I. Course Title: Research Writing in Music (WI)
II. Course Number: MUSC 301
III. Credit Hours: 3 credits
IV. Prerequisites: Music Education or Music therapy major or permission of instructor.
V. Course Description:
This lecture-based course will serve as the writing intensive course requirement for
music therapy majors and is an optional writing intensive course for other music related
disciplines. The course will focus on essential writing skills and writing mechanics
of research in music. This course is intended to further develop students鈥� skills
in critical thinking including how to recognize, analyze, and evaluate arguments in
written and oral communication. This course is designed to further develop the skills
outlined above through an understanding of research methods in business, music education,
music therapy, and performance studies. Students will engage with different types
of research (qualitative, arts-based, mixed methods, quantitative, historical), through
critical evaluation of extant research related to their discipline of study. Students
will design a small-scale study related to an area of their interest to present at
the conclusion of the semester. This course will serve to help students develop competency
in information literacy and encourage the creation of their own persuasive arguments.
Note(s): Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning designated course.
VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:
- Students will understand the components of a research project as reported in scientific
journals. Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology development, Results, Analysis,
Discussion. This process will be the framework for the student development of a research
project that will include a deep dive into the literature on a topic that is relevant
to their personal professional development, a working knowledge of how to find and
make use of data that is reliable and valid, and the development of a research protocol
that can be implemented with human subjects.
- It is imperative to note that while quantitative research may be valued in some sectors,
within the human and behavioral sciences we would be remiss if we did not also encourage
and support the development of high-quality qualitative research, which is directly
connected to clinical practice, classroom educational settings, and small n studies.
Qualitative research is foundational to the development of strong and viable practices
and it should never be discounted as an area of importance within the scientific community.
Music therapy, music education, and music busines have at their backbone qualitative
research that is trustworthy, and allows for the student to value the in vivo experience
of communities that may be overlooked by large scale randomized controlled studies.
Qualitative research also values and holds central the voice of the participants,
not as data points, but as humans who are culturally situated and are co-collaborators
in the research process. Nothing is more indicative of the professional world of therapy,
ed, and business than a solidly constructed qualitative study. Students must also
learn that there should be no hierarchy of research, but that research methods are
chosen based on the method that can best answer the question without a value placed
on one type of research over another.
- Students will learn about the research publishing process, understand submission criteria,
peer-review (they will engage in that in class), editorial processes, and impact factors
of journals, including what these things mean and why they are important.
- Students will learn to find high-quality research through a fundamental understanding
of the overarching tenets of biobehavioral research with human subjects. What does
sample size mean, were the measures that were chosen able to support the research
question, does the results section indicate significance, what does effect size tell
us about research viability, what are reliability and validity, how do you determine
trustworthiness in qualitative research, how do you understand researcher fidelity?
- Students will learn about consort and trend reporting for quant and qual respectively
as a determinant of high-quality research and they will include either a consort or
trend in their final documents.
- Students will also learn the importance of obtaining and employing the most recent
research that is relevant to their topic, and will learn about research trends within
their respective professions based on the direction of recent research trajectories.
VII. Assessment Measures:
- Assignments include, evaluation of the components of both quantitative and qualitative
journal articles from scientific and peer-reviewed journals, development of a research
topic and subsequent question(s), creation of a literature map with a minimum of 10
sources, an iterative paper writing process where students generate an introduction
and literature review that is reviewed by their student peers ,and the professor with
feedback and time for revision. The development of a methodology section that includes,
inclusion/exclusion criteria, data collection, measures, and data analysis procedures,
with an iterative writing process that will be reviewed by peers and professor with
time to edit.
- Students will learn about the IRB process, protection of human subjects, research
ethics, and the role of the researcher in quantitative research vs. the role of the
researcher in qualitative research.
- Students will either conduct a classroom study that is exempt from the IRB (due to
semester long time constraints) or will use available data sets to obtain data that
applies directly to their research endeavor. Students will work in teams to handle
the data analysis, whether that be via SPSS computation or qualitative analyses and
report their data sets in APA format, discussing the results in writing and via an
end of semester presentation.
- Students will be continually reporting on their project, including sources of literature,
research hypothesis and questions, organization of sections, methodology, data collection,
and analysis. All students choose the topic that is of most professional benefit to
them, creating a learning community whereby all students gain access to a variety
of topics, research approaches, data collection methods, and research successes and
failures. This positions students to have access to a tremendous amount of information
from different disciplines supporting the ideals of interprofessional practice, as
well as having access to emergent topics within their own profession. Students become
their own experts on a topic and are encouraged to implement findings within their
practicum placements, student teaching experiences, and internship settings.
Other Course Information: None
Review and Approval
August 2020
March 01, 2021