Each year, KMEA Research sponsors two sessions at the KMEA In-Service Workshop. The first is a research general session and the second is a research poster session.
The general research session will include four presentations of recent research in music education and the psychology of music. As in all years, the research arm of KMEA seeks to identify and include research from the very best the state has to offer. This year’s presenters feature four brief, but exciting engaging presentations that I am sure will inform and excite. The first presentation features Philip Payne, Wesley Lewis & Frank McKaskill from the Kansas State University discussing Looking Within: An Investigation of Potential Relationships Between Music Education Majors and Mental Health. This session will present data collected from a national survey regarding relationships between possible indicators of mental health issues and factors unique to college life including work, practice, and overall quality of life. A demographic profile of music education students will be presented including workload (both professional and academic), practice habits, and current perception of academic, mental, and physical health. Furthermore, any relationships revealed and current trends or practices that could be contributing to these mental health indicators will be discussed. Further research opportunities including coping strategies and advising practices will be shared.
The second presentation will feature Jennifer Potter from the University of Kansas. Her presentation is titled Classroom Management in Urban Music Classrooms: Preservice Music Teachers’ Attitudes and Perceived Preparation. This presentation will feature a study that examined the attitudes of preservice music teachers concerning strategies and preparation for classroom management in music classrooms in urban settings. Participants were preservice teachers (N = 9) who were juniors or seniors, males (n = 6) and females (n = 3), in the music education degree program at two Midwestern universities. In a qualitative case study design, five themes emerged from the data; findings indicated preservice teachers might benefit from more urban field experiences and opportunities to practice classroom management strategies prior to student teaching.
The third presenter is Frederick Burrack from Kansas State University. His presentation, titled Changing the paradigm of measuring student learning in the USA: The National Pilot of the Model Cornerstone Assessments, will describe the research methodology implemented to develop, revise, and pilot the recently published Model Cornerstone Assessments for the new National Standards for Music Education. The results of the pilot will be shared, as well as a short summary of their intended purpose in music classrooms.
The Final Presentation from the Wichita State University will feature Kaitlin Exline, Dr. Elaine Bernstorf, Dr. Steve Oare, Dr. Marlene Schommer-Aikins, & Dr. Carmen Lemoine. Their presentation, titled Music Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Environments: Exploring Informal Learning Practices, will discuss a mixed method study that examines alignment among things teachers feel should be happening in their classrooms and what observers will see happening in the room. Conclusions will examine found discrepancies.
Clearly this session will feature some of the finest work in music education from all parts of the state.
The general session this year will be on Friday, February 23rd beginning at 8:00 a.m. in Room 201 of Century II.
2018 Research Poster Session
You are cordially invited to present at the 2014 Research Poster Session!!!
Each year, KMEA sponsors a research poster session at the February In‑Service Workshop and usually features more than twenty projects. This year, the session will feature a meet and greet with research authors on Friday, February 23rd from 3:00‑3:55 p.m., in the foyer located directly above the registrations in Century II. The session includes poster presentations of music education research by public school educators, university faculty, and university students. Each presenter has an exhibition area where they display materials pertaining to their research. Those poster presentations go up around noon on Thursday, and remain up until after the meet the author session late Friday afternoon. If you are interested in presenting original research at this session, please contact me, Chris Johnson, KMEA Research Chair, by February 15th. You may email me at the following address: cmj@ku.edu.
The poster session is an excellent opportunity for workshop attendees to discover many things. This session allows you to learn about the current burning questions in music education, and what we know about these topics. Opportunities to speak with the researchers can tell you not only about the project in hand, but also about what Music Education knows about many diverse topics. This session allows people to drop in and stay for a few minutes to talk with one person who may well have interesting information, or stay for the entire hour and glean informed views from many participants regarding all manner of topics. We usually see about 200 people come through this event. This year, we hope even more people will come by to take advantage of this dynamic learning opportunity.
As always, we will have abstracts for the general session available at the door to the session. We hope you will come by, look at the talks to be presented, and come on in to see how the newest knowledge in our profession can make your classroom a more effective experience for your students.
