Synthesis Sunday: Didn't Get Any Reading Done This Week, But...

...that never stops me from writing!

I did manage to finish up my presentation for next week's SISC conference through the Music Therapy Association of Ontario. This makes me pretty happy since I am getting to talk about the topic that I am currently reading more about right now - specifically, competency-based education and clinical training.  I had a bit of fun going back into papers that I wrote and submitted for publication but that never got published since I don't really write things that reviewers can agree on (long story - don't get me started!!). I'm happy to be back into this particular topic since it invigorates me in a way that other music therapy topics do not.

The thing that I like about the ideas of competency-based education as developed by William G. Spady in the 70's is that students know what they are expected to demonstrate when they start the educational program. All skills, techniques, educational outcomes and the evaluation process are clearly delineated before a student sets foot in the first course. I also like that all grades are considered pass/fail. You can either demonstrate a desired outcome or you cannot. If you cannot, then you have to continue with the learning process or it is time to leave the program.

Now, I know that this is not the way we do things in education these days, but I would love to have this happen as an educational process for music therapists. Could you imagine? Could you imagine all music therapy educational programs with some of the same information conveyed at the same point of every student's time in the program? All level one pre-internship clinical students being able to play five chord progressions on both the guitar and piano BEFORE they start working as a music therapist? The thoughts that this type of organization simply thrill me in ways that other thoughts do not. 

It's just a bit sad that this is the type of thought that thrills me... 

Anyway.

I use many of the ideas and tenets of competency-based education in my internship program. More about how tomorrow in my Monday series. I have found that using these ideas - all expectations are presented to interns on day one and pass/fail grading - has decreased evaluation arguments. My interns and I know what is expected from them for specific grades, and evaluation becomes significantly less subjective. 

What if, and stick with me here, every internship program music therapists operationally defined all of the AMTA Professional Competencies into discrete skills that can be graded with a yes/no or pass/fail criterion? What if we could then take those discrete skills to formulate more objective competencies?

One of my biggest peeves with the AMTA Competencies - both professional and advanced - is that some are discrete and others are nebulous. How do you evaluate things like "Recognizes standard works in the literature?" We all have different ways of interpreting that and then evaluating student/intern proficiency on that, and most of the other, competencies. I wish that AMTA would have listened to the protests that some of us shared in 2012 when AMTA last reviewed and revised the competencies. There are several competencies that include three separate skills that cannot be evaluated without being inside the intern's brain. Since I have lots of issues with how the AMTA Competencies are put together, I use them as a framework, but I turn them into what I feel is more representative of what competency-based clinical training should be.

So, yes, I have thought deeply about every single one of the AMTA Professional Competencies in terms of what I have to do to continue to be a music therapist at my facility. I have defined each one of the competencies into specific skills that my interns demonstrate. I have identified where each of those operational definitions are demonstrated. I have developed assignments that are also linked to those operational definitions as well as to the competencies so my interns know the reasons why they are expected to finish assignments as assigned (one of the competencies, by the way). 

As an exercise, I have delineated, defined, and put together a competency-based framework for four pre-internship experiences and an internship experience as well. It tracks specific skills, knowledge, and works on a developmental model of clinical training. If you are interested in knowing more about this, let me know...

Happy Sunday!