So, you can probably surmise, given that it is already Tuesday night and I am finally having time to write about last week, that it was a busy week!
Probably the most interesting and yet professionally useless thing I learned this week came in Child and Adolescent Development. We were talking about young children and theory of mind. Theory of mind, among other things, is a person's ability to distinguish their own thoughts and feelings from those of others and to have a grasp on their own individuality. Children under the age of 2 have not yet developed theory of mind, so they assume that everyone around them feels what they feel. As we discussed this topic in class, a thought came to mind that had me laugh out loud. When children without theory of mind get hungry, they assume that everyone is hungry since they cannot distinguish their feelings as having come from within their own bodies and minds. Therefore, I reasoned, young children must experience feelings like adults experience the temperature. Like we would say on a winter's day, "it is cold out," young children with rumbly tummies must think, "it is hungry out!"
Monday was the first rehearsal of the Night Owls Community Band. I was really good this past week and I went to the gym every day. The only problem was that Monday afternoon, I tweaked my hamstring (those of you who know me well are probably laughing right now). So, I was trying to conduct the band while being unable to put a lot of weight on my leg. I must have looked like I was dancing around the podium like a madman as I shifted my weight from leg to leg as I conducted. I can only imagine what my adviser must have been thinking as she watched me: "where did we pick up this guy from and why on Earth are we giving him money to be here?" Don't worry, though. I stretched and I am fine...
... for now. I decided, in an effort to make new friends, to join coed flag football (those of you who know me well are probably laughing again right now and placing bets on how long it will be before I injure myself). I will keep a running injury tally for you complete with pictures.
I had a break through in my struggle with statistics this week. In a last ditch effort to understand statistics concepts, I turned to the internet, the treasure trove of possibly-accurate information that it is. I encountered a website, seemingly meant for elementary school children, www.mathisfun.com, and I finally understood standard deviation! Wooo! And then the next day I read an article which presented standard deviations in a way that took my new-found success and sucker punched it in the nads. Back to square one.
I have been tasked with instrument repair in the Pet Shop (that's what we call the instrument storage room). I have been asked to compile a list of the tools and supplies I require to start repairing instruments. I have been shopping all week and the list gets longer and longer. But, I am still under the amount it would cost them to replace the broken tenor sax case, which will be my first repair once the supplies come in.
I had a great conversation with my adviser this week. We talked about getting me ready to present at conferences. Whether I get to present anything this year will be determined by whether any conferences have any late openings, since the application deadlines have largely already passed. But, I am working on getting myself on track to have proposals of substance ready for application season in the spring. My adviser's biggest suggestion to me was to read as much as possible. So, heeding her advise, I am challenging myself to read at least two music education research articles and one broader education research article above my regular coursework each week. I will summarize my findings for all of you (I know you are super excited about this!) in my weekly ramblings. That's right, I am going to make you learn stuff!
That being said, I read a really interesting article this past week. It was an article about whether personality type plays any part in a person's propensity for regular music playing. The article sought to challenge the position of many music-related studies in the areas of psychology and neuroscience that playing music makes you smarter. This study wanted to show that smarter people are more often drawn to music and have a longer duration playing it. The experiment ended up showing that factors such as age, household income, parents' education level, involvement in non-musical extracurricular activties, IQ, grades in school, openness-to-experience, and conscientiousness are significant determining factors about whether or not someone will gravitate toward music lessons and keep at them. In the wrong hands, this study could be quite dangerous. Some would argue that if kids with low IQs, who live in low SES communities, whose parents have not graduated high school do not have the genetic and environmental supports to stick with music, offering music in schools in those communities would be pointless. But, I argue that these findings make having music as part of the curriculum in all schools even more important. If certain kids will not gravitate toward music on their own and stick with it by means of intrinsic motivation, the school can act as the support structure those kids need to be involved in musical activities and reap the benefits we know result from musical involvement.
Corricall, K. A.; Schellenberg, E. G.; Misura, N. M. (2013) Music training, cognition, and personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1-10.
(Yes, I know the second line in the citation above should be indented. I can't figure out how to do that on this blog. So, use your imagination)
Tune in next week for more Tales of Interest! (Futurama, anyone?)
Future Dr. Mitch, out!
No comments:
Post a Comment