Freedom to learn: a radically revised pedagogy to facilitate lifewide learning in the academic curriculum.

Higher education has progressed fairly steadily to a common pedagogical approach which centres on the idea of alignment. In this arrangement, intended learning outcomes are identified and declared; learning activities which will enable the desired learning and development to be achieved are conceived and undertaken with the support of appropriate and effective teaching; and assessment which calls for these outcomes is (ideally) carefully designed and implemented. All three elements are aligned in advance. The same principles and practices underpinned by notions of alignment have been applied to date in most of the purposeful schemes for personal development planning. In this chapter I argue that lifewide learning, wherein learning and development often occur incidentally in multiple and varied real-world situations throughout an individual’s life course, calls for a different approach, and a different pedagogy. Higher education should therefore visualise lifewide learning as an emergent phenomenon wherein the outcomes of learning emerge later on, and are often unintended. Consequently, they cannot be defined in advance of the activities through which they are formed. The main purpose of this chapter is to offer some practical ideas to support the development of pedagogies that would enable programme designers to embed in their programmes the principle and practice of lifewide education.

74 Front Street (for solo cello)

74 Front Street is intended as a musical response to the work of American sculptor Fred Sandback (1943-2003), in particular his string sculptures which are intentionally uncomplicated, minimal and strikingly beautiful. The relationship between these string works and music is rather distinct; indeed, before formally studying sculpture Sandback made a number of string instruments. He has said that his string works evolved from a desire to rid art of excessive decoration and, while there are instances of activity in 74 Front Street, much of the piece aims to reflect the simplicity of Sandback’s work.