Moving towards excellence : creating a teaching framework that challenges musicians to a pursuit of excellence

This paper presents a number of research challenges in understanding the physical, cognitive and psychological development of music performers and the way that these elements interact in a teaching and learning framework to take performance to heightened levels of excellence. The paper begins the process of defining these three areas of development through the lens of some key researchers in educational pedagogy such as Marzano and Pickering (1997), together with a number of researchers who have studied the process of optimising sporting performance and training, including Boutcher (1990), Moran (1996) and Horsley (1995). Finally, the paper suggests areas for future research to refine this framework in the context of the university environment.