Synthesis Sunday: Looking Around for the Next Thing to Think About


I have finished the first article in my current Sunday focus posts - the worksheet is finished and it is time to move on.
If you are interested - here's what my final version looks like (with all the paragraph marks and the spelling questions - that's how I like to write...). I received a copy of the Journal of Music Therapy this week (I think), but I have not opened it yet. I'm going to be searching through research references to see what catches my interest. I have not done that yet, but you can go through the process with me...

 First step - Google Scholar.

 My search string was "music therapy adolescents special education." The dates on these top results indicate to me that this is not a well researched population, especially recently, but this is not surprising. I know that there isn't much available on this particular age group, and I have my theories about why - that isn't really relevant here, but is interesting to me. Most of these resources are ones that I have already accessed, so that's nice to be reminded that these works exist - I might want to revisit these through my current perspective. When I shift the timeline to "since 2015" another entire set of articles show up - all from journals that are not music therapy-focused. Interesting.

I think I will take on one of these "since 2015" articles - there is more to research than what makes it into our professional journals, after all.  

The highlighting is mine - I am going to focus on this article for the next several weeks. Sounds like something that I could directly implement in my music therapy practice. 

 So, it is time to prepare...

 Printing out the article...gathering my reading glasses...deciding which post-it notes to use...finding my favorite pen...all of these things are important rituals for me. It may sound silly, but having that pen makes all the difference.

 This week is for reading the article the first time through - I'll be doing that in a bit (after I gather my stuff to use). I'll start the synthesis next Sunday now that I have the article that I want to pursue.

 Hope to "see" you next week.

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