GUIDE TO UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH IN MUSIC
EDUCATION AT UW-WHITEWATER
UW-WHITEWATER
WHY DO UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH?
If you are interested in discovery and would like to excel in scholarly and creative enterprises outside of your classroom, you need to get involved in undergraduate research program. UW-Whitewater has a national reputation in undergraduate research
and you have a great opportunity to research, learn and advance in the field of music/music education. If you choose to become an undergraduate researcher, then you
will have the possibility to work with a faculty member mentor and learn how to do research from “A to Z”. You will also have an opportunity to submit an abstract to and
present your work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) or
the University of Wisconsin Symposium on Research and Creative Activities. You will
also share the results of your research at the annual UW-Whitewater Undergraduate
Research Day Program.
Who is Eligible?
Any student of sophomore status or greater at the time of application.
Having a UW-W cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher at the time of application.
Be enrolled full-time in an undergraduate program during completion of project.
What should you do?
Contact Dr. Holmes. We will discuss your interests, possible topics for your future research and I will help you to find the mentor who is the most knowledgeable in the area
of your interest.
You can also visit undergraduate research web-site:
http://www.uww.edu/urp/index.html
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DO RESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION?
What is Research? Research is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to increase understanding of the phenomenon under study. In other words,
research is an ORGANIZED and SYSTEMATIC way of FINDING ANSWERS to QUESTIONS.
Most of the topics for research in music educations concentrated on improving the
quality of music teaching and learning. Music educators are always searching for better
ways to engage students in music learning. They try new and different techniques and
methods in an effort to improve the instructional process. Music researchers at different
levels continuously look for answers to questions that will help to advance music education. Research can help to seek out an answer to something that comes up during
your learning and practicum teaching. It could be an answer to pedagogy questions ,
such as “The Effect of warm up exercises on intonation of Middle School choral students “ or a content question , such as “ Which choral pieces written by 19th century
women composers I can use with high school mixed choir?”
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CATEGORIES OF MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is systematic investigation of educational or social phenomena
via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. Research primary relies on
numbers to organize and summarize findings. Quantitative research is often categorized into two broad categories: experimental and non=experimental.
Experimental/quasi-experimental. Experimental researchers are broadly interested in
the question,”What will be under certain conditions?” -that is, cause and effect questions. For example, The Effect of Music Instruction on Phonemic Awareness in Beginning
Readers (Gromko, 2005). Examples of the article based on experimental research you
will find at the end of this guide.
Non-experimental quantitative strategies include:
Descriptive method. Researchers using this method are interested in answering the
question: “What is?” One of the strategy of gathering the information can be the questionnaire, or survey. For example: “What is the attitude of elementary education majors toward music in the school curriculum?” Another way to answer the question can
be the analysis of sources of information. For example, “How many multicultural songs
are included in the different textbooks for Kindergarten?”
Correlational method. Researchers using this method are interested in answering relationship questions. For example, in the article (presented at the end of the guide)
Woody and Burns (2001) examined the relationship between college-level music appreciation students’ musical backgrounds, preference, and beliefs and their responsiveness
to classical music.
Causal-comparative method. Researchers using this method examine conditions that
are already in place, and cannot be manipulated by the researcher. For example, gender, age, socioeconomic status, instrument played are the pre-existing factors. For example in the article (at the end of the guide) Fitzpatrick (2006) examined the effect of
instrumental participation and socioeconomic status on the proficiency test scores of
fourth-, sixth-, and ninth-grade students in Ohio.
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Qualitative
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior
and the reasons that govern such behavior. Qualitative research is well suited to studying and describing the qualities of phenomena as they occur in natural settings and contexts. So researchers who are interested in the music teachers’ perception of students
regarding phenomena related to teaching and learning in music often do qualitative research .
There are variety of designs and approaches within qualitative research. Some studies
follow case study design. With that design, researcher collects as much information as
possible on a small number of participants in an effort to provide rich description of the
participants’ experiences. In Silvey (2005) article (you can find article at the end of the
guide) examined the way high school students perceived and experienced a choral
composition they were learning to perform.
In some qualitative studies, interviews are the primary source of data. For example, in
Flowers and Murphy’s (2001) study of the music preferences, music activities and music
reflections of older adults (> 65), they used interview as their only source of information.
