Abstract
The capstone should prepare our student artists to take risks with increased capacity for self-knowing and resilience. Capstones should prepare our students for careers inside and outside of performance by providing skills in arts administration, entrepreneurship, and ethical reflection. “Transferrable skills” is not a bad word. Having students learn how their skills relate to careers outside the arts will only enhance their career prospects. These case studies demonstrate effective capstone coursework and projects that include opportunities for students’ self-exploration and collaborative work. Gretchen McLaine utilizes individual capstone projects in dance that demonstrate longitudinal progress toward student learning outcomes. Marc Ernesti focuses on the often neglected support of early career transition for music graduates, with professional development opportunities that are relevant to the current music industries.
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Notes
- 1.
See Ernest L. Boyer, Reinventing Undergraduate Education; Randy Brooks, Jodi Benton-Kupper, and Deborah Slayton, “Curricular Aims: Assessment of a University Capstone Course”; Richard Olsen, David Weber, and Frank Trimble, “Cornerstones and Capstones: A Case Study on the Value of a Holistic Core in the Discipline of Communication Studies”; Connie J. Rowles, Daphene Cyr Koch, Stephen P. Hundley, and Sharon J. Hamilton, “Toward a Model for Capstone Experiences: Mountaintops, Magnets, and Mandates”; Bryce F. Sullivan and Susan L. Thomas, “Documenting Student Learning Outcomes through a Research-Intensive Senior Capstone Experience: Bringing the Data Together to Demonstrate Progress”; Peter J. Collier, “The Effects of Completing a Capstone Course on Student Identity. Sociology of Education.”
- 2.
Patsy Tinsley McGill, “Understanding the Capstone Experience Through the Voices of Students.”
- 3.
Dawn Bennett, “Developing Realistic Notions of Career in the Performing Arts,” 311.
- 4.
Linda Essig, “Suffusing Entrepreneurship Education throughout the Theatre Curriculum,” 118–119.
- 5.
Jason M. Martin and Michael G. Strawser, “Transforming the Capstone: Transformative Learning as a Pedagogical Framework and Vehicle for Ethical Reflection in the Capstone Course,” 17.
- 6.
Edward C. Watson, George D. Kuh , Terrel Rhodes, Tracy Penny Light, and Helen L. Chen, “ePortfolios—The Eleventh High Impact Practice.”
- 7.
Robin Nelson. Practice as Research in the Arts: Principles, Protocols, Pedagogies, Resistances.
- 8.
Jillian Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning.”
- 9.
Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning,” 28.
- 10.
The course was originally taught in the spring (final) semester, but faculty felt that students were too overwhelmed with post-graduation employment and plans. Changing the course offering to the fall allows students more time to reflect on their capstone experiences and better understand how to translate these experiences into action.
- 11.
George D. Kuh and Carol Geary Schneider, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter.
- 12.
Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning.”
- 13.
David Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experiences as the Source of Learning and Development, 38.
- 14.
Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning,” 29.
- 15.
Sondra Fraleigh and Penelope Hanstein. Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry, 25.
- 16.
Lynnette Overby, Public Scholarship in Dance, 4.
- 17.
Kathleen Harring and Tian Luo, “Eportfolios: Supporting Reflection and Deep Learning in High-Impact Practices.”
- 18.
Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning,” 28.
- 19.
Pseudonyms are provided for all student names.
- 20.
Labanotation is a symbol based system of writing and analyzing movement, and parallels music notation. While the student was not proficient in Labanotation, the professor is an experienced Labanotation re-stager. In this situation, the student was the computer science expert and the professor functioned as the Laban expert.
- 21.
Rebecca’s original plan was to focus on the limbs and torso in space; the spatial aspect of the proposal was dropped because of a lack of necessary equipment.
- 22.
Students who are accepted into the Performance and Choreography concentration in the program are expected to develop one lesson plan per each advanced level course in which they are enrolled, and teach that lesson plan to their peers. The pedagogical justification is that teaching movement and developing a critical eye is a skill necessary for all performers and choreographers, as most of them also end up teaching dance to supplement their income.
- 23.
Harring and Luo, “Eportfolios: Supporting Reflection and Deep Learning in High-Impact Practices,” 9.
