student learners hunger for experiential learning environments which offer real-life problem-solving scenarios through which to acquire, implement, and sharpen professional skills. Chief among these, we believe, are textbooks, workbooks, and written exams. In 2015, we implemented oral unit exams as part of a wholesale revision of our four-semester undergraduate music theory sequence intended to remove artificial impediments to the learning process. Still, a number of recent pedagogy studies demonstrate the feasibility and educational benefits of oral examination in undergraduate programs ( Asklund and Bendix 2003 Cantley-Smith 2006 Clouder and Toms 2008 Huxham, Campbell, and Westwood 2012 Iannone and Simpson 2012 Singh 2011 Thomas, Raynor, and McKinnon 2014). Application of oral examination within undergraduate curricula is much less common ( Symonds 2008 Huxham, Campbell, and Westwood 2012). ![]() While instructors are undoubtedly familiar with oral examination, or viva voce, their experience with it is likely limited to the qualifying and defense processes with which graduate studies culminate. It is perhaps a bit ironic that, in an e-journal dedicated to innovative teaching strategies, the authors of this essay promote a centuries-old form of assessment. Stutes, Wayland Baptist University The Colloquy: Introduction and Philosophy The Undergraduate Student-Faculty Colloquy: Cultivating Disciplinary Authenticity through Formative Oral Examination ![]()
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