OVERVIEW

Over the past 12 years, music has retained its relative popularity among school subjects, and is currently the fifth most popular of 14 subjects, for both year 4 and year 8 students. Participation in music lessons or music groups outside of school has increased a little for year 4 students and been maintained for year 8 students. The most common and popular musical activity outside of school is listening to music. There appears to have been an increase in some music activities in school since 1996. These have involved playing instruments (increased only for year 4 students), listening to music and dancing or moving to music. Opportunities to play instruments or make up (compose) music are much less frequent than they are popular. Singing has declined in popularity for year 8 students.

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 survey
The national monitoring music surveys sought information from students about their involvement in and enjoyment of music curriculum experiences at school. Students were also asked about their involvement in and enjoyment of music- related activities out of school time. 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.

Each survey was administered in a session which included group and independent tasks, with a teacher reading the survey to year 4 students and available to help with writing. The surveys included 22 questions that could be responded to by ticking or circling a chosen response. Responses to these 22 questions are summarised in the large tables on the next two pages, with the results from four years earlier (2004), 2000 and 1996, where available. This allows trends to be identified. The results are discussed below, along with responses to two other questions.

Year 4 students were generally very positive about doing music at school. More than 60% chose the highest rating to describe how much they liked doing music at school (question 1) and warmly anticipated further study of music at school (question 6). In both cases, these results are improvements from the 1996 results. The responses to question 2 appear to indicate an increase in some music activities in school since 1996, particularly in regard to playing instruments, listening to music and dancing or moving to music. Listening to music is the dominant activity. Enjoyment of the activities has been maintained or improved over 12 years (question 3). Nevertheless, there continues to be a large gap between the enjoyment of some activities and the extent to which they are included in school programmes. Opportunities to make up (compose) music seem to be infrequent.

Outside of school, the most common activity is listening to music, which is also rated the most enjoyed activity. All other activities are also quite popular, with little change or improvement since 2000. In an additional question, students were asked if they learned music or belonged to a music group outside of school. Twenty-nine percent said “yes”, increased from 25% in 1996. The most common activities were piano/keyboard (9%), guitar (6%) and singing or drums (3% each).

Compared to year 4 students, year 8 students were less inclined to use the most positive categories. This pattern has been common in national monitoring surveys. Older students can be expected to be more discerning and critical, as well as more realistic about their own abilities.

Year 8 students were quite positive about doing music at school, with 40% choosing the highest rating to describe how much they liked doing music at school (question 1), and 46% warmly anticipating further study of music at school (question 6). In both cases, these results are little changed from the 1996 results. The responses to question 2 indicate a small decrease, since 1996, in the frequency of singing, little change in playing instruments and listening to music as activities in school, but a moderate increase in dancing or moving to music. Enjoyment of the activities has been maintained across the 12-year period, except for a decline in enjoyment of singing (question 3). Opportunities to make up (compose) music seem to be infrequent.

Outside of school, by far the most common activity is listening to music, which is also very strongly rated the most enjoyed activity. All other activities except making up music are also quite popular. There has been little change in involvement or enjoyment for the various activities. In an additional question, students were asked if they learned music or belonged to a music group outside of school. Thirty percent said “yes”, the same percentage as in 1996. The most common activities were piano/keyboard (10%), guitar (7%), playing drums (5%), playing a woodwind instrument (4%), singing (4%) and membership of a performing group (3%).

Year 8 – MUSIC Survey Responses 2008 (2004) [2000] {1996} 1. How much do you like doing music at school?   40 (37) [33] {34} 44 (45) [48] {49} 12 (14) [15] {12} 4 (4) [4] {5} 2. How often do you do these things in music at school? lots quite often some times never a. Singing 14 (18) [16] {15} 27 (29) [34] {37} 46 (43) [44] {43} 13 (10) [6] {5} b. Playing instruments 17 (16 )[14] {16} 21 (18) [28] {20} 46 (51) [46] {41} 16 (15) [12] {23} c. Listening to music 34 (36) [28] {29} 30 (35) [34] {36} 32 (27) [35] {31} 4 (2) [3] {4} d. Dancing/moving to music 15 (15) [11] {8} 19 (17) [19] {14} 47 (50) [51] {54} 19 (18) [19] {24} e. Making up music 9 (7) [8] 19 (16) [16] 43 (47) [48] 29 (30) [28] 3. How much do you like doing these things in music at school? a. Singing 23 (27) [26] {31} 36 (36) [37] {43} 23 (23) [25] {16} 18 (14) [12] {10} b. Playing instruments 47 (44) [47] {47} 36 (31) [35] {33} 12 (17) [14] {15} 5 (8) [4] {5} c. Listening to music 65 (71) [70] {70} 27 (21) [21] {24} 7 (7) [7] {5} 1 (1) [2] {1} d. Dancing/moving to music 30 (26) [33] {24} 31 (33) [30] {36} 24 (23) [24] {24} 15 (18) [13] {16} e. Making up music 29 (25) [25] 38 (36) [37] 21 (22) [27] 12 (17) [11] 4. How much time out of school do you do these things in music? lots quite often some times never a. Singing 20 (25) [18] 20 (22) [17] 35 (32) [42] 25 (21) [23] b. Playing instruments 17 (17) [16] 18 (14) [17] 35 (34) [37] 30 (35) [30] c. Listening to music 67 (70) [69] 21 (19) [20] 11 (8) [8] 1 (3) [3] d. Dancing/moving to music 23 (25) [19] 19 (15) [18] 33 (33) [39] 25 (27) [24] e. Making up music 10 (11) [8] 14 (10) [10] 38 (35) [38] 38 (44) [44] 5. How much do you like doing these things out of school time?   a. Singing 35 (39) [33] 26 (32) [30] 20 (14) [21] 19 (15) [16] b. Playing instruments 38 (34) [34] 28 (28) [35] 21 (22) [17] 13 (16) [14] c. Listening to music 83 (84) [89] 15 (11) [9] 2 (3) [2] 0 (2) [0] d. Dancing/moving to music 34 (33) [36] 26 (26) [26] 23 (20) [23] 17 (21) [15] e. Making up music 21 (22) [21] 27 (28) [26] 30 (28) [28] 22 (22) [25] 6. How do you feel about learning or doing more music as you get older     46 (47) [41] {49} 39 (36) [40] {38} 12 (14) [15] {11} 3 (3) [4] {2}