- 24.
Harring and Luo, “Eportfolios: Supporting Reflection and Deep Learning in High-Impact Practices,” 9.
- 25.
Kinzie, “Taking Stock of Capstones and Integrative Learning,” 29–30.
- 26.
Incorporated Society of Musicians, “Record Companies,” in Careers With Music, edited by the Incorporated Society of Musicians (London: ISM, 1991), 11.
- 27.
For a critique of modern musicologists’ failure to concern themselves with professional musicians and the music business, see David Baskerville, Music Business Handbook and Career Guide.
- 28.
In addition, the economics of music are confused with, or explored almost exclusively in the context of the Recording Industry, and Popular Music. For an example, see Marius Carboni, The Classical Music Business.
- 29.
The study of only Popular Music through creative and economic aspects is also articulated by the Standing Committee of Principals of German university schools of music (Musikhochschulen); see Martin Pfeffer, Ausbildung für Musikberufe, 2. For a historical survey of the perceived tensions between idealistic and economic values in music, see Christian Kaden, “Professionalismus in der Musik.”
- 30.
Pfeffer, Ausbildung für Musikberufe, 9; Magdalena Bork, “Von der Berufung zum Beruf: Musikerausbildung in Österreich auf dem Prüfstein,” 33; Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians, 5.
- 31.
For a snapshot of the industry, see Phillip Sommerich, “In the Doldrums: Worst Year for Classical Record Sales,” 6; Richard Fawkes, “Proms Ticket Website Helps Record-Breaking Sales Classical Music,” 7; Phillip Sommerich, “Live Music Offsetting CD Decline,” 9.
- 32.
Mike Jones identifies “tensions” around course content and, occasionally, rather opportunistic motivation for creating the degrees in the first place; Mike Jones, “Learning to Crawl: The Rapid Rise of Music Industry Education.” This is echoed by David Baskerville’s dictum: “This field of education is relatively new, and faculty continue to search for the ‘ideal’ curriculum”; David Baskerville, “Music Business Studies in Higher Education,” 18.
- 33.
Mike Jones, “Learning to Crawl.”
- 34.
Raoul Mörchen, Kernthesen der Diskussionsreihe “Musik und Beruf” des LandesMusikRates. It may be safe to say that arts and humanities are still slow to analyze the impact of over-saturated job markets on individual students’ careers and accept the new role, of helping make student success—in the emerging markets—possible.
- 35.
Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians, 13.
- 36.
See Pfeffer, Ausbildung für Musikberufe; Bork, “Von der Berufung zum Beruf.”
- 37.
For a mature approach to this topic, see the New England Conservatory’s approach, formalized as Entrepreneurial Musicianship.
- 38.
Sandra Sinsch, “Erfolgreich?: Musikerausbildung in Deutschland.”
- 39.
Bork, Von der Berufung zum Beruf.
- 40.
Both studies operate on a small number of samples and, consequently, represent tendencies not generalizations; Bork, “Von der Berufung zum Beruf ”; Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians. It also should be noted that the latter report contains some disparities, for example, the graduates’ perceived need for professional skills that however do not reflect from their answers to current training needs, which pass uncommented; Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians, 11. For a detailed analysis of one musician’s first years in the profession, see Tom Walker, “Getting Started.”
- 41.
Versatility as a key attribute also for young leaders in the music business is singled out by David Baskerville; see David Baskerville, “Music Business Studies in Higher Education,” 19. These findings are confirmed for young professionals in the creative industries in a wider context, by Jo Wilkinson who emphasizes the importance of networking especially in the music sector; Jo Wilkinson, “First Steps.”
- 42.
Student responses to the Musicians Benevolent Fund survey confirm this finding, suggesting the conservatoires did not give them a realistic picture of the music business or would even create “false expectations about the ease of getting work”; Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians, 9.
- 43.
Walker, “Getting Started.”
- 44.
Musicians Benevolent Fund, Supporting Emerging Professional Musicians, 14.
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Hayford, M., Kattwinkel, S. (2018). Capstone Courses and Projects. In: Hayford, M., Kattwinkel, S. (eds) Performing Arts as High-Impact Practice. The Arts in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72944-2_11
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