Los estudios musicales superiores y la encrucijada de la evaluación / Music higher studies and the crossroads of assessment

Abstract

This research stems from the hypothesis that faculty members of music careers at the national higher education institutions of Costa Rica, who participate as judges in musical performance tests are at a crossroads between the need for objectivity-imposed by the prevailing summative evaluation system-and the unavoidable subjectivity with which they assess the students’ musical performances. This causes uncertainty in the dynamics of teaching and learning. In order to learn about assessment of jury examinations, five interviews with teachers and students were conducted, and ten questionnaires to teachers were answered. The analysis of the responses relates to three main topics: content (what to evaluate?, how to assign the grades?, what items to evaluate?, and what the assessment tool should look like?), organization (related to the panel’s formation and function) and diachrony (the perception of the implemented assessment-related changes).