Interdisciplinary Learning in Music – CTLT Teaching Connections

Benedict NG and HO Chee Kong
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YSTCM)

The authors take us through their Learning Community’s journey to understand team teaching—co-mentoring, co-instruction, and collaboration—for their courses and the deepening of cross-border team-teaching partnerships with faculty exchange.

Ng&Ho anchor pic — *Members of the Learning Community with students taking the MS/MCP programme. (Photo contributed by the authors)*

Ng, B., & Ho, C. K. (2025, June 25). Interdisciplinary learning in music. CTLT Teaching Connections.  https://blog.nus.edu.sg/teachingconnections/2025/06/25/2025-ng-ho/

From mid-2023, faculty members of the Bachelor of Music in Music and Society, Music Collaboration and Production (MS/MCP) majors embarked on a Learning Community (LC)¹ seeking ways to strengthen Collaborative Instruction for Interdisciplinary Education in Music. The MS/MCP programme develops musicians who explore their creative practices in a variety of performance and presentation platforms with a keen awareness on how their music impacts society. These programmes are taught collaboratively by the team, with each faculty member mentoring an individual student but working closely with each other to strengthen each others’ ideas. Through a process of co-mentoring, co-instruction, and collaboration, students are thus able to tap on the diverse expertise from the team of mentors, facilitating interdisciplinary learning and extending the impact of their musical practices.

Team-Teaching

The LC met monthly to share about the process of students’ projects, consulting each other on ways to improve the projects and to strengthen the curriculum’s structure. These were also guided by our findings from surveying various literature on team-teaching. Furthermore, the LC invited observers to gain more perspective on roundtable sharing sessions between the faculty to keep each other updated on the progress of each student’s projects. We found this LC experience to be fruitful in giving us ways to provide more targeted feedback and effective scaffolding. This collaborative approach helped identify common challenges faced by students and enabled timely updates to the curriculum, ultimately strengthening team-teaching practices and better addressing students’ learning needs.

Connection with Society

Ng&Ho Fig1 — *Figure 1.* Members of the LC attending the IPS conference.

It is important that the faculty keeps abreast of developments in society and equipped with such knowledge, be able to continuously update and improve the programme. As such, two members of our LC, Ms Rachel Ho and Mr Xavier Tan attended the Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) 35th Anniversary Conference, titled “Revisitings” (Figure 1). The conference featured keynotes and speeches ministers and prominent thought leaders, focusing on themes of meritocracy, housing, pluralism, and social compact. There was a focus on addressing current issues, as well as predicting and preparing for imminent challenges for Singapore. Recognising various issues in society is important for MS/MCP students to gain a good understanding of the various social, political, and aesthetic contexts that they create their music in and the impact of their musical practices.

Extending Team-teaching Partnerships

Building upon an existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM), the LC members engaged in a staff exchange with the intention to exchange pedagogies, and to learn from their team on pedagogical strategies for community engagement.

Ng&Ho Fig2 — *Figure 2.* Mr Benedict Ng in Phetchaburi.

As part of this exchange, LC member Mr Benedict Ng joined PGVIM students on a community engagement project in Phetchaburi, conducting musical activities to engage with the local community there (Figure 2). Similar to the approach used in the MS/MCP majors, the project at PGVIM was team-taught. Observing their pedagogical practices gave insight into how pedagogical roles are delegated among faculty at PGVIM while maintaining shared oversight of the project, as well as strategies for empowering students to take an active role in their own learning through reflective and inquiry-based activities.

Ng&Ho Fig3 — *Figure 3.* Members of the LC Mr Benedict Ng (left), Dr Frances Lee (3rd from left), and Ms Miao Kaiwen (4th from left) with Prof. Anothai Nitibhon (2nd from left).

Meanwhile, LC members Dr. Frances Lee and Ms. Miao Kaiwen also had the opportunity to observe PGVIM’s Recital Project course, led by Prof Anothai Nitibhon (Figure 3). Learning from the course’s scaffolding and team-teaching approaches provided insightful takeaways for our own review of students’ projects. Moreover, it was interesting to learn how PGVIM faculty’s approach fosters creative freedom and audience engagement, mirroring their goals for student development.