One of the most prominent research designs in recent years is a narrative inquiry. Researchers explore people’s stories as a research design. Narrative studies in music education often focused on capturing the voice of music teachers and students through
journal writing and interviews. Conway, Micheel (2005) employed narrative inquiry
using data from teacher journals’ observation and interviews to find out the challenges
and struggles of music student teachers and first-year teachers. --See the article at the
end of the guide.
Historical
Historical research can bring very valuable information to music educators. It provides
basis for understanding the past and can also provide perspective for making decisions,
creating policies and help us to understand the antecedents for current situation in music education. Historical research may use both quantitative and qualitative strategies
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for examining issues, events, movements, concepts, and historical figures of the past.
Researchers use historical documents, such as newspapers, periodicals, diaries, journals,
letters, recordings, school documents and records, scores etc.
Philosophical
Philosophical inquiry strives to provide deep analysis of ideas in music educational settings. Often, philosophical inquiries focus on value issues, such as “What should be included in the preparation of music educators?” Some inquiries focused on policy issues, such as school choice, educational equity, social justice, feminism, the role of music in curriculum, the aesthetic experience, what musics should be part of the school
music and what should be the relationship between music educators and the music industry. The data collected in philosophical research are texts from other researchers,
authors, and philosophers.
SELECTION OF A TOPIC
As a beginner researcher, here are some specific questions relating to the purpose of
your research:
✴ What am I interested in?
✴ Are there any problems that might be resolved by research?
✴ Am I sure I possess the background necessary to successfully complete the research?
✴ Has the proposed research been done before?
✴ Will I be able to obtain the data I need to complete the research?
Once you've identified a broad topic, start looking at a few scholarly reference articles
or books which can help you figure out which authors and sources are the most important to know about. Often a scholarly reference article or book will give you a short,
authoritative overview of your topic and suggest additional sources for you to read.
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SOURCES OF RESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION:
Music Education Research Journals:
• Journal of Research in Music Education. You can find this journal online. Go to Anderson
Library web-site (if you are off campus do not forget to login with “off campus login”)
and select “Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all
of the articles from 1964 till the most recent ones.
• Research Studies in Music Education. You can also find this journal online. Go to Anderson Library web-site, select “Databases”, scroll down to “All Databases” press “Go”
then find under “S” -Sage Premier Journals Online and search for this journal.
• International Journal of Music Education. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from 1999
till most recent.
• UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education. Published online twice a year,
available free to members of MENC. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles
from 1998 till 2008.
• Music Education Research. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”.
Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from
1999 till most recent.
• Research & Issues in Music Education. Available online
http://www.stthomas.edu/rimeonline/vol8/index.htm
• Visions of Research in Music Education. Available online
http://users.rider.edu/~vrme/
• Philosophy of Music Education Review. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select
“Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from 1999 till most recent.
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• Psychology of Music. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type the
name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from 1996 till
most recent.
• Journal of Aesthetic Education. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”.
Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from
1966 till most recent.
• Contributions to Music Education. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles
from 2003 till most recent.
• Journal of Band Research. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type
the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles from 1964 till
most recent.
•British Journal of Music Education. Go to Anderson Library web-site and select “Journals”. Type the name of the journal and then press go. You can find all of the articles
from 2001 till 2010.
Searching Databases
Available through UWW library: Go to “DATABASES” and select “ALL DATABASES” then search for the one you need.
Dissertation Express. Offers a comprehensive database of bibliographic citations without
abstracts. Citations can be viewed without payment.
The ERIC database is the world's largest source of education information. The database
contains more than 950,000 abstracts of documents and journal articles on education research and practice. Andersen Library owns the microfiche set of the ERIC ED documents but they are also starting to be available Partial/Full Text on the Internet.
Grove Music Online. The number one site on all aspects of music. Widely used throughout the academic and professional community; includes the full texts of The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of
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Opera(1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition 2001, as well as all
subsequent updates.
International Index to Music Periodicals. IIMP covers nearly all aspects of the world of
music, from the most scholarly studies to the latest newspapers and magazines articles.
More than 370 international music periodicals from over 20 countries, and also indexes
feature music articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
International Index to the Performing Arts. IIPA Full Text draws its current content from
more than 200 international performing arts periodicals and also indexes performing
arts related articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. IIPA Full Text covers nearly all aspects of performing arts, from scholarly
studies to snapshots of popular culture.
