Assessments according to different age groups

Bowles (Reference BOWLES1998) clarified the preferences of the sectors of music teaching from kindergarten up to the fifth grade in Minnesota and Texas. Students were asked if they wanted to participate in 13 traditional music classroom activities. The results suggested that the kindergartners responded to nearly all the musical activities most positively, while the responses from fifth graders were most negative. Bowles observed that his findings supported earlier research results (see references therein, in particular Broquist, 1961; Haladyna & Thomas, 1979; Nolin, 1973; Vander Ark, Nolin & Newman, 1980), who found that positive attitudes towards music weaken, as the class level rises. In New Zealand Buckton (Reference BUCKTON1998) found that children's negativity towards music increases from Grades 4 to 8.

In Finland Uusikylä and Kansanen (Reference UUSIKYLÄ and KANSANEN1988: 42) also observed that the popularity of subjects in general fell as students moved to higher grades (1 to 6). Indeed, the phenomenon is characteristic of pupils in industrialised countries. Likewise in research into Finnish educational goals, pupils' conscientiousness in schoolwork was found to decrease up to the ninth grade, after which it gradually rose again (Sauvala et al., Reference SAUVALA, KARI and ROBINSON1979: 114; Kari & Sauvala, Reference KARI and SAUVALA1980: 30).

In Puurula's study (Reference PUURULA1992: 86–7) made of university pedagogy students (N = 244), music was not appreciated at their school age. Its instruction was judged to be theoretical and insufficient. However, if music belonged to the students' daily professional work or interests, their attitudes towards it became more positive. Lundin and Sandberg (Reference LUNDIN and SANDBERG2001) suggested that musical childhood memories of Swedish nursery school teachers were shaded with increasing negativity with age, but in their daily work music was experienced as positive and useful. In Sundin's study (Reference SUNDIN1989), students and professionals in the field of education (N = 187) generally had considerably more positive memories from nursery school as compared to the experiences of the later school years.

In the UK, Pitts (Reference PITTS2002) investigated the changing perceptions of music students during their transition from secondary school to university through their understandings of what it means to be a musician. She revealed clear differences between the expectations and experiences at secondary school and those of university students.

Gender differences

The underachieving male student is a well-known phenomenon. Along with Wright's research (Reference WRIGHT2001) in a South Wales secondary school, there was a correlation between gender and achievement in music education with boys showing significant strengths in the areas of performing and composing and girls in appraising. Turton and Durrant (Reference TURTON and DURRANT2002) revealed some gender differences through their study of adults' singing experiences beginning with their years in secondary school: girls enjoyed singing more than boys. Those girls who did not enjoy singing cited dislike of the musical styles selected as their first reason, but for boys the style was not important. Girls' and boys' enjoyment of class music lessons was different during Grades 4–9 (ages 8–14). At secondary school girls' levels of participation in music lessons decreased more dramatically than boys' (Lamont et al., Reference LAMONT, HARGREAVES, MARSHALL and TARRANT2003).

The most pleasant and unpleasant music activities

In Bowles' research (Reference BOWLES1998) students from kindergarten to Grade 5 chose among six musical classroom activities to identify their favourite. The activities were ranked in the following order: playing instruments, movement/dance, singing, listening to music, composing and talking about music. Temmerman (Reference TEMMERMAN2000) pointed out that the musical activity preferences of preschool children were the following: moving, playing, singing and listening to music. At primary school in England pupils liked singing, but at secondary school they were less willing to sing alone in front of the class or to sing songs that were not to their musical tastes. Music theory and history were viewed negatively (Lamont et al., Reference LAMONT, HARGREAVES, MARSHALL and TARRANT2003). At a secondary school in Hong Kong the most popular avenues to music were music appreciation and singing. The theory and history of music were the most undesirable (Ho, Reference HO2001). According to Buckton (Reference BUCKTON1998) the most popular musical activities changed through Grade levels 4 to 8, from playing to passive listening to music. Turton and Durrant (Reference TURTON and DURRANT2002) reported that in singing, the selection of songs was central. The main reason pupils gave for not enjoying school singing was that they did not like the musical styles of the song.

The experiences of kindergarten student teachers' (N = 258) school days were quite positive. Usually, the most positive experiences were those of singing in school choir concerts (a kind of formal music education). Music theory was mentioned as being frustrating, and students experienced nervousness when they had to sing alone in singing tests. (Ruismäki, Reference RUISMÄKI1996: 397–407). In Puurula's (Reference PUURULA1992: 100) research, too having to study music theory and perform singing tests alone in front of the class were the activities most widely criticised.

Sundin (Reference SUNDIN1989) studied early music memories as part of the socialising process. In the positive experiences of pupils and in student samples (N = 74), the social nature of music was emphasised, such as playing together and group performances. Positive memories were mentioned only by those pupils who succeeded in music. The feeling of shame created by a teacher's criticism if a student did not sing well enough or went out of tune was a key factor in negative experiences. Sundin mentioned that many pupils stopped singing completely as a consequence of such criticism (Sundin, Reference SUNDIN1989). Singing is the most vulnerable activity. As Monks (Reference MONKS2003) states, the connection of singing to the self-concept is so fundamental that it is often overlooked or taken for granted. Sundin (Reference SUNDIN1989) mentioned that negative feedback lowered pupils' self-esteem.

Teacher

The teacher was the main reason given by pupils for not enjoying school singing, but it was not so meaningful a reason for enjoying school singing. The characteristic rated most highly for a music teacher was enthusiasm and the ones rated the lowest were looking old and wearing old-fashioned clothes (Turton & Durrant, Reference TURTON and DURRANT2002).

In Pitts' study (Reference PITTS2004) of adult learners in COMA (Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs), a summer school in the UK, the first educational theme that emerged was the interaction between tutors and participants. Pitts noted that generally teachers are expected to meet the needs of all their students, but they are given only limited opportunity to discover what these needs are.

During teacher training, piano teachers were generally popular and often became close to pupils. ‘The two-way chats with the piano teacher’ were remembered fondly and they were characterised by a warm and open atmosphere (Anttila, Reference ANTTILA2000: 147).

Most undergraduate musicians in England were not considering a career in secondary school class teaching, giving as reasons such things as pupil disinterest and misbehaviour and their own disappointing experiences in school music lessons. They also felt that schoolteachers' general teaching skills were more important than their subject-specific musical skills (Purves et al., Reference PURVES, MARSHALL, HARGREAVES and WELCH2005). The situation in Finland is much the same in secondary schools (Ruismäki, Reference RUISMÄKI1991: 280). In Finnish lower-level comprehensive schools, the problem is that many class teachers do not want to teach music because of insufficient musical skills (Räisänen, Reference RÄISÄNEN1996: 64); about a third of pre-service elementary teachers do not want to teach music to their own class in their future career (Tereska, Reference TERESKA2003: 189).

This research emerged from a concrete problematic situation in class teacher training when some student teachers did not want to practise music teaching, yet some others were enjoying it. This paper examines possible answers to this phenomenon through the following questions.

Singing

The positive answers emphasised the social aspects of singing, particularly ‘singing together’. The power of singing and the use of strong voices pleased young pupils. Polyphonic songs, canons and choir activity were also favourably mentioned. Performances had usually taken place in choirs or other kinds of singing groups and had remained without exception in the participants' minds as positive experiences. However, there had been too much ‘practicing of words’ without singing. With solo singing, many negative memories were connected. Usually, it was a test situation and often performed in front of the class.

Playing

In the memories reported, playing the recorder was the most common and often it was also experienced negatively. Playing with other kinds of instruments and band experiments were experienced as the most agreeable. A few participants did not like ‘too slow or compulsory playing’.

Music theory

The participants had experienced solfège and music theory as difficult and completely negative. Only a few mentioned there was ‘not enough theory’ or regretted ‘the fact that notes were not learned’.

Listening and music history

Listening to music was placed among the agreeable experiences. From learning about the history of music someone remembered ‘the composer biographies narrated by the teacher’ as most favourable, even though most of them dreaded composer information and historical dates.

Movement and games

Movement and games were among the activities most liked in music lessons.

Teacher

Music teachers were generally quite well liked, as shown by an opinion assessment M = 3.80 (s = 1.03) and expressed, for example, in sentences such as: ‘the teacher was really nice’; ‘I admired the teacher's piano playing skills’; or ‘the teacher praised me saying you sing well’. However, negative memories surfaced among the verbal answers. For example, the strictness of some teachers was mentioned as were unprofessional attitudes towards pupils.

Singing

The most pleasant experiences were still related to singing, but their relative share had diminished. The selection of the repertoire was central in the memories. Polyphonic song and choir were liked, as was voice control. The solo song tests were still mentioned as the most undesirable. ‘Childish’ or ‘old-fashioned songs and psalms’ were also felt to be unpleasant. Still, a favourable attitude towards music was shown in such negative answers as ‘not enough singing’ and ‘not enough lessons’.

Playing

Playing together, ‘orchestra’ or ‘band playing and accompanying singing’ were experienced as the most pleasant. The pupils enjoyed successful skill practice. In recorder playing, ‘too quick progress and too large groups’ were experienced negatively.

