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Music 301

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’ 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