Musing budding musos: the role of peer mentoring in learning to be a contemporary musician

Building the research capacity of the vocational education and training (VET) sector is a key concern for the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). To assist with this objective, NCVER supports a community of practice scholarship program, whereby VET practitioners without research experience are given the opportunity to undertake their own research to address a workplace problem. Scholarship recipients are supported by a mentor, and NCVER publishes their research results.

Ross Stagg participated in the 2010 community of practice program. Ross is a music teacher at Nirimba College, which is part of TAFE NSW’s Western Sydney Institute. Ross’s research seeks to determine whether peer-to-peer mentoring is a popular and viable way of transferring skills and knowledge between music students at Nirimba College.

The study comprised an eight-week mentoring trial, an initial survey and final interviews with the group of current music students who participated in the mentoring program. The study aimed to elicit the students’ perspectives on TAFE music teaching and learning, their attitudes towards music and their own career goals, as well as their thoughts on the mentoring trial.

Many of the students who participated in the study recognised the value of the broader and more generic music training offered by TAFE institutes and the author argues that peer-to-peer mentoring fits this context. Most students preferred peer-to-peer mentoring to teacher or staff mentoring because they felt a better understanding existed between students.  

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER