Pre-school teaching students’ opinions on distance education: Preferences and emotional states

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has created obstacles in all areas of social and daily life since 2020, has completely prevented educational activities and caused drastic changes. Following the start of the COVID-19 restrictions, preschool education undergraduate students continued to take their music lessons with the distance education applications. It can be said that all of the students continued their distance education activities in these conditions with different socio-economic characteristics, physical opportunities and emotional diversity. In this study, which aims to examine the distance education applications offered to undergraduate students who have taken music lessons through distance education, in terms of their individual preferences and emotional conditions, 103 preschool teaching students took part as participants. The data of the research were obtained through the questionnaire prepared by the researcher and studied with the descriptive survey model. Some of the findings obtained in the research were that 60.2% of the participants’ would have preferred face-to-face education if they had a choice in the restrictions, and that there was a significant relationship between participants’ being psychologically impacted from the news they watched, their longing for their lives before the lockdown days and their economic status. Keywords: COVID-19, education, music education, preschool teaching, distanced education.

The Impact of Music Training on the Cognitive Development of Preschool and Junior School Children: A Review of Research

The review presents the results of studies of the impact of music training on the cognitive development of preschool and junior school children. It is shown that music lessons can contribute to the development of reading, writing, listening and speaking as well as mathematical skills, memory, intelligence, and executive functions. After analyzing a number of relevant studies, the authors came to the following conclusions: (1) the impact of music lessons on the development of the cognitive sphere in children is associated with concomitant factors, such as: parental involvement in music lessons and home musical environment, age when a child begins to take music lessons and their duration, socioeconomic status of the family; and 2) it is systemic music training, which includes singing, playing musical instruments and solfeggio, that can have a beneficial effect on cognitive development. The mechanisms by which music training promote the cognitive development of children were also examined. While a vast body of work confirms the beneficial effects of music training in this regard, there are a number of studies showing no such effects. Special consideration is also given to the reasons why positive research results can be erroneous. In conclusion, the authors give recommendations for designing further research on this topic as well as for organizing music lessons for children of preschool and junior school age.

Student perceptions of the classroom environment, student characteristics, and motivation for music lessons at secondary school

The literature suggests that there is often no alignment between student preferences and what and how it is taught in the music classroom. A total of 749 Cypriot secondary school students, aged 12 to 14 years, responded to a survey addressing enjoyment of music, motivation for school music lessons, and perceptions of the music classroom environment. The survey included a questionnaire with six subscales: Involvement, Affiliation, Teacher Support, Task Orientation, Order and Organization, and Rule Clarity. High ratings for Affiliation, Teacher Support, and Rule Clarity suggest that, overall, students’ perceptions of the classroom environment were positive. They were not uniform, but varied on the basis of student characteristics. Girls rated Rule Clarity higher than boys. Younger students tended to rate Task Orientation, Order and Organization, and Rule Clarity higher than older students. Higher-achieving students tended to rate Affiliation and Teacher Support higher. Older boys rated Involvement lower than younger boys, whereas older girls rated Involvement higher than younger girls. It can be inferred that boys experienced a gradual increase in perceived Affiliation as their achievement improved, although the pattern was less consistent for girls. Girls tended to report higher motivation for school music lessons than boys. Motivation was enhanced by classroom environments in which students experienced higher levels of enjoyment of music, engagement, and support from teachers. The findings show that the music classroom environment should be characterized by student engagement, clarity of rules, good organization, clear goals, teacher support, and affiliation between classmates.

Student Opinions on Psychomotor Learning Activities Used in Music Lessons

This study aims to determine the situation by examining the opinions of 8th-grade students about psycho-motor activities used within the scope of 8th-grade music lessons. Semi-structured interview technique was used as a qualitative method in the research. With this method, data were collected by conducting one-on-one interviews with 8th-grade students. The study was conducted with forty-four 8th-grade students. The obtained data were analyzed by making content analysis. According to the findings obtained from the interviews; It is understood that the psycho-motor activities used in schools are mostly similar, but there are problems in the implementation process, the activities cannot be used effectively and efficiently, and music lesson activities are not given enough importance due to the problems arising from the deficiencies in the material and learning environment. From the students' opinions, it is understood that the theoretical parts of the music lessons are long and the lessons conducted in this way are boring. Based on the students' opinions, it is understood that the singing activity is the most used psycho-motor activity, but this activity is not used to improve the musical knowledge and skills taught in the lessons, but to increase the students' interest in the lessons. It is understood that rhythm exercises, body percussion and instrument playing activities are less involved in music lessons than singing activities.

Elementary School Pupils' Music Preferences for Classical Music / Glazbene sklonosti prema klasičnoj glazbi učenika osnovne škole

The paper explores music preferences of elementary school pupils for classical music and the influence of familiarity with music on their music preferences. As a part of the research, a questionnaire, and a sound questionnaire as its integral part, was administered to 238 pupils attending the second, the fifth and the eighth grade of elementary school. The results confirm that younger pupils, compared to the older ones, show greater preferences for classical music. In addition, the influence of gender on preferences for classical music was also confirmed, while attendance of extracurricular music lessons was not proven to be a significant predictor of the pupils’ preferences for classical music. It was also noted that familiarity with music is a significant factor influencing pupils’ music preferences. The results confirm that pupils show the lowest music preferences for the 20th-century music, which has significant implications for music-pedagogical theory and practice.Key words: classical music; elementary school; music preferences---U ovom radu istražuju se glazbene sklonosti učenika osnovne škole prema klasičnoj glazbi i utjecaj poznavanja glazbe na njihove glazbene sklonosti. U sklopu istraživanja, upitnik i glazbeni upitnik su primijenjeni na 238 učenika drugog, petog i osmog razreda osnovne škole. Rezultati su potvrdili da mlađi učenici pokazuju veće sklonosti prema klasičnoj glazbi od starijih. Osim toga, utvrđen je i utjecaj spola na sklonosti prema klasičnoj glazbi, a pohađanje izvannastavnih glazbenih aktivnosti nije se pokazalo kao značajan prediktor učeničkih sklonosti prema klasičnoj glazbi. Rezultati upućuju na to da učenici pokazuju najmanje sklonosti prema glazbi 20. stoljeća, što ima značajne posljedice za glazbeno-pedagošku teoriju i praksu.Ključne riječi: glazbene sklonosti; klasična glazba; osnovna škola