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Music Education Research

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Music activities in primary school:

students' preferences in the Spanish
region of Murcia
a b
Gregorio Vicente-Nicolás & Gerry Mac Ruairc
a
Departamento de Expresión Plástica, Musical y Dinámica,
Facultad de Educación, University of Murcia, Campus de
Espinardo, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain
b
School of Education, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Published online: 04 Jun 2014.

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To cite this article: Gregorio Vicente-Nicolás & Gerry Mac Ruairc (2014) Music activities in primary
school: students' preferences in the Spanish region of Murcia, Music Education Research, 16:3,
290-306, DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2014.912261

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 Music Education Research, 2014
Vol. 16, No. 3, 290–306, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2014.912261

Music activities in primary school: students’ preferences in the Spanish

region of Murcia
Gregorio Vicente-Nicolása* and Gerry Mac Ruaircb
a
Departamento de Expresión Plástica, Musical y Dinámica, Facultad de Educación, University
of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain; bSchool of Education,
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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(Received 11 March 2013; accepted 1 April 2014)

The aim of this study was to determine the preferences of primary school children
in relation to the types of activities that typically take place in music classrooms.
For the purposes of this study, these classroom-based music activities have been
categorised into five areas: singing, playing instruments, listening, reading and
writing music and movement/dance. The sample consisted of 4700 students and
20 music teachers from different public and private primary schools from the
Region of Murcia (Spain). For the purposes of data collection two questionnaires,
one for students and one for teachers, were administered. The data were analysed
using quantitative techniques. The results reveal significant differences between
the preferred activities of boys and girls. The study also identified differences
between the expressed preferences of students in the lower and higher grades for
particular types of musical activities and what teachers consider as important in
the implemented music curriculum.
Keywords: musical teaching; elementary education; music preferences; music and
gender

Introduction
In designing, planning and teaching a music programme, teachers continuously
select activities and components of a musical repertoire that are considered
appropriate for students. These decisions are shaped by a range of imperatives
including curriculum requirements, teacher expertise, available resources as well as
the vital task of expanding the variety of student’s musical experiences including the
perceptual, interpretative and creative dimensions of a music education programme.
In pursuing these objectives, student motivation and a knowledge of their tastes and
preferences should play a key role in selecting lesson content and planning the
methodological strategies in order to ensure that the enthusiasm and interest of the
learner is central to the musical activities used in classrooms.
In recent decades, a large number of studies have been conducted regarding
students’ preferences with respect to music. A shared, central focus in these studies
has been on students listening preferences for certain genres of music. Evidence of
different research findings related to this topic can be seen in the literature. LeBlanc
(1980, 1981) established a model of listening preferences based upon a configuration

*Corresponding author. Email: gvicente@um.es

© 2014 Taylor & Francis
 Music Education Research 291

of variables that influence the students’ musical preferences. Some of the variables
identified by LeBlanc include personality, sex, maturation, musical training, ethnic
group, socio-economic status, educators and authority figures, family, peer group,
media and performance quality. Later studies by LeBlanc et al. (1999) noted the
significant influence of the age, origin (country) and gender among music students
when listening to music.
Also in the 1980s, Walker’s ‘hedgehog’ theory (1980) based on the relationship
between complexity and preference was applied to music preferences (Radocy 1982).
According to this theory, each person has an optimum level of complexity that
results in an optimum preference. Too little or too much complexity will generate a
decrease in the sound stimulus processing of the listener. The closer one gets to the
ideal complexity of the stimulus, the more the preference increases, as it challenges
the listener to process more of the stimulus.
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It is also important to consider the approach taken by Hargreaves (1982a, 1982b)