Ng&Ho Fig4 — *Figure 4.* Members of the LC Ms Rachel Ho, Mr Xavier Tan, and A/P Ho Chee Kong at PGVIM.

Subsequently, A/P Ho Chee Kong, Ms. Rachel Ho, and Mr. Xavier Tan attended the ‘Prince in the Park’ performance. This event marked the successful conclusion of a community engagement project with the residents of residents Bang Yi Khan in celebration of the Princess’s birthday. Apart from learning from their teaching processes, it was inspiring to witness the interdisciplinary creative process, previously noted by colleagues, come to full realisation in this vibrant community celebration. We also look forward to inviting our partners from PGVIM to engage with our own students in YST.

Sharing Our LC Experiences

Empowered by the experiences in this LC, we also sought out opportunities to share what we have learnt with the wider community. Firstly, we did so during the Princess Galyani Vadhana International Symposium, where A/P Ho Chee Kong and Mr Benedict Ng presented a paper on “Scaffolding Artistic Creativity: Evolving Curriculum Design to Support Future-Ready Music Graduates”, attended by music educators and practitioners (Figure 5). This symposium offered an opportunity for the team to demonstrate the curriculum development and team-teaching process for the MS/MCP.

Ng&Ho Fig5 — *Figure 5.* Members of the LC A/P Ho Chee Kong (right) and Mr Benedict Ng (left) with Prof. Anothai Nitibhon (centre), acting president of Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM).

The LC also presented a lightning talk titled “Interdisciplinary Learning in Music” at the Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) organised by CDTL (now CTLT). The conference also gave us the opportunity to expand our network in the NUS community for greater collaboration and we began talks with other faculties to seek ways to expand team-teaching.

Ng&Ho Fig 6 — *Figure 6.* Presentation at HECC.

Conclusion

While traditional conservatory education focuses on cultivating the technical skills through a master-apprenticeship model, the music industry’s rapid development demands that musicians continuously evolve as well. These explorations to transform pedagogical approaches through team-teaching and interdisciplinary education could unlock the potential for musical practices to be applied in innovative ways. The journey has been a fruitful one, learning strategies to structure team-teaching and scaffold interdisciplinary education in music. This LC had been an enriching experience and we look forward to closer collaborations with other faculties.

Endnote

These endeavours were graciously supported by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) through the Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG).

References

Knieter, G. L. (1963). The creative arts symposium. A four year experiment team-teaching music and the fine arts. Music Educators Journal, 49(5), 62–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3389950

Zhang, G., Sun, J. & Sun, Y. (2023). Mapping interdisciplinary collaboration in music education: analysis of models in higher education across North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Front. Psychol. 14, 1284193. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1284193

Benedict NG believes that music has a powerful and uplifting impact on society. A violist by training, he performs regularly with ensembles in Singapore and abroad. His research interest lies in cultural value and music. As an educator, he believes that active learning by students is essential for knowledge formation and is keen to learn and share strategies for student engagement. Benedict is currently appointed as a Teaching Assistant in the Career Orientation and Community Engagement Team at YST.

Benedict can be reached at ngwjben@nus.edu.sg.

Singaporean composer Dr. HO Chee Kong is Associate Professor and was the founding Head of Composition and faculty member at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. His international commissions and works for both Western and Chinese ensembles have been performed at festivals and concerts such as the Singapore Encore (USA), the Singapore Arts Festivals, International Bela Bartok Choral Competition (Hungary), International Performing Arts Festival and Asia Choral Days (Japan), Aberdeen Music Festival (Scotland), 36th Internazionale Festival: Antidogma Festival (Italy), Contemporary Music Showcase (Hong Kong), Asia Music Festival (South Korea), Eleazar de Carvalho Festival (Brazil), Asian Composers League Conference and Festival (Japan), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Electroacoustic Music Festival (Canada), the International Arts Festivals (Australia, New Zealand), National Day Celebrations and many others. He has also presented papers at various conferences in the area of music composition studies, and worked on research relating to music in modern society, music and organization, and music in multi-media productions.

Chee Kong can be reached at mushock@nus.edu.sg.