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The research aimed to develop deeper understandings of students' and tutors' perceptions of practical work in the MA Art, Craft and Design Education at Roehampton University, the main and traditional form of assessment being written work. I sought to capture something of the meanings and value that students and tutors attach to their experiences of doing and supervising practical work. The term 'Practice-based coursework' refers to the students' own practical work in art, craft or design, which, in this degree, is undertaken in an educational context indicating the visual work must relate to theories and practices of teaching and learning. Heuristic research emphasizes autobiography and internal searching as one seeks to understand phenomena in increasing depth, an approach that enabled me to connect the disciplines of educational research with the living of my professional life. My experience as an MA tutor was studied alongside the experiences of six students and another tutor, as co-participants in the research, through deep reflection upon my thinking and actions. My strategy was to narrate layers of lived experience through open-ended, unstructured interviews and my keeping a reflective diary. I aimed to connect the student and tutor accounts, narrating my own presence as an involved and implicated researcher who is part of the community of practice being studied. Reflexivity proved to be a key resource and dimension of the research, requiring the critical engagement of self by all participants. Students and tutors value practical enquiry for the opportunity to engage personally and reflexively with the complexities, ambiguities and emergent meanings of art. However, practical work sits somewhat uneasily with an outcome-oriented ethos prevalent in education, impatient for demonstrable and transferable results. The findings have implications for expanding provision for practice-based coursework in art education programmes in higher educatioq and for enhancing students' artistteacher identities.

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This research provides the first longitudinal case studies (three cases altogether) through direct observations, to investigate and assess the musical behaviours and development of children and young people with complex needs, within the context of a special school. The aims of this research are: (1) to create a new assessment procedure to systematically assess the musical behaviours and development of students with complex needs; and (2) to investigate the musical behaviours and development of three cases over eight to 13 months, using this new assessment procedure. To carry out this research, the researcher uses the Sounds of Intent (Sol) framework as the theoretical foundation, the newly created assessment procedure as the operational tool and the case study approach as the overall methodological strategy. Several analytical perspectives are provided, including weekly data analyses, weekly profile analyses and termly analyses. Research findings suggest that, firstly, it is possible to systematically assess and evaluate the musical behaviours and development of the students over a sustained period of time, using the newly developed assessment procedure. Secondly, the data analyses of these students' concentric and stack profiles demonstrated a wide variation and range of musical behaviours over the observational period. Finally, across the three domains in the Sol framework, all the students showed different degrees of progress in their musical behaviours, and their musical development moved towards more complex musical behaviours in the latter observational period. Following the data analyses, a list of preliminary factors which may explain the simpler and more complex musical behaviours of the students are offered. Relevant critiques and suggestions for further research are also provided to help the future development of the broad Sol research programme and to call for more research on music for children and young people with complex needs.

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The aims of this research are to investigate how improvisatory skills develop in individuals and teams. It focuses upon the effect of musical expertise in different musical genres on the development of improvisatory skills. Multi methods were applied in the research and classified into four phases. The first phase involved a self-case study implementing deliberate self regulated practice based on a planned sequential model; a) sight-reading; b) memorising; and c) improvising; over 8 weeks in a trained classical musician. Additionally, the self-case study used two commissioned musical compositions matched in length, harmony and structure, one in the classical genre the other in jazz. In the 2nd phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with novice and expert improvisers. The final phases included experiments studying sightreading, memorising and improvising as a duo and observations and interviews relating to ensemble rehearsals and improvisation with cross genre compositions. The findings suggest that learning to improvise is frustrating and anxiety provoking. Seven elements were found to be important in acquiring musical skills and domain knowledge acquisition: physiological adaptation and developing reading music skills; establishing auditory schemata; automaticity; use of memorisation strategies; analytic strategy application; and improvising to a coherent musical structure. The findings also show that sight-reading and improvising share similarities in their characteristics when learning to improvise as a duo. Issues such as communicating to the audience, performance identity and connecting to the context are essential in the duo improvisation performance. The findings indicate that a 'concept of break-points' (Poole, 1983) take place during the latter stage of the ensemble improvisation process where changes occur across all three elements, musical structure, social structure and communicative behavior. (Bastien and Hostager, 2002:21) Factors such as leadership, group member characteristic, resource, information flow, the creative environment and collateral structure can influence the quality of group improvisation performance.