to this aspect of schooling. His studies on preferences and aesthetic reactions to
music led him to conclude that younger children are more ‘open-eared’ than older
children to music considered to be unconventional by adults. This hypothesis led to
the author to propose the term of open-earedness, which has been acknowledged and
developed further in numerous studies (Gembris and Schellberg 2003; Hargreaves,
Comber, and Colley 1995; Kopiez and Lehmann 2008; Louven 2012).
It is also important to consider the findings of Rentfrow, Goldberg, and Levitin
(2011). Their study suggests ‘that there exists a latent five-factor structure underlying
music preferences that is genre-free, and reflects primarily emotional/affective
responses to music’ (p. 1139). The authors say that preferences for music factors
are influenced by the social and auditory characteristics of the music. These five
factors are mellow (smooth and relaxing styles); urban (rhythmic and percussive
music); sophisticated (classical, operatic, world and jazz); intense (loud, forceful and
energetic music); and campestral (different styles of direct and ‘rootsy’ music).
Despite the different approaches and research trajectories, it is clear that many of
the studies point to similar factors or variables that determine students’ musical
preferences. It is interesting to note that the most studied variables is age in much of
the existing scholarship, as it seems to be one of the aspects that influences most
when choosing the music (Gembris and Schellberg 2003; Hargreaves 1987;
Hargreaves, Comber, and Colley 1995; Kopiez and Lehmann 2008; LeBlanc et al.
1988, 1996, 1999; Rentfrow, Goldberg, and Levitin 2011; Siebenaler 2008). Gender
too has been found to have a significant impact on the choices students make, with
some studies concluding that girls are more open-eared than boys (Gembris and
Schellberg, 2003; Ho, 2003; LeBlanc et al. 1999; Rentfrow, Goldberg, and Levitin
2011; Schäfer and Sedlmeier 2009; Schurig, Busch, and Strauß 2012). In addition to
this, many studies in the field do not adequately explore the extent to which
particular musical practices and preferences are essentially cultural practices in
themselves linked to specific sociocultural backgrounds. This dimension has been
explored to some degree in studies focusing on the extent to which familiarity is a
variable that impacts students musical preferences with studies by Ritossa and
Rickard (2004), Siebenaler (1999), Teo, Hargreaves, and Lee (2008) and other
studies by Cremades, Lorenzo, and Herrera (2010), van Eijck (2001), Ligero (2009),
Rentfrow, Goldberg, and Levitin (2011) and Sakai (2011) all focusing on the social
influences shaping expressed preferences.
 292 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc

Notwithstanding many of these influences on preferences, there is considerable

evidence in scholarship that school experience can shape and influence students’
perceptions in relation to particular musical activities and consequently impact on
the expressed preferences of student (Droe 2006). The importance and powerful
influence of music education and the way music teachers teach on music preferences
of their pupils is well established in many studies (Arriaga 2005; Herrera, Cremades,
and Lorenzo 2010; Pitts 2009).
A longitudinal study was conducted in USA by Thompson (1991), on the music
activity preferences of high school students over three decades. The author used the
same questionnaire developed by Noyes and Boyle (1972) and Boyle, Hosterman,
and Noyes (1981) and compared his results with those found by Boyle et al. The
findings indicate that most preferred activities over time were those that provided a
high level of involvement with music. There were some limitations to the study
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design arising from the fact that the options given to the participants in the
questionnaire were a combination of type/style of music and music activities, making
impossible to know if the chosen activities have been determined by the style of
music or the type of activity itself (e.g. for students in the 1990s, listening to rock was
the most preferred one meanwhile listening to opera was the least favourite one).
Certainly, one of the studies which needs to be considered as an essential
reference point for any work in this field is the large-scale study with children in
kindergartens and primary schools in USA conducted by Bowles (1998). The
students (n = 2481) were asked to express their preferences for 13 music classroom
activities and eight music programme–related activities. In a follow-up question-
naire, they were asked to revise and refine their selection to indicate only six of their
most preferred activities. The results indicated the preference of students across all
levels was for instrument-based activities, while those related to composition or
talking about music were most associated with the least desirable activities. Other
important aspects related to a decreasing tendency for a positive attitude towards the
activities in general across all levels; the younger students reported mainly positive
responses to the majority of the activities while students from the last levels showed the
lowest percentages for all activities. Later, investigations by Temmerman (2000) in
Australia in the field of early childhood education pointed to a greater appreciation
of the activities that involved actively the students, in this case, playing instru-
ments and movement activities. No gender-significant differences were appreciated.
In contrast, the work developed by Ho (2003) in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei
points to significant differences between boys and girls with regard to the study of an
instrument, participation in extra-curricular activities and musical preferences.
Another study by Silva (2005) with Argentinean primary school students indicated
that the ‘exploring activities’ (composing and improvising) were placed first in the
ranking of the most preferred activities. Listening activities again were in the last
position. Gender differences were also evident as girls expressed a higher value for all
the activities in general. Similarly, the youngest students gave higher ratings than the
older ones. In the lower grades the discrepancy between the expressed preferences for
the different activities is low, revealing a less stratified set of preferences among the
students. In the upper grades, however, a much larger discrepancy was identified,
which leads one to conclude that older students have more defined and established
patterns with respect to their interest in different music activities.
 Music Education Research 293

It is interesting to note that the work carried out by Arriaga (2005) in Spain,
which addresses the habits, interests and musical tastes of students as they relate to
teacher planning, revealed that listening activities (modern music) and instrumental
performance were viewed most positively by the sample in this study.
It is clear from the studies cited above that there is agreement that students
exhibit a slight preference for playing instruments when viewed in the context of all
the other genre of classroom music activities. Studies also conclude that gender and
age impact the choice of activities among students. It is important not to ignore some
of the other variables such as style/type of music, while not significant as gender and
age, have an impact on the musical experiences of students and also serve to shape
their expressed preferences.
This present study is focused on the preferred activities within the music
classroom among primary school students in Spain (specifically in the Region of
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Murcia). In order to establish the different categories of activities to examine, a

comparison of those chosen by other important studies referred in this article is
presented in Table 1. This will help us to determine the grouping of activities in a
way that is more useful for this analysis of the Spanish educational context. As the
table shows, the most common categories among the different studies are singing,
listening, playing instruments, movement/dance and creating/composing.

