Module manager: Dr Freya Bailes
Email: f.bailes@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2023/24
This module is not approved as an Elective
This module is designed to provide you with a contextual understanding of associations between music and wellbeing, with a particular focus on the evaluation of wellbeing in practice. The module adopts a case study approach, examining key concepts and texts thematically, considering areas such as therapy, health promotion, education, subjective wellbeing, and society. You will attend staff-led seminars, featuring case studies from the research literature, with visiting practitioners sharing case studies of their work to facilitate discussion. You are required to prepare key texts in advance of each seminar. You are expected to contribute to class discussions in order to consolidate your own reading and engagement with the course materials, while critically reflecting on your experiences of associating musical engagement with wellbeing. You will be assessed by a critical essay on a topic of your choice, relating to the module content.
This module aims to:
• provide a contextual understanding of the physical and mental benefits and problems associated with musical participation.
• enable students to critically compare approaches taken to the evaluation of musical engagement on wellbeing.
• examine key concepts and texts thematically, considering areas such as therapy, health promotion, education, subjective wellbeing, and society.
• enable students to develop and refine their skills of critical evaluation, reasoning, and literature searching.
• encourage students to express and communicate their ideas verbally as a way to consolidate their reading and engagement with the course materials.
• enable students to recognise the limitations of the research in this area and to identify areas requiring growth and progression
• encourage students to develop, support, and communicate an argument in written work
On completion of this module, students should be able to…
1. demonstrate in-depth and advanced understanding of the relationship of music to wellbeing by critically and creatively evaluating relevant literature
2. demonstrate an advanced understanding of theoretical and empirical approaches within the discipline;
3. identify the methodological and ethical challenges of researching in real world settings;
4. develop, support, and communicate extended and sophisticated arguments within evaluative work;
5. evaluate the impact of musical engagement on wellbeing.
This module is designed to equip students with the critical skills to evaluate the relationship between music and wellbeing. The challenges of measuring wellbeing will be studied in real-world contexts that range from community music through music education to music therapy, encompassing music’s function as cognitive stimulation and rehabilitation, its association with pro-social behaviour, and its application to the promotion of mental health. The module adopts a case study approach, examining key challenges to wellbeing evaluation by drawing on academic texts and practitioner accounts. The module is primarily taught by staff-led seminars which require students to prepare key texts in advance. Students will be expected to work in small groups and to contribute to class discussions in order to consolidate their own reading and engagement with the course materials, while reflecting on their own experiences of evaluating the wellbeing associated with musical engagement.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seminar | 17 | 1.5 | 25.5 |
| Tutorial | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Tutorial | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Private study hours | 272 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 28 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
Seminar preparation: 4 hours per seminar (68 hours)
Literature review and evaluation: 204
Seminar attendance and participation
Formative feedback provided from peers (in the tutorial group) and academic staff on the content of the semester one presentation, with feedback from staff on the associated handout
Feedback from peers and academic staff on essay planning (second group tutorial)
Formative feedback on submitted essay plan (individual tutorials in second semester).
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 4,500-5,000 word essay | 100 |
| Presentation | Short formative presentation to tutor group + handout to include list of sources | |
| Written Work | Formative essay plan, 800-1,200 words | |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 28/04/2023
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team