Students’ experienced workload in higher music education

Research-based findings of students’ experienced workload are lacking in higher music education although music students have field-related physical and psychological demands in their studies. The primary aim of this study is to examine in higher music education context how students experience workload in their studies and how students’ experienced workload, stress and proactive coping styles are related to genders, (Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral) levels, genres, and study programmes. The secondary aim is to indicate how this kind of research-based knowledge can be utilised in the pedagogical development in higher music education institutions by investigating how music students’ experienced workload is related to their experiences of instruction.

Workload is scrutinized through observing music students’ own experiences instead of measured workload. Proactive coping styles shed light on students’ strategic behaviours in stressful situations, while students’ experiences of instruction shed light on interaction with teachers. The empirical data will be gathered through a mixed methods design in higher music education institutions in Finland and the United Kingdom. Research findings can be utilised in developing teaching and curricula and in encouraging students to reflect on their own experiences of workload, which may support well-being and conceptual change in higher music education.

Tuula Jääskeläinen is a doctoral student in the Research Study Programme at the MuTri Doctoral School.

Keywords:

• coping styles
• experiences
• higher education
• instruction
• mixed methods
• music student
• stress
• student workload