Exploring the Research Mindset and Information-Seeking Behaviors of Undergraduate Music Students

Abstract

This article examines the mindset and process of undergraduate music majors conducting research in their discipline. While working with students in a writing-intensive music history class, the authors conducted several surveys, focus groups, and task-based assessments. Results indicated that most were overconfident in their research abilities, lacked experience with the research process, and struggled to locate and properly cite scholarly sources. Based on existing literature, music students exhibited research practices similar to those in other academic fields. IntroductionClassroom instructors and librarians are frequently unaware of incoming students' backgrounds, past research experiences, and writing proficiencies. Librarians incorporate information literacy skills into their instruction and interactions with students, while faculty focus on content. Like many disciplines, academic skills for undergraduate music students are often overshadowed by an emphasis on applied (that is to say, performance) skills. Music curricula generally require a number of low-credit courses (in other words, ensembles, conducting, private lessons, piano class) resulting in a considerable time commitment of preparation and practice. Additionally, these students have a number of resource types for music study, including video, audio, reference materials for context and background, scores, books, and articles. The myriad of webbased and informal sources of information available to students leads to additional questions about music students' research processes, beliefs, preferences, and abilities.Although the focus of this research is on music undergraduates, some of the findings may apply to university students in a number of other disciplines. The authors devised this study in an attempt to answer the following questions: What types of research have undergraduate music majors conducted? How comfortable are they with various aspects of research? How important are research and writing skills to these students? What steps do they take in their research and writing? How frequently do they seek assistance, and to whom do they turn for help? And finally, how well do students find, use, and cite quality resources?

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