For my MUED 371 Scholarship Project, our assignment was to write a research paper on a topic that related to beginning instrumental music. Below is a walk-through of my project from the initial one paragraph proposal, reference list development, annotated bibliography/outline, paper, and the poster. For me, it was difficult writing this research paper; there was so much information that it was overwhelming to begin researching. The hardest part was narrowing down my topic enough so that I did not have information overload, but not narrowing it too much so that I did not have enough information to write a paper. It was easy to find one source and look at the reference list of that article, which then led me down a rabbit trail of multiple sources and a plethora of tabs on my laptop. Once I had all my articles, reading them, deciding if and how they related well to my thesis, and synthesizing them proved challenging and took a significant amount of time. What worked well for me was citing my sources in APA format simply because I have had a lot of practice doing it in the past year, that it’s semi fun and relaxing to do at this point. I got stuck initially writing my paper and deciding how to outline my paper so that all the sources were incorporated and supported my thesis well. The best thing for me to do at that point was get a giant table in Carrier Library, spread out all my books, and write on a whiteboard to see where my brain was thinking. I got most of my help from Dr. Stringham, who pushed me to critically think about the importance of my topic and why it needed to be argued for.
I love having the ability to present research both in a paper format and in a poster format. I think having both options allows students who think in different ways to sort through their ideas in various formats. It was easier for me to write the paper first and then draw from that to design my poster, but I recognize that for some of my other peers, the opposite worked better for them. I personally feel like standard research posters are too verbose and are not visually accommodating because they contain chunks of text on a single large page. I know that I do not enjoy reading that and I feel like a poster should visually display the important ideas in a captivating manner while the paper can have all the verbiage if someone wants to read it. That’s why I appreciated having the ability to cater to what I thought a poster should look like and what I think would be easiest for people to understand. I enjoyed doing this research and learning about a topic that I was interested in! I loved these last three chapters of Green’s book because it was easy to grasp and agree with the conclusions on group cooperation and student enjoyment she had formed based on her data collected. At first, I returned to my skeptical thinking about the effectiveness of informal learning and students being given absolute free reign of their music making experience. I could not conceive of how with all that freedom students could truly be productive all the time. However, Green addressed this with the teachers’ comments and her own conclusions that there was some “mucking” around, but in the end, students were able to take initiative and stay on task because they had circumstantial autonomy. The students might not have always sounded organized, but their playing and noodling around was a fundamental part of the learning experience that is sometimes forgotten about.
I was extremely interested in Chapter 7 of the book where informal learning was done with classical music. I shared similar expectations with the teachers and was also surprised when the students grew and enjoyed the project more than thought possible. It was interesting to see how my ideas need to be adjusted. For example, differentiation in the classroom may not mean creating different levels of difficulty for activities; instead, it could be differentiation by outcome like Green mentions. Also, students who may seem uninterested in the topic may actually be the ones who are most musically skilled, but they are just daunted by the task at first glance because the musical meanings are so far beyond their realm of interest. Green, L. (2008). Chapter 3: Making music and Chapter 4: Listening and appreciation. In “Music, informal learning, and the school: A new classroom pedagogy” (pp.40-91). New York: Routledge.
As I continue to read through Green’s book, I am becoming less skeptical of the idea of informal learning within a formal music education setting. Through her transcriptions and conclusions drawn from data, I am beginning to see how students are improving their aural skills and group ensemble skills even though they may have had worse results for a time. I enjoyed reading about how the students are certain that the way they listen to music at home is full of more awareness as they progress through the different stages. Although the students may not be able to articulate this clearly with musical terminology, they are understanding that change is occurring and as a result they are enjoying music class more and feeling in charge of their learning. In Chapter 4, Green mentions that while celebration might be a good aim for music educators, a better goal would be critical musicality. I agree with her in that celebration is a good, but vague goal for students. Her definition of critical musicality is clearly explained and gets to the core of music education---to help students come to a place of learning where they can explore and listen well to the basics of music, as well as underlying meanings, regardless of the style of music they listen to. It is good for teachers to want their students to appreciate all kinds of music, but we must have the skill to define how to do so in a way where students are the initiators. Green, Lucy. (2008). Chapter 1: Introduction and Chapter 2: The project’s pedagogy and curriculum content. In “Music, Informal Learning, and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy” (pp.1-40). New York: Routledge.
After reading Chapters 1 and 2 of Green’s book, I’m amazed and excited to hear about meticulous research done that demonstrates the effectiveness of informal learning practices in formal music settings. I loved reading the transcriptions of the students because they were raw and realistic, and demonstrated how students can still grow with enough time, even though it may not be in the organized or timely manner that teachers desire. However, I am skeptical that informal learning works simply because I have never seen positive results in person; it appears counter-intuitive and different than the way in which I learned music. As I was reading, I mused upon the question “What is the point of a teacher then?” because they are facilitating in such a minute way. I feel the same way one of the teachers described in that they felt like they were not putting enough effort into their job by allowing the students to just work on their own. Maybe my concept of teaching is wrong or needs to be refined so that a teachers’ worth is not judged by how much work they put into the lesson plan, but by how much space they allow the student to grow in---or maybe it is something different than that. I also questioned whether the students’ motivation was purely intrinsic or if there was a final grade that pushed the students to create a finished product. In the transcription in Chapter 2, the students’ planning was disorganized, but they also seemed driven to produce a final product to fulfill the teachers’ expectations. They ended up producing a performance that the teacher was pleased with, but were they doing it for their own sake or for the teacher’s sake? |
Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my scholarship in the form of reflective essays and philosophical assignments. Archives
November 2019
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