7 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
This chapter presents practical implications along with the recommendations, limitations, and conclusions of the main contributions of this dissertation, and suggestions for further research.
and interest in studying greatly affect their perceptions of workload (Kyndt et al., 2014). Thus, it is vital to provide music students with proper support for coping and strengthening their study motivation. Studying music has its own unique characteristics compared to other fields in higher education. Article II can be utilised in higher music education institutions, as it illustrates music students’ particular ways of using proactive coping styles. For example,
learning strategies for coping with stress connected to stage fright is particularly important for music students (Nogaj, 2017). The article also shows that there are differences between genders in using proactive coping styles, and these differences should be acknowledged in order to develop better support systems for music students.
Figure 2. Practical implications of the dissertation
7.1.2 Developing learner-centred environments
The second recommendation suggests that higher music education institutions should find solutions to the unequal workload and stress experiences between low-income and well-off students, different genders, and different study programmes. Previous research has shown that although student-centred teaching has generally replaced teacher-centred curricula in higher education, it is not evident that it decreases student workload (Kyndt et al., 2011), nor that it has made equal progress in the music studio (Pozo et al., 2022). According to Kyndt et al. (2011), a student-centred setting requires more students’ initiative and autonomy from students, which may lead to insecure feelings if the
teaching does not provide enough information to support students in completing assignments. That, in turn, may influence students’ approaches to learning. In addition, when teachers aim to provide suitable materials to students’ individual needs in the courses, this may lead to an increased workload, because it is difficult to remove materials from the curriculum when there are increasing requirements both inside and outside institutions for the courses (Kember et al., 1996).
There are several ways to develop learner-centred environments.
Higher music education institutions could utilise research on music students’
health (Ginsborg et al., 2009; Williamon & Thompson, 2006) to tackle the negative impact of university culture on students’ well-being. They could also acknowledge students’ diverse backgrounds and circumstances and consider specific actions, such as changing a competitive atmosphere to a more co- operative university culture (Fernández-Herrería & Martínez-Rodríguez, 2016; Fitzpatrick, 2019). For example, some participants in the MSW project experienced extracurricular paid work as a benefit, despite its contribution to a greater workload, if it could be linked to future career goals. This finding could have interesting implications for the development of programmes where paid music internships would be embedded in the curriculum structure; could institutional partnerships with ensemble and music professional contacts create opportunities for music students to both earn money and develop networks and at the same time experience contextual work-based training? Indeed,
study programmes could be developed by utilising more diverse sources of knowledge, as Cannella and Koro-Ljungberg (2017) suggest:
Diverse knowledges, multiple ways of being/living,
critical multiculturalism, justice education, and practices of reconceptualization connected with support for performances that directly counter commodification and profiteering provide a range of locations from which to counter, resist, even become without, neoliberalism in higher education. (p. 6)
7.1.3 Tools for teachers to support music students to cope with workload The third recommendation suggests that higher music education should ensure teachers’ continuing professional development, particularly in learner- centred pedagogical approaches. Understanding music students’ experienced workload may enable teachers to improve their students’ learning experiences more generally. Constructivist learning theories suggest that it is possible to support students being active learners when the teaching is connected to their prior knowledge and students have enough time to process new information (Kolari et al., 2006). The emphasis on researching music students’ workload experiences may offer a way to strengthen students’ experiences to be integrated into developmental work in teaching. This understanding could be utilised in changing teacher-centred and product-oriented methods of teaching music to learner-centredness in teacher training that promotes music students’ activity and a deep understanding in their learning (López-Íñiguez et al., 2014). In addition, learner-centredness should be discussed in relation to the music
profession and the degree to which higher music education instantiates the work ethics, practices, and values of the music profession.
7.1.4 Methodological implications
The fourth recommendation suggests that higher music education should invest resources in providing more longitudinal, cross-cultural, and interventional
research investigating music students’ discipline-specific experiences of workload and stress. The methodological implications—both strengths and challenges—arising from this dissertation can be utilised when planning future projects to research music students’ workload.
The first methodological implication is related to the relatively small sample size usually available when conducting research in institutions where the student population and student groups in study programmes are small, and response rates are often low. A common assumption is that survey non- response bias may lead to inaccurate population estimates. However, according to Fosnacht et al. (2017), low response counts—such as 50 respondents—can provide reliable estimates. Even a response rate of 5% can be considered reliable when at least 1,000 students have been contacted to ask them to participate.
Furthermore, “it is not representativeness of the study subjects that enhances the generalisation, it is knowledge of specific conditions and an understanding of mechanism for a proper generalisation” (Rothman et al., 2013, p. 1013).
While increasing sample size can reduce sampling error, it will not necessarily increase representativeness or reduce systematic error called bias. In that line, an ideal sample is representative when it is similar to the target population in every conceivable way. For example, 2% of 155 respondents in the WSC questionnaire were non-binary gender music students. They reported using an emotional support seeking coping style statistically significantly less than female and male students. Although the number of non-binary gender music students is too low to generalise this result, it raises the concern that non-binary gender students may not find suitable support for themselves in the current educational structures.
Similarly, Pereira et al. (2019) note that the proportion of students identifying as other regarding their gender has increased in higher education. They may face exceptionally high pressures when transitioning to higher education, simultaneously studying and processing their gender expression. Thus, support systems should acknowledge the particular needs of this group of students.
Gaining an understanding of these needs requires further research with a larger sample size in which the number of non-binary gender students is greater than in the MSW research project. This same concern should be extended to all marginal and minority groups in higher music education institutions.
The second methodological implication concerns ways to explore music students’ experiences. It is vital to produce evidence on the different aspects of music students’ experienced workload and stress, because these experiences differ from the workloads in other fields. Music students’ responsibilities include demonstrating their musical progress and managing coursework (Bernhard, 2007a). According to Hallam and Papageorgi (2016), it is also essential to nurture music students’ love and enjoyment of music alongside their studies. Thus, it is crucial to understand what engaging in music means to music students in relation to their experienced workload during their studies in higher education (Jääskeläinen, 2022c). That may introduce knowledge that better informs higher music education’s future administrative, teaching, and curriculum developments. In addition, a practical model could help music institutions to gather and analyse this particular set of qualitative data on music students’ workload experiences during their studies (Jääskeläinen, 2022b).
This dissertation also showed (Article III) how, in the context of higher music education institutions where the number of students in the study programmes is relatively small, a Bayesian approach is a good option for analysing the quantitative data. It can produce valid results for small samples, and combine quantitative and qualitative feedback from students (Low-Choy et al., 2017).
Furthermore, the third methodological implication for higher music education is that institutions should consider employing a researcher who can conduct longitudinal, cross-institutional, cross-national, cross-cultural, and interventional research on music students’ workload, stress, and coping. It would then be possible to incorporate students’ feedback as accurate results and findings to contribute to the developmental work in the institutions (Jääskeläinen, 2022b).