Systems in Music Therapy: Operational Definitions

One of the best things about being a bit overly passionate about any one thing is that I can write an entire series of posts about the topic without having to think much about something to write every morning.

My major issue with the American Music Therapy Association Professional Competencies is that there is too much room for interpretation. I understand the need for some flexibility within the competencies, but as they are written now, they do not meet the requirements for objectiveness, clear definition, and being able to be evaluated in a yes/no or pass/fail system. So, I completed operational definitions for all of the competencies from the perspective of my job in my facility for my interns. (Lots of "my"s, aren't there?)

Operational definitions take something that has lots of interpretations and makes that something into a series of specific tasks/skills. I know that my list of definitions is not complete, but it works for my internship program.

Here's how it works -

The first competence, "Recognize standard works in the literature," is very flexible in how it is interpreted. First of all, how do we measure that an intern can recognize these works? What is the objective behavior? Recognition is usually something internal rather than observable, so how do we evaluate this? Second, what are "standard works"? If we go with a university view, then "standard works" will include Eurocentric music history type musical pieces. There may be some repertoire lists involved as well. Third, what is the "literature" that we are referencing? Again, from within universities, the music history course requirements have something to do with this competence, but we all know that there is so much more to music than just what Europeans wrote down during history. How many music therapy education course outlines include music history of Eastern cultures or 20th and 21st century popular music? We are missing out on so much music when we continue to focus our study on only the music trends that center on one location of the world.

So, I have to look at my clients. My students are between the ages of 5 and 22. They come from all sorts of cultural backgrounds and situations. They all access music and have limited restrictions on what they hear on the radio or see on video streaming services. There are some who have definite musical preferences. There are others who have no musical preferences.

For my students, the "standard works in the literature" are very different from what I was taught and what my current interns were taught. My kids have no "standard works." There are some songs that all of them seem to respond to, but our lists of favorite songs are vast and varied. As a result, I do not have a repertoire list that my interns have to learn before they enter my program. The music that is popular with my clients changes rapidly, so writing such a list would mean that the list would be irrelevant as soon as I posted it as a requirement. So, how do I evaluate my interns' competence in this area?

I have abandoned the whole "learn these songs" thing as I explained above. I do not make my interns go through a "drop the needle test" to see if they recognize specific songs. Here's how I operationally define the very first competence on the AMTA Professional Competencies.

My interns have to demonstrate this recognition through finding recordings of songs that students request. They have to figure out chord progressions and be able to sing the song with clients as appropriate for the TMEs that they run. They have to find what they need to use specific music with specific clients. I can evaluate those skills which means that I can determine whether they can figure out our clients' preferred music which is our "standard works in the literature."

I have found that these objectives help me easily evaluate what I want interns to know when they spend their time with me. With operational definitions, I can easily say "Yes," "no," "yes," "sorta - so let's make this a focus for the next three months." My evaluation is 29 pages long, but I can finish one for an intern in about an hour - comments and plans for the future and all. That is one of the best things about having robust operational definitions for all of the competencies.

Again, if you would like to get a copy of my evaluation, do not hesitate to ask. I want more people to benefit from this system, so I want to share it with anyone who can use it.

Happy Friday.