Engaging in Active, Collaborative Research as a Vehicle for Learning About Researchful Practice in Music Therapy

Background
This poster reports on the embedding of a pedagogical project into the MA Music Therapy at the University of South Wales following a pilot iteration last academic year.

Aims
The pedagogical project recognises the welcome increase of students from non-traditional backgrounds training as music therapists, and the lack of research experience some students have when commencing their final year research projects. To support learning, a live research project was collaboratively embarked upon during the first four weeks of the semester, to enable students to actively experience and learn from the full research cycle before commencing their own individual, assessed research projects.

Methods
The outcomes of the research study are reported in separately, but the impact of this pedagogical approach is reported upon here. Students engaged in focus groups where semi-structured questions were posed to the student cohort. The transcripts of the focus group were analysed using Thematic Analysis. The intention was to understand their experience of actively embodying the role of researcher at a relatively early stage of their academic career. We wanted to find out whether this impacted their engagement with and understanding of subsequent researchful tasks.

Findings
The findings from the project showed positive outcomes and give insight into the lived-experience of early career researchers through this innovative pedagogical approach.

Implications
This project has implications for the curriculum development of music therapy courses locally, nationally and internationally. It enables exploration of small scale research questions through collaborative enquiry, contributing to building an evidence base for our profession.