Philadelphia is cold in the winter. I am over it.
I think I am finally settling into a rhythm for the semester. It took a while, but things are starting to feel a little more sure footed.
This week was the start of my adviser's research project for which I am the research assistant. The pretest went without major problem and was over far quicker than we anticipated. In the preparation for and execution of the pretest, I have already learned a lot of valuable things about conducting research. Dr. C. talked today about struggles with sampling in a study like this. Because the study is so time consuming, multiple universities have to be involved to have enough participants to provide a sample which will result in robust findings. That is to say that the results of the study will have convincing enough data to show that the treatments really were either a success or failure. I learned that convenience sampling is just not good enough in most cases and that often more extreme and logistically-complicated measures must be taken to ensure robustness. I also learned how important it is to consider all the moving pieces when trying to set things up. People's work schedules, material collection and distribution, facility availability, coordination between participating entities, and more have to be considered when planning a project. Not only do these aspects need to be considered, everyone involved needs to be kept up to speed and included in the planning dialogue so someone doesn't get left out of the loop. This is all really valuable information and experience as I am trying to get started on my first original research project this spring.
I have a research paper coming down the pike at me in Measurement and Evaluation in Music and I hope it will inform my research project this spring and my dissertation down the road. For the paper, we are allowed to research any form of evaluation, measurement, or assessment used in or having impact on music classrooms. I have decided to research the pervasive phenomenon of chair auditions, or the ability ranking of students in an ensemble, and the subsequent assignment of music parts based on those rankings. It is my contention that, while ability ranking is appropriate in professional orchestras and other ensembles, it is not appropriate in school ensembles of developing musicians. I am hypothesizing that by ability ranking developing students and assigning parts based on those rankings, music teachers essentially track a portion of students out of being able to seriously study music. In my initial survey of music research on the topic, I have come across a big problem which is also a big opportunity: there is not much research on the topic. While that makes research for this paper more challenging, it means that this topic of inquiry is wide open for my exploration and research. My paper for this class will end up being based on the small amount of extant literature in music on the topic and a slew of other research in related fields. The trick is going to be figuring out what related research to read. So far, I have come up with educational tracking, effects of competition on children, equitability in education, student motivation, and normed assessments as related research topics.
That being said, I read an interesting article on music auditions this week during my research for the paper. The study examined high-performing, student, orchestral musicians during a weekend-long, orchestra festival experience. The study looked at changes in the students' perceptions of self-efficacy over the course of the orchestra festival as a function of gender and orchestra placement (there were two, ability-based orchestras). Students' self-efficacy was recorded at four points during the weekend: before placement auditions, before the first rehearsal, at the midpoint of the festival, and before the final concert. The study found that there was a significant rise in self-efficacy across the participants over the course of the weekend and that the self-efficacy significantly rose between all four benchmark points. There was no significant difference in self-efficacy based on gender or orchestra placement. However, there was a significant interaction between time, orchestra placement, and gender. This revealed that there was a difference in self-efficacy between females in the top orchestra and those in the lower orchestra between the first two benchmarks only. Interestingly enough, the females placed in the lower orchestra showed a rise in self-efficacy after the placement auditions and the females in the upper orchestra did not. The article postulates that the general rise in self-efficacy over the course of the festival is likely a product of growing familiarity with the music through rehearsal and the resulting belief in probable success in performance. The lack of self-efficacy increase in the females in the upper orchestra after the auditions is attributed to the competitive nature of the top group and the belief of those students that other students were gunning for their positions. Much of this article is not directly applicable to my hypothesis regarding the appropriateness of chair auditions in school band and orchestras because this study did not take place in a school band or orchestra and the article does make a point that self-efficacy is affected by circumstance. The damaging effects on student morale of highly competitive auditioned environments does have the potential to be supportive to my hypothesis.
Hendricks, K. S. (2013). Changes in self-efficacy beliefs over time: contextual influences of gender, rank-based placement, and social support in a competitive orchestra environment. Psychology of Music, 42 (3), pp. 347-365.
I have an intern for Temple Prep. An undergraduate student caught me in the hallway and asked if he could help out with the Temple Prep Wind Ensemble. He wanted to get real experience working with kids in a musical environment. His initiative is something I respect. It is the same thing I did when I asked Tony Townes if I could help out with the Northwestern HS band program while I was in undergrad. I learned so much from working with Tony that I had to agree to take on this intern. It is going to be a really positive thing, I think. I am going to have to figure out the right amount of guidance to give him. This past week, I gave him no guidance at all. I wanted him to prepare what he thought to be the right music and the appropriate way to teach it. I think he learned a lot from that experience and the resulting experience of trying to work on the music with the students. This week, I am going to provide him some questions for thought on this past weekend's successes and shortcomings as well as questions to help him focus on some things that will aid his music selection and lesson sequencing for this coming weekend. I will still let him pick his own music without my input, as long as he considers the questions I pose.
Tomorrow, I am playing in a Wind Symphony concert. Check out the live streaming broadcast of the concert tomorrow starting at 7pm. I will post the link once I find it!
Well, I think that is it for this week.
Future Doctor Mitch, out!
No comments:
Post a Comment