Attitudes and Motivation The national monitoring assessment programme recognises the impact of attitudinal and motivational factors on student achievement in individual assessment tasks. Students' attitudes, interests and liking for a subject have a strong bearing on progress and learning outcomes. Students are influenced and shaped by the quality and style of curriculum delivery, the choice of content and the suitability of resources. Other important factors influencing students' achievements are the expectations and support of significant people in their lives, the opportunities and experiences they have in and out of school, and the extent to which they have feelings of personal success and capability.

Music Surveys The national monitoring music survey sought information from students about their curriculum preferences and their perceptions of their achievement and potential in music. Students were also asked about their involvement in music related activities within school and beyond. The survey was administered to both year 4 and year 8 students in a one-to-one interview setting, with most questions requiring short written answers and others a written or spoken response. There are numerous research questions that could be asked when investigating student attitudes and engagement. In national monitoring it has been necessary to focus on a few key questions that give an overall impression of how students regard music in relation to themselves.

Response of Year 4 students to the Music Survey        (%response)
1. How much do you like doing music at school?
	50	37	8	5
2. How often do you do these things in music at school?
	lots	quite often	sometimes	never
singing	22	34	42	2
playing instruments	9	16	56	19
listening to music	25	30	38	7
dancing/moving to music	12	21	46	21
3. How much do you like doing these things in music at school?
singing	44	39	12	5
playing instruments	63	25	7	5
listening to music	58	27	11	4
dancing/moving to music	38	28	21	13
4. Do you learn music or belong to a music group outside of school?
	yes  25		no  75
5. How much of your own time do you like to spend on playing music, singing, listening or dancing to music?
heaps 36	medium 36		very little 28
6. How do you feel about learning or doing more music as you get older?
	57	30	9	4

Year 4 students were generally very positive about doing music at school. Half chose the highest rating for the first question (about liking to do music at school). In a question not listed in the table above, students were asked to indicate which subject they liked best at school. Music was rated the fifth most popular of the twelve subjects listed, well behind art and physical education but not far behind maths and science. It was the first choice of 7 percent of the students.

The year 4 students reported that the school music programme they experienced contained more singing and listening to music than playing instruments or dancing/moving to music. Playing instruments was their most popular school music activity, given the highest rating by 63 percent of students. Listening to music followed closely in popularity, with singing and dancing/moving to music not too far behind.

Only 25 percent of the year 4 students took music lessons or belonged to a music group outside of school, but 36 percent liked spending "heaps" of their own time on playing music, singing, listening or dancing to music. Only 13 percent reacted negatively to the idea of learning or doing more music as they got older.

Response of Year 8 students to the Music Survey        (%response)
1. How much do you like doing music at school?
	34	49	12	5
2. How often do you do these things in music at school?
	lots	quite often	sometimes	never
singing	15	37	43	5
playing instruments	16	20	41	23
listening to music	29	36	31	4
dancing/moving to music	8	14	54	24
3. How much do you like doing these things in music at school?
singing	31	43	16	10
playing instruments	47	33	15	5
listening to music	70	24	5	1
dancing/moving to music	24	36	24	16
4. Do you learn music or belong to a music group outside of school?
	yes  30		no  70
5. How much of your own time do you like to spend on playing music, singing, listening or dancing to music?
heaps 39	medium 49		very little 12
6. How do you feel about learning or doing more music as you get older?
	49	38	11	2

As a school subject, music was a little less popular among year 8 students than among year 4 students. About one third of year 8 students gave it the most favourable rating, while 6 percent chose it as their favourite school subject.

Year 8 students were particularly enthusiastic about listening to music and playing instruments, but neither of these activities was reported by more than 30 percent of students to occur "lots" in their school music programme.

Thirty percent of the year 8 students were taking music lessons or belonged to a music group outside of school. Rather more (39 percent) reported they spent "heaps" of their own time in playing music, singing, listening or dancing to music. Only 13 percent reacted negatively to the idea of learning or doing more music as they got older.

Overall, the survey responses from year 4 and year 8 students indicate that music is quite a popular subject. This is in spite of the fact that the extent and mix of activities experienced in school music does not appear to satisfy the preferences and potential enthusiasm of the students for musical activities.