Abstract
Welcome back! In this issue of Update we have eight outstanding articles, with five of those articles being reviews of literature. Reviews of literature are so very important to our field, and I am thrilled that this form of scholarly writing has a home in Update. I vividly remember being a master’s student in my first music education research class and finding a review of literature on a topic area I wanted to investigate. It felt like I had struck gold! I had found an overview and discussion of my topic that gave me a place to start with resources, terms, findings, and a model for how to synthesize results that was encapsulated into one meaningful resource. It was so empowering to know that others had been interested in my topic and that I had some historical precedent to help me learn and grow as a teacher and proceed further with my own investigation.
While no review of literature can cover everything on a topic, it can be such a relief for young scholars to have a start, a first step, a positive first push on a topic that encourages further investigation. Reviews of literature can also be a place for practitioners to find answers to important questions, again, all in one place instead of needing to find and read separate articles and synthesize those articles’ results. Many thanks to the authors of our reviews of literature who give this assistance to scholars and practitioners worldwide.
The topics of the reviews of literature in the current issue of Update address cultural biases in testing (Kruse), self-efficacy (Hendricks), test construction related to singing accuracy (Nichols), adolescent preference (Thomas), and choral performance excellence (Rolsten). The three research studies in the current issue of Update also address important topics for teaching and learning. The first is a survey of state conference preparation for teaching children with disabilities (VanWheelden and Mehan), the second is a case study of professional musicians with dyslexia (Nelson and Hourigan), and the third is a survey of music integration practices by elementary teachers in North Dakota (O’Keefe, Dearden, and West). You can also find a podcast discussing the results and implications of VanWheelden and Mehan’s article, “Teaching Children With Disabilities: Preparation Through State Music Education Association Conferences,” at upd.sagepub.com.
In this issue I am going to discuss a positive change that Update is making to the format of its articles. The goal of this change is to help readers get at the heart of what the article may mean for them. There will be a new bulleted section of implications at the beginning of each article. Traditionally, the final section of a research article in Update (sometimes called the Discussion, or Implications, or Conclusions) is where the reader can learn how the results of a study intersect with what has been previously found on a topic area, what music education still needs to know about a topic area, and how these results may have possible ramifications for research and for classroom practice.
Specifically, this final section usually covers the following components: (a) an overview of the results in layman’s terms, (b) how the results tend to align with the past research reviewed at the beginning of the study, (c) future research that can be done to move the topic forward, (d) a discussion of the research-based implications, and (e) the added component of implications for classroom practice, which is imperative especially for pedagogical research journals. The Update board perceives the pragmatic aspect of any research study to be a top priority, and in fact, the mission of the journal specifically prioritizes the interpretation and application of research findings for music teachers as a primary goal.
Because of the importance of research implications for practitioners, Update is modifying its article publication format in upcoming issues to have the implications be an up-front, highlighted section for readers. While the traditional final Conclusions section will still exist in the article, a new short-form section will also exist that will highlight the most important implications. This newly added section that presents a bulleted set of implications for practitioners will be found after the abstract but before the main article. The bulleted implications will be a 50- to 100-word freestanding section that will provide a succinct and clear link between the results of the study and the usefulness of those results for the classroom. Each implication should state a complete idea including the result followed by its specific classroom implication, and each complete idea should be bulleted; the bulleted statements should be consistently presented in the form of either full sentences or incomplete sentences, as determined by the stylistic preference of the author. The following are example bulleted implication statements in full sentence form:
Because the audiovisual treatment group achieved the highest scores in the current study, teachers may want to consider how combined presentation modes could be utilized in their own instructional settings.
Or
Both groups improved over the course of the study, but there was no difference between groups. Due to the lack of statistical or pragmatic difference between the two treatment groups at the end of the study, teachers in elementary classrooms may find that either of these two instructional protocols may benefit their students.
Or
In the current study the survey respondents were positive about community-based music experiences, with the most positive responses addressing music listening and active music-making experiences. Teachers who can disseminate information about these types of learning opportunities in their communities may be able to provide a valuable added music engagement activity for their students.
Or
Because the participant with dyslexia in the current case study noted that she felt socially isolated from other students in class, teachers who have students with special needs may want to gauge levels of social acceptance in their settings to encourage mutual respect.
It is the Update board’s hope that the addition of this new implications section at the beginning of an article will put pragmatic issues at the forefront of the minds of authors and readers, alike. I look forward to seeing your succinct and interesting implication ideas in your next submission.