What I Learned - Week 4

This week has been very enlightening.  As I searched for articles an research about my topic, I realized how little research actually exists.  There is, of course, lots of information on the benefits and dangers of virtual education overall, but not a lot on music education in particular.  I was surprised that much of the research I uncovered was from Europe.  In addition, a significant portion of the online music education articles actually relate to collegiate and graduate study (and lots of articles on online graduate degrees for teachers).  

As a virtual music educator, I find my research topic to be extremely relevant and important to American music education.  I have had conversations with my colleagues about how they are concerned that online music courses will draw students away from their general music classes and ensembles.  I tend to disagree.  In my short time at FLVS, I have had students tell me that they are more interested in joining a music class at their local school because of their involvement with my Music of the World course.  I believe that this course opens them up to a new way of thinking about music, and they have a better understanding and appreciation for the history of western music (the main focus of the class) and they want to know more.  This experience with my own students is the entire foundation of my research topic project.  

My discussions with my classmates were very enlightening and enjoyable this week.  Although we did talk a bit about the article we read and the design of it, much of our discussion focused on how we related to the stressors indicated in the article.  It was nice to read how my fellow music educators sometimes struggle with the same issues that I have.  

As we progress through this class, I am becoming more and more comfortable with the general format of a research article.  I have found that as a reader, I prefer the qualitative studies due to their more narrative format.  However, as a writer, I feel as though I would be more comfortable with a quantitative study, due to my comfort level in working with numbers.   I am still uncomfortable with the small number of subjects in a qualitative research study, because I feel as though a test group of only 3 or 4 people does not constitute a viable cross section of a particular group.  I am anxious to learn more about the way these studies are conducted so when the time comes to conduct my own I am confident in my ability to do it well.

What I Learned - Week 3

This week presented a unique challenge in the form of the Music Education Scavenger Hunt.  At first, I was overwhelmed with this assignment.  I think what overwhelmed me the most was the sheer number of research databases at my disposal.  I felt that it was necessary to explore each one prior to starting the assignment in order to learn which ones would be the most useful to me.  I found the IIMP and the ERIC databases to be the most helpful in my work on this assignment.  As I got more comfortable with the format of the assignment, the research became easier.  I was able to quickly narrow my searches (usually by publication type) and find relevant entries that I could cite and describe in the assignment.  Still, some topics proved more challenging than others.  I found the most trouble with the topic regarding musical expressivity (Topic #3).  As much as I would refine the keywords, I just couldn’t seem to find an article that was relevant enough to include in the assignment.  Finally, when I added the word “instrumental,” a great article appeared and I included it.  I have found that just the slightest change to a search parameter can yield tremendously varied results. 

I also feel as though I became more adept and constructing APA Citations.  I feel as though the format was beginning to come more naturally to me as I progressed.  I was still checking my format against the models given on the reference websites, but I have become more confident in my use of APA Citation formatting.  While nearly each class I have taken so far at UF for my Masters has required APA formatting, this course has given me the opportunity to become more familiar with it, and I can only assume that I will continue to gain confidence in the APA style as this course progresses.

I really enjoyed reading and responding to my classmates’ posts on the discussion forum.  It was clear that each of their possible research topics were very important to them, and I tried to be as supportive as I could in my responses.  I think that the fact (as stated in the readings) that the topic of your intended research must be of interest to you is so crucial.  I can’t imagine spending countless hours developing research on a topic in which I was not interested.  Each of my classmates wrote very strong entries regarding their possible topics.  I had a particular interest in one student’s writing about the impact of the one-to-one initiative in his school band program.  Each student in grades 6-12 will receive their own computer.  As a virtual school teacher, I believe that the proper use of technology in the classroom is crucial to the advancement of education throughout the 21^st century.  Any research topic relating to technology hits close to home and I am drawn to it.  The possibilities presented by each music student having a computer and access to free web resources (such as www.musictheory.net) or paid programs (such as Finale or SmartMusic) are endless.  The inclusion of technology into the music classroom is an exciting step forward for Music Education in America.

What I Learned - Week 2

 There were several focuses to the material presented in week 2.  In addition to reading research and the stages of action research, we learned about how to construct (and deconstruct) a research article. 

I found the dissection of the Journal of Research in Music Education assignment to be very enlightening.  By analyzing the article step by step, I was able to see what works and what might not work in an academic research article.  The aspects of the research article were also discussed in the Phillips reading for the week.  This helped my analysis greatly.  While I am fairly comfortable with my APA citation, I am curious if it was done correctly because of the number of authors presented.  I felt the abstract (according to the details presented) was missing a few elements such an actual research question.  It could be argued, though, that although it is not presented as a direct question, it is implied through the abstract.  I found the introduction, review of literature, and purpose to be very thorough and provided a good foundation for the research.  I have struggled in the past with reviews of literature, and I found this example to be a good model from which to draw ideas and guidance.  I found the method of research was described thoroughly and I appreciated the detail to which the authors  presented their methods.  They also analyzed and discussed their results thoroughly and their data tables were well constructed.  Overall, I found this article to be a very good example of an academic research presentation and I took a lot away from it.

I thoroughly enjoyed my discussion on action research with my classmates.  We each approached our respective problems differently, but many aspects were similar.  For example, Andrew (David) and I both suggested that we would look to our colleagues for suggestions relating to our sight-reading concerns.  In addition, we both planned for multiple sight-reading assessments throughout the testing process.   I felt that it was important to break down the problem to something specific, syncopation in this case. 

While discussing Andrew’s post, I felt compelled to bring up something I had read about in the Mertler text, research ethics.  While research ethics generally deals with how subjects of a study are treated and how honestly the results are reported, I believe this carries over to the quality of the education the students receive.  Andrew suggested taking a “control” group and a “variable” group.  My concern is that if the students in one of the groups show no improvement or growth and do not meet state standards for reading music, then the students have not been served properly because of the study being conducted.  I am anxious to spend more time on this topic and hope that we are given the opportunity to discuss and debate research ethics. 

I felt that this week’s lessons really gave us the opportunity to apply what we had learned from the readings.  The research review also provided me with a stronger understanding of the structure of a research article and I feel less overwhelmed by the prospect of creating one of my own.  I have begun thinking of potential research topics.  Since I work in a virtual environment, I am leaning on some type of technological topic, but I am concerned with how research of this manner could be conducted in a virtual environment.  I am looking forward to exploring my ideas further in the coming weeks.