The Music Room: Translating Curricula into Real-World Professional Experience

Abstract

To explore the synergies of an integration of the conceptual and practice worlds, this chapter draws on part of an Australian Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development funded project for students of architecture and construction. Composing Architecture — The Music Room, involved 74 second-year students at an Australian university. The case study is used as an illustration of curriculum design, including assessment aimed at creating learning experiences that were purposeful, rich in their complexity, and mirrored the demands of a profession fostering development in a supportive environment. To support this aim the elements of the music room project were tested against proposed criteria for authentic learning. While recognising the differing views of scholars and challenging some claimed attributes, the case study indicates that, irrespective of discipline, there are some fundamental shared understandings of what an authentic learning environment entails.