Abstract
Forty-one academic program directors completed a survey eliciting their perceptions of the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) board certification exam. Survey questions concerned the meaningfulness and utility of the exam in evaluating safe and competent practice; reasons students might fail the exam; exam preparation methods; and open-ended questions that allowed participants to express specific concerns about the exam, if they had any. On average, program directors perceived the exam to be “neither effective nor ineffective” in evaluating clinical competence, with open-ended responses suggesting the majority of these faculty had a range of concerns about the exam. After categorizing and defining these concerns, reflective comments serve to stimulate discussion about the meaningfulness and utility of the exam, as it is currently constructed.
Highlights
The purpose of this study was to illuminate and summarize the perceptions of music therapy academic program directors regarding the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) board certification exam
This study addresses one dimension of this complex dynamic: academic program directors’ perceptions of the meaningfulness and utility of the CBMT exam as a measure of clinical competence
The purpose of this study was to examine academic program directors’ perceptions of the meaningfulness and utility of the CBMT exam in measuring clinical competence. This purpose was guided by a series of research questions that sought to understand the relationship between academic and clinical competence and exam performance, reasons students “could or might fail the exam,” and any changes program directors would make to the CBMT exam
Summary
The purpose of this study was to illuminate and summarize the perceptions of music therapy academic program directors regarding the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) board certification exam. Between 2005 and 2015, the number of academic programs that had a 90% average first-time pass rate has fallen from 43% to 15%, while the number of programs that had a pass rate that was lower than 70% increased from 10% to 47% (Schneck, in Wylie et al, 2017). Factors contributing to this decline have not been adequately explored, discussions about the effectiveness of undergraduate educational programs in preparing students for professional practice are ongoing (Hsiao et al, 2020; Wylie et al, 2017). This article describes academic program directors’ perceptions of the relevance and meaningfulness of the exam, and through an examination of these findings, seeks to encourage discussion about the exam and its relationship to competent clinical practice
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