FEATURED AUTHOR

Guro Gravem Johansen

Associate Professor of Music Education
Norwegian Academy of Music

Guro Gravem Johansen is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she teaches jazz and music education subjects. Her research interests cover all level learning and teaching within jazz and improvised music and instrumental practising. She is Editor-in-Chief of the research journal Nordic Research in Music Education.

Subjects: Education, Music

Biography

Guro Gravem Johansen is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Her research interests cover all level learning and teaching within jazz and improvised music, instrumental practising, and Activity Theory. She co-edited the anthology Expanding the Space for Improvisation pedagogy: A Trans-Disciplinary Approach (Routledge, 2019), and wrote the book Children’s guided participation in jazz improvisation: A case study of the ‘Improbasen’ learning centre (Routledge, 2021). She is Editor-in-Chief of Nordic Research in Music Education, and has led the revision of the Norwegian national curriculum for the music program in upper secondary school during 2019-2021.

Education

PhD, Norwegian Academy of Music

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Jazz and improvisation, jazz education, jazz vocals, teacher training, instrumental practising, aural training, Activity Theory.

Personal Interests

Choir conduction

Books

Handbook of Music Psychology in Education and Community - 1st Edition book cover

Expanding Space Improvisation Pedagogy in Music Johansen - 1st Edition book cover

Featured Title

Articles

The Practicing Workshop: A Development Project

Published: Dec 05, 2019 by Frontiers of Psychology
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen, Siw Graabræk Nielsen
Subjects: Education

In music conservatoires, the culture of teaching and learning seems to nurture individuality and hierarchic structures at the cost of collaboration. The study investigated students’ perceptions of outcomes from participating in a practicing workshop in a music academy. The students reported positive learning experiences from planning, implementing, and presenting their individual development projects, and that their awareness of variations in the group strengthened their confidence.

Expanding the space for improvisation pedagogy in music: An introduction

Published: Aug 01, 2019 by Expanding the space for improvisation pedagogy in music: A transdisciplinary approach
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen, Kari Holdhus, Christina Larsson, Una MacGlone
Subjects: Education

The book critically examines the challenges, cultural values, aims and methods involved in improvisation pedagogy. Written by international contributors representing a variety of musical genres and research methodologies, it takes a transdisciplinary approach and outlines a way ahead for improvisation pedagogy and research, by providing a space for the exchange of knowledge and critique.

What have we learned about improvisation pedagogy?

This chapter summarises the key points from all chapters, highlighting what a transdisciplinary approach can teach us about agency, power and ethics in the improvisation pedagogy in music.

Seven steps to heaven? An epistemological exploration of learning in jazz improvisation, from the perspective of expansive learning and horizontal development.

Published: Aug 01, 2019 by Expanding the space for improvisation pedagogy in music: A transdisciplinary approach
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

This book chapters explores different epistemologies of improvisation. It suggests that the notions of horizontal learning understood as sideways movements may be employed to frame the unpredictable and creative nature of learning and development within jazz, as alternatives to traditional "vertical" epistemologies.

Peer Learning in Instrumental Practicing

Published: Mar 15, 2018 by Frontiers of Psychology
Authors: Siw Graabræk Nielse, Guro Gravem Johansen, Harald Jørgensen
Subjects: Education

In higher music education (HME), the notion of “private teaching, private learning” has a long tradition. In a survey among bachelor music students (N = 96), we studies peer learning and peer's influence on the students's instrumental practicing. Overall, the students reported engaging in peer learning. However, student's reports show that they perceive it more beneficial than the amount of time reported doing it would indicate.

Genres, values, and music pedagogy students' identity formation as music teachers in spe

Published: Nov 01, 2017 by Utdanningsforskning i musikk – skriftserie fra CERM (Centre for Educational Research in Music)
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

In this essay, I discuss how cultural value systems in respective genres afford different kinds of musical learning and potentials for performer identity formation, and different kinds of didactical learning and thus potentials for teacher identity formation. The overall aim with this review is to contribute to the discussion of content in the subject Musikdidaktik (Ferm & Johansen, 2008) when taking genre, cultural values and performer/teacher identities into account.

Explorational instrumental practice: An expansive approach to the development of improvisation competence

Published: Mar 21, 2017 by Psychology of Music
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

This article seeks to discuss approaches to instrumental practicing directed towards developing improvisation competence, by analyzing empirical data from a qualitative study on jazz students’ instrumental practicing. The concept explorational practice is derived from the theory of expansive learning, and compared against the concept deliberate practice. Findings show a variety of open-ended strategies to develop students’ improvisation competence, which are framed as explorational practice.

To practise improvisation. A qualitative study of practice activity among jazz students, with a particular focus on the development of improvisation competence

Published: Aug 01, 2016 by Arts and the Humanities in Higher Education
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

This article presents an empirical study on instrumental practice among Scandinavian jazz students, with a particular focus on how improvisation competence is developed. Findings showed that a central value for the participants was the development of a personal “voice”. Collective practice, such as jamming or rehearsing with regular bands, is considered to be a central learning practice.

On my own. Autonomy in learning practices among jazz students in higher education

Published: May 30, 2014 by Finnish Journal of Music Education
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

This article addresses Scandinavian jazz students' experiences of developing autonomy and agency in their instrumental practising. Findings show that being allowed a personal scope by their instrumental teachers was crucial for the students, although teachers who engaged in students' practising in a dialogic manner were perceived as supportive. Paradoxically, students in music education institutions idealised an informal narrative of learning even within the formal context these institutions.

Learning from musicians better than me. The practice of copying from recordings in jazz students’ instrumental practise

Published: Dec 01, 2013 by Aural perspectives. On musical learning and practice in higher music education
Authors: Guro Gravem Johansen
Subjects: Education

The article is based on a qualitative interview study of Scandinavian jazz students, and gives an account of the practice of copying from recordings in jazz students instrumental practise. The study showed three modes of copying: detail-oriented copying, concept-oriented copying, and improvising along with recordings. All modes involved improvising, as a means to personalize the acquired knowledge from recordings.