•Google Book Search. http://books.google.com/ this search engine finds books that have been
scanned and made available on die Internet. One can, for example, find PDF files of
Lowell Masons Song Garden (bk. 2), the Progressive Music Series, Tufis and Holts
Normal Music Gourse, Jepsons Standard Music Reader, and Luther Whiting Masons
National Music Gourse.
• Humanities International Complete provides full text of hundreds of journals, books,
and other published sources from around the world. Humanities International Complete includes all data from Humanities International Index (over 2,100 titles and 2.47
million records) plus unique full text content.
•JSTOR http://www.jstor.org JSTOR is a subscription database available through UWW
library and includes archives of more than 1,000 leading academic journals across the
humanities, social sciences, and education, including Music Supervisors/Educators
Journal (1914-2007), the Journal ofResearch in Music Education (1953-2006), the History
of Education Journal (1949-1959), the History of Education Quarterly (1961-2003) and
others.
•ProQuest Historical Newspapers. This subscription resource is available through UWW
library. Tides of major US newspapers including the New York Times, the Chicago
Tribune, and the Washington Post have been scanned into PDF format. This database
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can be searched by keyword and date, uncovering in a few seconds articles that previously would have only been found through pouring over numerous reels of microfilm.
Oxford Music Online . You can access and cross-search the resources of Oxford's music
reference in one location. This subscription includes access to The Oxford Dictionary of
Music, Grove Music Online and The Oxford Companion to Music.
Project Muse Provides access to the full text of over 120 scholarly journals in the humanities (including music), social sciences, and mathematics.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature contains records in over 200 languages; entries include original-language titles, title translations in English, full bibliographic information, and abstracts in English, as well as author, journal, and in-depth subject indexes. The majority of citations include abstracts. Over 500 scholarly journals are represented.
Sage Premier Journals Online provides electronic access to 408 peer-reviewed, full-text
journals in Humanities ( including music) , Social Sciences, and Science, Technology
and Medicine.
AVAILABLE THROUGH WORLD WIDE WEB
•Internet Archive. http://www.archive.org This site searches digitized material on the Internet. Many sources can be viewed as PDF, HTML, or in flip book format. Examples
include volumes of proceedings by the National Education Association and an audio
file from the Siegel-Myers School of Music.
•Library of Congress Digital Collections. www.loc.gov The digital collections offered by the
Library of Congress allow researchers to view primary source materials in the form of
sheet music, audio files, and photographs.
•Band Music PDF Library. http://www.bandmusicpdf.org The Band Music PDF Library offers more than 400 public domain titles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries for free download. This music may be used for performing, research, or as authentic material for arrangers to set for modern bands. Users are encouraged to create
and submit full scores and transposed D'' piccolo and E'' horn parts for modern instru-
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ments. When available, biographical information on composers and arrangers is included widi the set of parts. New titles are added each month.
•The Making of America http://quod.lib.uniich.edu/m/moagrp/ This database is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period
through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles.
•International Music Score Library Project/Petrucci Music Library.
http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page The IMSLP attempts to create a virtual library containing
all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to
share their music with the world without charge. This site is excellent for music educators wishing to compare arrangements of Western masterworks with their original
source, arrangers looking for material to transcribe for school bands and orchestras, and
college professors and students looking for scores to study, research and conduct.
IMSLP is quite extensive and contains thousands of musical scores.
•Internet Bandsman's Everything Within Web Site. http://www.ibew.co.uk This web site is
the information resource for brass bands world-wide. This site also features a number
of other historical resources connected with British brass bands.
•History of Music Education Web Site. http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/William-Lee/ This site is
devoted to the history of music education. It is designed to help scholars in the history
of education and specialist-scholars in music educational history. Though the site emphasizes electronic resources, it also includes a variety of representative books, articles,
and bibliographies relating to how people have taught and learned music. This site is
supported by the Music Department of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and
maintained by Professor William R. Lee, Coordinator of Music Education.
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TOO MUCH INFORMATION?
Talk to your mentor, we are there to help you with every step of your research process.
We will make sure that your research project will be interesting, exciting, rewarding
and very beneficial for your professional growth and for music education in general.
You will find research articles describing different research methodology below. Please
keep in mind that these articles have been written by professors, doctoral students or
music educators with graduate degree. You research project will not have to be at the
similar level of sophistication. However, these articles might give you a better idea
about different types of research and methods and procedures associated with it.
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Example of Research Articles
Quantitative Study- Experimental Study
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