Module 8 - Course Overview

Research in Music Education has come to a close.  This course was extremely beneficial to me in regards to the organization and methodology of formal research at a professional level.  Thanks to this course, I feel prepared to begin my research toward a topic for my Capstone Project or Thesis.  The following post is an overview of the major points of the course.

The course focused on the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, and also mentioned that there is a possibility for mixed-methods research.  Qualitative research involves more narrative uses of data and requires significantly more time to analyze and process through.  It can include hundreds of pages of notes from observations which require ample time to organize.  Quantitative research involves numerical data and can be much simpler to analyze.  Mixed-methods research involves both quantitative and qualitative data, which may seem like a daunting task, but could end with much more helpful information for the person who is reading the study.  It was helpful within the course to be given the opportunity to read about and try both quantitative and qualitative data.

Another major focus of the course was on the parts that are required in a research study.  Particularly in the Mertler (2012) text, the course gave specific layouts for action research projects, how to do them, and what steps should be taken.  It is obvious from the study of the Mertler text that action research projects are "up-and-coming" and are vital to the success of teacher-researchers, who need to research to improve teaching methods and effectiveness but are so often faced with extreme time constraints due to overbooked schedules.  I am very interested to incorporate some action research projects into my classroom as a music teacher, because I believe it will improve my teaching and it will improve the learning of my students.

The course also contained an element where the students were given the opportunity to learn about some famous music education researchers.  I was very happy during these short videos to discover that I had heard of all of the music education researchers in my past experience in undergraduate work or in professional development.  The information about current music education researchers was inspiring, as it showed the students in the course that we could someday research the same way that those researchers have, and that we could make a significant impact on music education in the future.

The most important, vital, and meaningful part of the course was the opportunity to actually delve into research that we chose ourselves.  I was able to choose a topic (literacy/fluency and music instruction) that directly affects me right now as a music teacher and do research that will influence my school district (kind of like action research).  It was excellent to experiment with studying research through a topic that is directly important to my current job situation.  There are not many courses that offer this opportunity, so I truly appreciated that.  Choosing a topic can so often be the most difficult part of research, and it was very helpful to read Philips (2008) and Mertler (2012)'s views on how to narrow the topic just enough but not too much.

Overall, this was one of the most tedious courses I have ever taken, but it was also one of the most beneficial and important.  I am appreciative of the opportunity to learn about music education research through this course.

References

Phillips, K.H. (2008). Exploring research in music education and music therapy. New York: Oxford

                University Press.

Mertler, C.A. (2012).  Action research:  Improving schools and empowering educators.  Los Angeles: 

                Sage Publications.

Module 7 - Communicating Research Results

This week in Research in Music Education, the objectives were as follows:  practice communicating about research by creating and narrating an online slideshow presentation, utilize conventions of academic writing, and read and discuss mixed methods research in music education.

Creating the slideshow presentation was a wonderful assignment.  It allowed me to look at and listen to myself making a presentation since it was recorded on a webcam.  I noticed some general things about the ways I perform.  My face is very animated, and I talk very, very fast.  I re-recorded the presentation three times trying to speak slower.  I had little success.  I suppose this is something I should spend time practicing regularly.

Another reason why the slideshow presentation was an excellent assignment is that it was very helpful in organizing the final project that is due later this week.  With the requirement to use minimal text in the slideshow, I was able to summarize the main points of my study very concisely, and, therefore, apply that conciseness to my final project draft.  The ability to summarize the main points proved very beneficial, and I believe it will positively influence my final grade.

The final Research Etude was also due this week.  It allowed me to utilize conventions of academic writing because I had to create a meaningful final draft.  I am thankful for the way the course was structured because it allowed nearly all of the Research Etude to be complete before the day it was due.  Therefore, I was able to spend minimal time editing and thinking objectively through since it had been a week since I had looked at my topic.  I truly enjoyed analyzing the data that I collected and finding such interesting results.

This week, I also read two studies of mixed methods research and discussed them with my classmates.  One study outline the influences of music teachers' choices to become music educators.  It was interesting to discover through the discussion boards that most of my classmates did not fulfill the standard that was found in the study.  The study found that most music teachers choose music education because of the influence of their high school instructors.  Most of the people in my small group, however, chose music education very naturally (as in there was not one specific moment when we chose it; it just sort of happened to us) and we were influenced by our family members and talent encouragement more than our high school music instructors.  We all commented about a sincere passion for music.  It was truly encouraging and meaningful to have those discussions.

Additionally, in preparation for the slideshow presentation, we watched a presentation about presentations by Garr Reynolds, who was a very talented presenter.  Although the video was over an hour long, Mr. Reynolds pointed out many important concepts of presenting well, especially the necessity of images instead of text and the use of interesting supplements instead of just talking.  It was very helpful in preparing my presentation for the class.

As the course comes to a close, I am feeling very comfortable and pleased with my education in research, and I feel prepared to apply the concepts I have learned to "real" research that I will do in the future.  I am finally beginning to see myself as a researcher.

Module 6: Data Analysis

This week in Research in Music Education, the objectives were as follows:  describe qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures, calculate descriptive statistics and correlations, and read and discuss experimental research in music education.

Data analysis is a subject of interest to me because it is possibly one of my favorite things.  Since I was a young child, I found great pleasure in organizing things, and according to Mertler (2012), data analysis is basically organizing data from the large, overwhelming form in which it begins to a manageable, readable form that will be used in the research paper.  Qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed differently because of the content of the data.  Qualitative data is narrative information such as transcriptions of interviews, observations from the classroom, or field notes that require extensive and careful reading and grouping.  Quantitative data is presented in numerical form, which may not require quite as much time to analyze but still must be done carefully.

It was interesting to me that Mertler pointed out in his video that researchers will often find data analysis to be the most frustrating and difficult part of research, because I believe that I would find it invigorating.  The hard part is finished and now the researcher gets to help it all make sense!  I suppose I'll have to do some research before I can truly make this determination.

Another thing that I greatly enjoyed about the material for this week was the calculation of descriptive statistics and correlations for the purpose of data analysis.  The reasoning behind my enjoyment is two-fold:  we learned about the basis of this statistical analysis for our Assessment course earlier this year, so I already had a good foundation in the topic, and descriptive statistics is math, which I have always enjoyed.  I believe this is another reason why I tend to associate myself more with quantitative research; it is easier for me to "mathemetize" data in my head, which is obviously easier to do with numerical data.

The discussion of experimental research was in the Phillips (2008) text, in which he discussed three different articles and provided a commentary (for the first one) of the ways the articles were examples of experimental studies.  He classified the articles based on whether they were true-experimental or quasi-experimental, but it was difficult for me to determine the differences between the two.  I suppose I should conduct further research on the specifications of the differences to understand better.

Overall, this week proved to be one of the more relaxed and enjoyable weeks of research study for my mathematical and organization-loving mind as the content was directly relatable to my strengths.  I look very forward to analyzing the data from the questionnaire I distributed earlier this week as I receive it from my participants.

References:

Phillips, K.H. (2008). Exploring research in music education and music therapy. New York: Oxford

                University Press.

Mertler, C.A. (2012).  Action research:  Improving schools and empowering educators.  Los Angeles: 

                Sage Publications.