Student voices

Abstract

This paper is premised on two broad interrelated assumptions. First, that the student voice is worth listening to; and second, that students’ perceptions about what they learn in classroom music sessions are valuable sources of information for teachers in the development and evaluation of both musical programs and musical learning. Three groups of primary aged students aged between seven and nine, were asked to share by way of personal writings, their perceptions about what they learnt in their classroom music program. The purpose was twofold, namely: (1) to determine the extent to which students described their learning in musical and non-musical ways; and (2) to gauge the match between student perceptions about what learning took place and teacher expectations. This paper focuses on the former. It was found that students invariably describe their musical learning in terms of activities they engaged in each week, rather than in terms of the musical concepts being covered; and written reflections consistently integrated musical and non-musical learning.