Professor Wins National Award for Innovative Course Design

Sarah Day-O'Connell, assistant professor of music at Knox College, has received a national award for innovative course design. Day-O'Connell was one of three winners in the 2008-09 Innovative Course Design Competition, sponsored by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

The award-winning music history course is "Listening to Music In/Of the 18th Century." The course will be offered for the first time at Knox this coming spring term, which begins in March 2009.

"Generally speaking, there are two kinds of music history courses, and each has its shortcomings," Day O'Connell says, "What are called 'survey' courses provide a sense of a long sweep of history, but they also carve up the past into neatly-labeled chunks that overemphasize certain connections while obscuring others. Ultimately, they ignore musics that don't fit the dominant paradigms."

"The alternatives are known as 'topic' courses, because they look at music in light of a specific theme," Day-O'Connell says. "Students learn to find their own answers and develop a critical relationship with music history. But topics courses also have been criticized for leaving students without a clear sense of the chronology, terminology, and assumptions that, even if imperfect, continue to anchor our relationship to the past. They may even put so much emphasis on critical thinking, that they discount students' sense of awe and wonder at the 'great works'."

Day-O'Connell said she felt compelled by arguments on both sides of the pedagogical debate. So she set out to design "a hybrid survey and topic course" -- Listening to Music In/Of the Eighteenth Century.

"It's a survey course, in that it proceeds roughly chronologically, and it relies on a textbook to provide structure for our listening to the music 'of' the 18th Century. At the same time, it's a topic course, in that it also focuses on the topic of listeners and on the social act of listening -- both 'in' the 18th Century and in the present. Listening becomes the door through which we approach the survey content."

Day-O'Connell's plan "will inspire many to follow her lead in creating similar courses in their own disciplines," said one of the judges in the competition, whose comments were forwarded to Day-O'Connell. Another judge praised her "fascinating methodology aimed at helping students approach history in a more sophisticated way by better understanding themselves as consumers of art and producers of meaning."

The prize carries an honorarium of $500, which will be officially awarded during the annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, in March 2009 in Richmond, Virginia. Day-O'Connell will make a presentation on the course at the annual meeting, and her syllabus and rationale will be published on the ASECS website.

A member of the Knox faculty since 2004, Day-O'Connell teaches world music and music history. She earned her bachelor's degree at Oberlin College and master's and doctoral degrees at Cornell University. She has published extensively on Haydn and 18th Century music. Last year she received an Edison Fellowship to conduct research at the Sound Archive of the British Library in London.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 48 states and 42 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Problem:
"There are two kinds of music history courses, each with shortcomings... 'survey' courses carve up the past into neatly-labeled chunks and ignore musics that don't fit the dominant paradigms... 'topic' courses can leave students without a clear sense of chronology and terminology..."

Solution:
Listening to Music In/Of the Eighteenth Century -- "It's a survey course that proceeds chronologically and relies on a textbook to provide structure for listening to the music 'of' the 18th Century. At the same time, it's a topic course that focuses on listeners and on the social act of listening -- both 'in' the 18th Century and in the present."