2012 Research Poster Session

You are cordially invited to present at the 2012 Research Poster Session!!!

Each year, KMEA sponsors a research poster session at the February In Service Workshop. This year, the session will be on Friday, February 24, from 3:00 - 3:55 p.m., in Room 205 of Century II. The session includes poster presentations of music education research by public school educators, university faculty, and university students. Each presenter has an exhibition area where they display materials pertaining to their research. If you are interested in presenting original research at this session, please contact me, Chris Johnson, KMEA Research Chair, by February 18. You may email me at the address at the top of this page.

The poster session is an excellent opportunity for workshop attendees to discover many things. This session allows you to learn what the current burning questions in music education are, and what we know about these topics. Opportunities to speak with the researchers can tell you not only about the project in hand, but also about many diverse topics in music education. This session is where people can drop in and stay for a few minutes to talk with one person who may well have interesting information, or stay for the entire hour and glean informed views from many participants regarding all manner of topics. We usually see about 200 people come through this event. This year, we hope even more people will come by to take advantage of this dynamic learning opportunity.

2012 General Research Session

The general research session usually includes at least two presentations of recent research in music education and the psychology of music. These presentations represent the best research efforts in Kansas. The general session will be on Friday, February 24, from 12:55-1:45 p.m., in Room 205 of Century II.

This year the general session will feature three interesting presentations that I am sure will inform and engage. The first presentation features Amy Hanson. Amy will be discussing a project wherein she examined a teacher's philosophical approach in a general music classroom through observations and interviews. She will explore how the application of this philosophy resulted in an environment that used the Orff approach and the Kodály method in almost equal measures. The second presentation will feature Elaine Bernstorf and Steve Oare who will discuss "Professional Development in Arts Education: A Two Pronged Research for Quality Results." They will consider the joys and challenges of aligning quality research with professional development grant initiatives. Finally, Jeremy Manternach will examine the question: "Do Gestures Matter? A Look at Recent Research in Choral Conducting." It is often contended that choral conductors tend to believe nonverbal gestures and movements can change the behaviors of a choir. Recently, new technologies have given conductor/researchers the means to measure these changes. This presentation will review selected studies into conducting and choral performance.

As always, we will have abstracts for the general session available at the door as you enter. We hope you will come by, look at the talks to be presented, and come on in to see how the newest knowledge in our profession can make your classroom a more effective experience for your students.