(Self-) development of foreign master’s degree students’ intercultural competence through music activity

ENThe trends in international development of higher education are best reflected by international openness. The process of study internationalisation necessitates globally engaged and interculturally competent music teacher education. The article deals with the peculiarities of developing professional intercultural competence of foreign Master’s degree students (future music educators) through musical project activities. The paper aims to highlight the character of pedagogical impact integrating innovative learning activities and to reflect on features of improving foreign students’ intercultural competence. The sample of the research, which was carried out in 2014-2016, consisted of 24 foreign (Chinese) Master’s degree students, who chose studies at Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (Music Education). The research was done applying several methods: the analysis of scientific literature and documents, students’ written reflections and qualitative content analysis. The results of the qualitative research revealed that application of educational strategies related to development of intercultural competence of Master’s degree students became very important. The most important strategies of development of intercultural competence, based on musical activities were highlighted and verified by an educational (music performance) project. It was determined that (self-) development of intercultural competence was largely affected by the internal factors, such as musical abilities, value-based orientations, artistic experiences and experience of cultural activity. The research revealed the possibilities of integrating intercultural competence, one of significant objectives of personality development, into the curriculum of music teacher education. Keywords: intercultural competence, future music educator, educational project, music activity, university education. [From the publication]