Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Research Publications

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    Fields of resonance from group therapeutic songwriting for people living with dementia and their family caregivers
    Clark, I ; Stretton-Smith, P ; Baker, F ; Tamplin, J (European Music Therapy Confederation, 2019)
    People living with dementia (PwD) and their family caregivers (FCG) often experience relationship stressors, social isolation and stigma. Therapeutic group songwriting (TGS) has been used to address these issues for groups involving either FCG or PwD, but not with groups of PwD/FCG dyads participating together. TGS for PwD/FCG dyads may encourage united expression with others in similar situations, leading to mental stimulation and achievement for individuals, meaningful shared experiences for dyads, and positive social opportunities. A randomised controlled trial is being conducted to compare social connectedness, relationship quality, quality of life, depression, and caregiver burden for 60 PwD/FCG dyads randomised to either 6 x 1-hour weekly TGS sessions (experimental) or waitlist control (University Ethics Approval: 1851252.2). Outcome measures will be collected at weeks 0, 7 and 13 following recruitment and the experimental group will also contribute video, interview, and song lyric data. The project is currently in the data collection phase. However, we anticipate several potential fields of resonance from this research, including feelings of personal success and confidence for both PwD and FCG, relationship satisfaction and togetherness for dyads, and empathic friendships. In addition, we anticipate songs portraying the lived experience of dementia may increase public awareness and understanding. This presentation will describe how theories and songwriting approaches were adapted to meet the unique needs of PwD and FCGs attending sessions together. We will also explore tensions arising from the outcome-based research design and expectations of research funding bodies with the values of community music therapy underpinning the research.
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    Experience of Virtual Writing Groups: Going Beyond Geographic Boundaries
    Johnson, C ; Lock, JV (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), 2018)
    There are greater expectations on academics, including career professors, to publish. How and where within their graduate programs did they develop the knowledge and capacity to be competent scholarly writers? Using a self-study research approach, we investigated strategies as part of a pilot designed to assess the impact of virtual writing groups on early career researchers’ publication output and the transition process from doctoral student to full-time academic. This pilot study informed the launch of a larger virtual writing group. The virtual writing group, includes early career academic, along with former doctoral supervisor supporting their transition as academics around their scholarly writing. The study explores the following research questions: 1) To what extent does a virtual writing group assist publication output through the transition of PhD student to early career researcher; and 2) What factors are integral for the effectiveness of a virtual writing group for early career researchers? Directions for future research are shared.
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    Making Multimedia Meaningful: Outcomes of Student Assessment in Online Learning
    Johnson, C ; Lock, JV ; Langran, E ; Borup, J (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), 2018)
    With the advancement of multimedia in learning management systems, online learning environments are no longer bound by text-based learning. Students and instructors need to work in an environment where there is intentional integration of multimedia that supports learning, teaching, and assessment. This case study investigated the intentional instructor use of multimedia and the impact on student learning tasks and assessment practice. From the findings, three themes were identified: the perception of multimedia as novel for students; student awareness of multimedia feedback as assistive in learning; and the integration of scaffolded learning through reflective activities. The following implications for practice address areas for creating effective online learning experiences when using multimedia: 1) students need support in using multimedia; 2) instructors need to unpack assumptions about student use of technology for learning; and 3) multimedia tools and supports need to be available in fostering robust learning experiences.
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    Designing online orientations for higher education music students: A proposed framework
    Johnson, C ; Binns, G ; Campbell, M ; Willems, J ; Adachi, C ; Blake, D ; Doherty, I ; Krishnan, S ; Macfarlane, S ; Ngo, L ; O'Donnell, M ; Palmer, S ; Riddell, L ; Story, I ; Suri, H ; Tai, J (ASCILITE, 2018)
    Online orientations can provide university students with helpful introductions to relevant knowledge and skills they will need over the course of their studies. While traditional models of university orientation focus on face-to-face lecture delivery and often depend on individual, time-specified events, the online environment can be used for more interactive and discipline-specific orientation. The adoption of an online orientation approach can further provide students with information accessible in manageable time frames and supportive practical applications. Aligned to research literature, this paper proposes a framework for developing an online orientation program for higher education undergraduate and graduate music students. The framework brings together the design benefits of the online environment in conjunction with literature on effective practices of orientation programs. As such, the framework identifies four components of influence when designing an online orientation: Purpose; Audience; Design construction; and Content topic considerations. Areas for future research are also highlighted.
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    Online Curriculum Mapping: Designing for Teaching Presence in Online Music Courses
    Johnson, C (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), 2018)
    As online courses develop into larger online programs, curriculum mapping is a necessary tool for ensuring overall alignment. However, in the online environment, the importance of teaching presence should be considered as foundational towards program mapping goals. This paper explores the process of curriculum mapping from the program level down into the course objectives. Further, the alignment of teaching presence to course assessments is identified due to the integral nature of designed interaction when in the online environment. Aspects of Universal Design for Learning and its connections to multiple means of representation and expression are highlighted. Three practical examples are provided for instructors to use as entry points for reflective exploration in teaching design, assessment, course objectives and program goal alignment. Recommendations and directions for future research in online curricular mapping are provided.
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    International creativities research in economic, education and trade policy.
    Harris, A ; de Bruin, L ; Chemi, T ; Burnard, P (Southern Oregon University, 2018)
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    Self-regulation and the high school jazz and improvisation learner.
    de Bruin, L (ASME, 2017)
    Common to all musicians, and not just improvising ones is the development and adaptation of sensory-motor, audiative, imaginative and self-regulatory strategies. They develop self-regulatory behaviors of learning that involve the evolution of specific goals, strategies, self-evaluation, adjustment, reflection and monitoring of progress. Yet, whilst learning takes place in our minds, and as fascinating as neuroscience can shed light on music education, learning and teaching is negotiated within social and communicative environments. Recent cognition theories suggest that learning involves the attainment of automation, and the meshing of embodied skills and knowledge acquired through situated and experiential learning, acknowledging that from a social-cognitive perspective self-regulatory processes - learning to learn, and learning to be creative can be viewed as a set of relations that are actualized, mediated and activated through transactions among individuals, environments, and socio-cultural relations. Research on self-regulation that enhances creative processes has extended beyond the synthesizing of convergent and divergent thinking, and of teaching creatively and for creativity. Recent discourse on creativity now aligns with that of self-regulation in arguing that these principles are layered within a more complex distributed nature of learning and expression of knowledge, that identifies self-regulation, co-regulation and socially shared regulation of learning. Creativity scholars such as Burnard, Glaveneau and Sarath similarly articulate a ‘WE’ paradigm of emergent processes that evoke multiple creativities that mark a conspicuous and striking aspect of thinking, learning and self-regulation that enhances creativity in music-making.
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