Reflective practice : a tool for measuring the development of generic skills in the training of professional musicians

The 2006 ISME Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM) provided a unique forum for a number of important debates surrounding the preparation of young musicians for a professional career in the performing arts. One such debate considered the imperative of ensuring young professional musicians graduated from tertiary music institutions with skills beyond those of just performance practice: the more general or ‘generic’ skills that can be transferred into the many types of work situations they will inevitably face after their formal studies have been completed. Driven by the new imperatives surrounding work and changing careers, this debate dominated many of the discussions at the 2006 CEPROM. Building upon this debate, this article outlines a case study on the use of reflective journal writing as a curriculum tool to encourage music students to develop the generic skills of critical, creative and self-regulated thinking. Within the context of an Australian university landscape that is increasingly placing more emphasis on generic graduate outcomes, this article draws on the work of a number of educational theorists to provide a theoretical underpinning and rationale for reflective journal writing as a tool for embedding these generic skills in the music curriculum. The article concludes with some discussion of further research challenges and implications for curriculum design in tertiary music.