Music listening

Listening to music was regarded as pleasant. Becoming acquainted with the different music styles was experienced positively, yet on the other hand, nearly all the traditional musical styles were considered to be undesirable.

Music theory and solfège

Most of the participants experienced music theory as being negative and considered it ‘unnecessary’ or at least found its basics boring. The study of solfège was mentioned as the most difficult of all theory subjects.

Atmosphere

The positive memories of the lessons' atmosphere emphasised ‘freedom’ and ‘a relaxed feeling’. On the other hand, there were many references to disturbances. During music lessons commotion, noise, general uproar, the boys' racket or even teasing the teacher were regarded as the most undesirable. In such a situation participants commented, ‘I learned nothing, even though I wanted to’ or spoke of ‘frustration’ or complained ‘nothing was produced or required’. One reason for these kinds of situations was ‘the pupils' negative attitudes’ and ‘asocial pupils’. One participant stated: ‘On the upper level personal problems made the whole studying more difficult; in upper secondary school it was more comfortable’.

Teacher

At this stage teachers were generally liked distinctly less than at the lower level of the comprehensive school (M = 3.29, s = 1.14). The verbal answers emphasised much more negativity: ‘he did not make the pupils interested in anything’ or ‘she did not take the trouble to teach thoroughly’. Only a few mentioned that the music teacher was ‘humane’, ‘skilful’ or ‘reasonable and expert’.

The teacher

The abundance of particularly negative experiences with teachers was surprising. Critical responses were the following: ‘no goals’, ‘lessons unsystematic’, ‘laissez faire attitude’, ‘the teacher changed every year’. The pupils experienced the contents of the lessons as ‘frustrating’, ‘superficial’ and ‘repetitious’.

Singing

Of the music teaching activities the most positive and enjoyable experiences at the upper secondary school stage were also connected to singing. The development of skills and ‘singing ensembles’, choir or the more demanding ‘chamber choir’ were experienced as positive. The choir activity included the performances, which made the work goal-oriented. At this stage some pupils also became interested in solo singing.

Music theory

Music theory was still described as dry, and the rapid pull of the teaching made it even more difficult. Yet, there were also students who experienced music theory as being positive. They emphasised adapting the theory to their practice by utilising the notes of their own singing, playing, and composing tasks.

Music history

In music history the emphasis on merely delivering information, such as biographical facts and work lists of great composers was negatively experienced. As a positive alternative, the history of pop music was proposed. Live musical performances such as ‘school concerts’ and ‘visits to the opera’ were mentioned as popular ways of learning.

Playing instruments

The experiences related to playing were almost completely positive. Some participants considered ‘the personal instruction of playing’, ‘piano playing’ or ‘piano lessons’ the most valuable. These were found in the music-oriented upper secondary school. Learning accompaniment skills was already such an achievement. ‘Instrumental bands’, ‘ensembles’ and ‘orchestra’ were the most popular activities.

Playing instruments

Piano studies were mentioned most and the opportunity to receive personal instruction was also appreciated. The learning of a wholly new skill in the midst of a broad and demanding educational programme might at first appear to be a distinctly utopian goal, in which case it is easy to understand one student's final comment: ‘I learned to play the piano in spite of everything’. Experiencing progress and internal motivation could also change earlier negative attitudes to positive ones as one student stated: ‘My parents acquired a piano for me in the autumn of the second year. After that my playing skills progressed considerably’. The following pessimistic student did not believe that owning an instrument helped: ‘I have complained my whole life that I did not have a piano as a child. Now I have it, but I am too old and busy to learn to play it well’.

While piano playing studies were enjoyed by a majority of the participants, the basic examinations required in university study appeared among the most undesirable experiences also in connection with playing and singing.

Music teaching methodology

Signs of growth to be a music teacher could be seen in such references as ‘increase in courage’ and ‘one is encouraged to teach oneself’, references which were connected to methodological training. Quite often those who had had modest beginnings regarded the results of two years of toil as the most rewarding, as revealed in the following statements: ‘because the bottom was weak, results were seen’ or ‘increasing knowledge and skills’. More ‘practical hints’, ‘applications of the approaches which are used at school’ and more practice teaching were desired. Many students reported that the music studies in teacher training did not sufficiently prepare them for future practical work among children.

In teacher training basic music studies were assessed a little above the middle level (M = 3.22, s = .96) as a whole. The average expresses both the moderate quality of the studies and a quite critical attitude to the music teaching received. This is quite natural for those who study only the teaching profession.