Boy choristers who sing in UK cathedrals and major chapels perform to a professional standard on a daily basis, with linked rehearsals, whilst also following a full school curriculum. This research will investigate the impact of this intensive schedule in relation to current vocal health and future development. This research reports the findings of a longitudinal chorister study, based in one of London's cathedrals. Singing and vocal behaviour have been profiled on a six-monthly basis across three years using data from a specially designed perceptual and acoustic assessment protocol. The speaking and singing voice data have been analysed using a selection of techniques in current usage in both laboratory and clinical settings. Evaluation and comparison of these methods has enabled a range of effective assessment protocols to be suggested. The behaviour of the voice at the onset of adolescent voice change has been observed using electroglottogram data. The boarding choristers numbered thirty-four in total, eleven of whom were selected for longitudinal analysis. Similar acoustic data have also been collected from three other groups of boys, a total of ninety individuals, for comparative purposes. It has been possible to quantify the possible influence of both school environment and vocal activity on overall vocal health. Significant differences have been noted between the vocal health of the boys in the chorister group and the non-choristers; the boarding choristers, although having the highest vocal loading, have the lowest incidence of voice disorder. This would in itself suggest that either the voice is being athletically conditioned to support such activity, or that the chorister group employs some self-regulation with regard to overusing the voice. The comparison with various other groups of boys implicates the cultural and social influences of peer groups in voice use. The longitudinal observations of the choristers illustrate the development of vocal skills and the impact of increased choral responsibility on the vocal health of the individuals. It has also provided insights into the vocal behaviour during the onset of adolescent voice change with particular information about the vocal skills employed in the upper pitch range; the nature of phonation in the upper pitch range of trained boy singers entering voice change.

This thesis is an inquiry into art educators and art curricula within the context of the reunification of Hong Kong and China. Theoretically it draws specifically on post-colonial theories. Additionally, issues of personal identities and aesthetic preferences were examined by means of questionnaires given to pre-service art teachers. The design of the instruments was inspired by 'border pedagogy' and 'critical theory', as outlined by Henry Giroux (Giroux, 2005: 24). Reflections on the research design were offered. The thesis seeks to uncover the impact of colonialism and post-colonialism on art education and on participants' perceptions of their own identities. This includes participants' reflections on cultural and gender stereotypes; their responses to conceptions associated with modernist, postmodernist and feminist art; and the impact of modernist progressive thought on their values towards contemporary and traditional life-styles. The impact of colonialism on art curricula in Hong Kong schools prior to 1997 was investigated through analysis of historic documents and archives. Perceptions of participants of their prior art training were also examined. An overview ofliterature related to Art and culture; post-colonial and identity theories were discussed at the outset. Literature related to the relevant data was analysed qualitatively to provide additional insights. The results suggest that post-colonial Hong Kong continues III the colonial condition with the persistence of Western influences on art education. With the shift to China, the subordination of Hong Kong identity remains, and established stereotypes were still evident amongst participants. However the growing influence of globalisation has increased the complexity of the hybrid, East-West Hong Kong identity. Implications and recommendations suggest ways forward for visual arts education in Hong Kong.

The project was an attempt to explore various forms of transmission and acquisition involved in socialisation into fine art. It involved an intense study of the Slade School of Fine Art, in which fine art is the only subject offered to the undergratuate students. It was possible to distinguish four modes or approaches to the learning of fine art. Each mode was considered to entail a specific concept of art which entailed a specific structure of transmission and acquisition. The concept of classification was used to distinguish the conception of art and the concept framing was used to distinguish the different structures of transmission/acquisition. The analysis of the interviews of the staff revealed a relatively strong orientation to three of the four modes. The analysis of the students' interviews tended to show that individual students switched their orientation across the four years of the course. An important part of the study was an exploration of the explicit and implicit criteria staff were using and the extent to which these were understood by the students. A major focus of the analysis was upon the particular form of vulnerability experienced as a consequence of the students' orientation to a particular mode. Although the numbers in the sample are small and the study is confined to only one institution it is hoped that some light has been thrown upon forms of transmission/acquisition where hierarchical relationships are implicit.

The purpose of the study was to investigate potential connections between children's speaking and singing behaviours, as well as to explore the potential use of such connections in speech or voice therapy and in educational settings. The objectives of the study were addressed through an exploratory approach. In the literature review, potential connections between the two vocal behaviours were investigated theoretically from the physiological (including neurological), voice-developmental, psychological and sociological perspectives. Based on the theorising, a model of children's vocal functioning was generated. The model advocates the interconnectedness of all vocal functioning and provides arguments towards the idea of musical elements possessing an enhancing effect on children's vocal functioning. In the empirical phase of the study, the theoretical model was exposed to empirical testing. The pre-pilot study consisted of interviews with eight professional speech and voice therapists. The procedute for the pilot and the main studies consisted of: voice recordings, questionnaires, interviews, observations and a psychological test. The procedure was conducted with four classes of children. Initially, all the participants were treated as one group and, subsequently, each class was looked at separately and treated as a case-study. In total, 76 7-10-year old children participated. In addition, interviews were carried out with the teachers of each class. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used. The main findings were that children's speaking and singing behaviouts are connected through physiological, psychological and sociological routes, but not through the developmental route. Particularly strong evidence for the interconnectedness of the vocal behaviouts was found from the voice-scientific, psychological and sociological perspectives. The findings imply that children's speaking and singing behaviours are related and, therefore, it may be possible to enhance the quality and functioning of one vocal behaviour through the other. The findings also imply that children's vocal health is connected to a variety of holistic factors and that singing can potentially be used as a means to target these factors. Such findings have significant implications for both educational and therapeutic practice.