From Reearch To Practice Wendy Sims, Reearch Chair
Using Research Findings to Inform Teaching by guest author, Brian Silvey
When many think about research, thoughts can sometimes turn to nerds sitting behind desks crunching numbers with the help of a statistical software program. (And, in fact, I actually am one of those nerds!) However, prior to attaining my PhD, I did not think much about how research findings were important in shaping our understanding of various music teaching and learning processes. A quick glance at the April 2017 edition of the Journal of Research in Music Education yields the following varied topics: social justice, musical games for children, score study, children’s opera, and performance rubrics. Regardless of our particular teaching specialty within music education, I am certain that at least one of these topics would be appealing and interesting to you.
But perhaps most importantly for practitioners, authors of research manuscripts discuss their findings within the context of previous studies in the Discussion section. As I tell those new to reading research, even if you do not understand the statistics found in the results section, practical implications for the classroom will be addressed in the Discussion. Although research manuscripts are not necessarily written to
summer 2017 |
www.mmea.net
address pedagogical issues in the music classroom (unlike those that are found in the Music Educators Journal or Teaching Music), researchers often use empirical-based evidence to support teaching practices in the classroom. Many of my long-held teaching beliefs have often been transformed over the years due to the information that I have read in many research journals. If nothing else, reading different ideas or strategies about how to teach will help inform your own classroom pedagogy. If you are not a current member of the SRME (Society for Research in Music Education), I encourage you to “check that box” the next time that you renew your NAfME membership online. The cost is nominal and you will receive four issues of the Journal of Research in Music Education each year.
As the current editor of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, I am delighted to announce our newest volume, which features three outstanding research articles. Bryan Koerner, a doctoral student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, investigated the effects of analytic practice strategies on undergraduate instrumentalists’ performance achievement and self-reported practice efficiency. He found
that students who used analytic practice strategies (i.e., those who stopped to remediate errors and moved to various areas within the music to fix errors) were much more efficient at practicing. Findings from this study may indicate the importance of teaching young instrumentalists how to practice (rather than just what to practice) once they leave the rehearsal hall.
Dr. Ryan Fisher of the University of Memphis and Leslyn Jacks (Katy Elementary School, Katy, Texas) explored the use of sight- reading practices throughout Arkansas secondary choral programs. Their findings revealed that 66.7% of schools used moveable-do solfege, whereas 26% reported using the number system. Furthermore, respondents reported that they spent approximately 15% of each rehearsal in sight-reading. Does this percentage seem too little, too much, or just about right? This is an example of a finding that may or may not be what you expected, but could be important information for choral music educators who want to know what other people in the field are doing during their rehearsals.
see SILVEY (research), p. 38 37
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