August 2004
The use of DVD animations in teaching music theory, the rewards and challenges of adult music education and motivation issues among Year 7 music students are some of the issues being investigated by students in Monash's Master of Education (Music Education) course.
Senior lecturer and former course coordinator Dr Ros Smith said most of the masters research topics had arisen from particular workplace problems or concerns.
"For instance, one of our students, who has taught music in both boys and girls schools, is doing her research thesis on why boys in her prep class are less interested in singing than girls at the same level," Dr Smith said.
"She is looking at the reasons for this and at ways of dealing with it, ways of trying to make the boys more positive about singing."
Students in the course also investigate and discuss the work of other researchers in the music education field. One of the most debated issues in the music education field, according to Dr Smith, involves the 'Mozart effect', a term based on US research in the early 1990s suggesting that listening to Mozart could improve learning abilities.
US researchers found college students who listened to about 10 minutes of a certain Mozart piano sonata experienced short-term improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning -- the ability to make a mental image and think ahead in space and time.
"One of the problems is that music teachers around the world sometimes use this sort of research to make exaggerated claims about the value of music lessons," Dr Smith said.
"Our students are encouraged to look more deeply into research like this to determine what it really does or doesn't mean."
The course has a largely online and off-campus study mode to meet the teachers' unique needs.
"Music teachers usually have a lot of extra-curricular commitments, with practice and concerts and performances after school making it difficult for them to attend classes after work, which is why the off-campus mode was developed," Dr Smith said.
"There's a mix of online and more traditional forms of contact between students and lecturers, and people can choose the balance that suits them."
Earlier this year, a group of eight students participated in a three-week visit to Europe, where they attended classes and seminars at leading music education institutes in Geneva and Hungary.
Dr Smith, who is also associate dean (staff) in the Education faculty, recently passed on the role of course coordinator to Dr Jane Southcott, who said the future of the course was extremely promising.
"Many students have moved on to the final research phase of the degree and the range and quality of their research is exciting," Dr Southcott said.
Contact: rosalynd.smith@education.monash.edu.au Ph: +61 3 9905 2820 jane.southcott@education.monash.edu.au Ph: +61 3 9905 2810 | 
