ABSTRACT
This chapter explores professional learning about the development of young people's social skills and the promotion of their relational health through music based therapeutic teaching practices. The report on the classroom training session that is presented provides the first examples in the book of the use of reflexive products in the form of a graphic text, a narrative account and reflections prepared by a music therapist and a teacher trainer. These data indicate that the young people experienced positive changes in mood and improved feelings of relational connectivity.
The reflections identify how the teacher transformed a 1:1 dyadic musical process into a social group experience and how the careful selection of musical instruments supported inclusive and relational music making. The discussions explore how the use of the Flow Observation Schedule captured qualitative aspects of 1 young person's relational engagement in the music making. The Framework of Competences for music based therapeutic teaching practice is used to illustrate how new competence statements reflecting the teachers’ professional learning were being exemplified. These emerging competences are recognised as significant in facilitating young people's social and emotional access to learning.
