2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

MUS5353M Music, Wellbeing and its Evaluation

30 creditsClass Size: 30

Module manager: Dr Freya Bailes
Email: f.bailes@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

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.

Objectives

On this module, you will develop a contextual understanding of the physical and mental benefits and problems associated with musical participation, and critically compare approaches taken to the evaluation of musical engagement on wellbeing. You will examine key concepts and texts thematically, considering areas such as therapy, health promotion, education, subjective wellbeing, and society.

You will have the opportunity to develop and refine your skills of critical evaluation, reasoning, and literature searching, expressing and communicate your ideas verbally as a way to consolidate your reading and engagement with the course materials, as well as developing, supporting and communicating an argument in written work. The module will enable you to recognise the limitations of the research in this area and to identify areas requiring growth and progression.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

1. assess the relationship between music and wellbeing through critical discussion of relevant literature, including theoretical and empirical sources;

2. appraise different forms of evidence of the relationship between music and wellbeing;

3. identify key methodological and ethical challenges of music and wellbeing research and practice.

Skills Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

4. analyse information, synthesise views, and make creative connections between ideas;

5. develop, support and communicate extended and sophisticated arguments;

6. evaluate current evidence of music’s impact on wellbeing.

Syllabus

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.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Supervision	1	0.50	0.50
Seminar	2	1.00	2.00
Seminar	17	1.50	25.50
Private study hours			272.00
Total Contact hours			28.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

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).

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	Essay	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Two formative assessment points are also provided, comprising a short presentation with handout during a group tutorial, and the submission of an essay plan (see Opportunities for formative feedback, below).

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/01/2024

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