Music Therapists’ Goal and Objective Writing Practices

Abstract

Abstract Maintaining current curricular materials for teaching goal and objective writing can be challenging. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the goal and objective writing practices of music therapists and compare them to the related music therapy literature. A survey was emailed to 6,643 board-certified music therapists asking them to describe their goal and objective writing and to share examples of such statements. Four hundred fifty-seven music therapists responded. Quantitative analysis of the results revealed that the majority of respondents participated in writing goals and objectives as well as nine other types of related statements. Qualitative analysis of the statement examples revealed that the statements were constructed using 15 different components. Comparison of study results and published literature demonstrate alignment with current practice in the descriptions it provides of the basic qualities of goal and objective statements. Data analysis also indicates that current practice encompasses a larger scope and complexity of ideas than those presented in the literature. Clinical and educational implications are discussed.