Music education at primary school: an approach to the Spanish context

Scholarship has clearly pointed to the importance of the context of schools and the
manner in which the music curriculum is designed and implemented as key
components in shaping students perspectives on music. Consequently, it is necessary
to explain briefly the most important aspects of the music education in prim-
ary schools in Spain and its current situation before outlining the objectives and
methodology of this research paper. Two main elements will be discussed in this
section: music teachers and music as a subject in primary school.

Music teachers
Music education in Spanish schools is relatively new. Before the 1990s, very few
primary schools taught music as a distinct subject. Since that time, music specialists
have been incorporated to all Spanish schools. These teachers must teach a weekly
hour of music in every grade of primary school and with the remaining time they can
do any other tasks in a similar way to the other teachers (teach other subjects,
educational support or perform management tasks).
During the last decades, the majority of Faculties of Education in Spain have
incorporated the degree in Music Education Teaching into their general education
degrees. This ensures that graduates are qualified to teach music in the Spanish
primary school system and is an indicator that music education within teacher
education is taken seriously and that there are high expectations for overall teacher
competency in music. In order to obtain a degree in music, it is necessary to do a 4-
year university programme that includes some courses about music, music education
and others on psychology, education, sociology and the different subjects of the
curriculum for primary school. It is also possible to become a specialist music teacher
through the following pathways: (1) doing a special training course after obtaining a
 294
G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc
Table 1. Comparison of activities/categories selected in different studies about the preferences in music activities.
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Activity type

Playing/ Movement/ Talk/learn Creating/ Reading

Author (year) Singing Listening performing dancing about music composing music Other

Nolin (1973) √ √ √ √ √ Rhythm

Moore (1987) √ √ √ √(2 options: Rhythmic
dancing clapping
and movement
to music)
Wang and √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Sogin (1997)
Thompson √ √ √ √ √ √
(1991)
Bowles (1998) √ √ √ √ √ √
Temmerman √ √ √ √ Mixture of
(2000) activitiesa
Silva (2005) √ √ √ √ Mixture of
activitiesb
Arriaga (2005) √ √(2 options: pop √(2 options: √ √ √ √
and classical) percussion and
recorder)
a
Working together with instruments, paper, and pens making their own music.
b
Painting while listening to music, creating instruments, researching about musical topic.
 Music Education Research 295

degree in another subject, (2) holding a music degree in the Conservatory of Music
plus any degree in education or (3) taking an examination1 that certifies a person to
have the required knowledge to teach the subject.
At present, the curriculum for specialist music has recently (2012) undergone
some review and the credits of music subjects have been reduced by almost half, in
line with the trend internationally to train more generalist teachers than specialists.
As Aróstegui and Cisneros-Cohernour (2010) point out in their research, we should
be aware of the consequences of this shift in focus in music teacher education for the
students and the quality of music teaching. The situation at present is positive as
indicated by a recent study by Carbajo (2010) on the self-perception of music
teachers in primary education where teachers indicated a high confidence in their
teaching skills and a high musical and personal commitment to their chosen
profession. Unfortunately, with the considerable reduction of credits on musical
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training in the new curriculum for teachers, it is possible that the new generation of
music specialist teachers may not have the same degree of confidence in their musical
skills.

Music as a subject
In the current Spanish Primary School Curriculum (Ministerio de Educación y
Ciencia 2006), the subject of Music is part of a macro-area called ‘Artistic Area’,
which also includes visual arts. The general objectives and evaluation criteria are
common to the two subjects but with some specific criteria for each. However, the
contents of each are clearly divided and completely isolated, which highlights the
weakness in the manner in which the integration of music and visual arts is
conceptualised within the curriculum. Furthermore, this idea of the integration
between these two subjects at the curriculum level is not reflected in school practice,
because they are taught by different teachers, textbooks are different for each subject
and, except in rare cases, cross-curricular activity between music and visual arts is
reduced to isolated activities in the academic calendar.
Regarding musical content, the curriculum provides for two main strands in
relation to content: (1) listening and (2) musical performance and creation. The first
one refers to the identification, discrimination, representation, assessment, know-
ledge, hearing, classification – among others – of sound and musical elements. The
second one is about exploration, performance, accompaniment, creation, memorisa-
tion, improvisation, arranging and composition. It is intended that all these skills be
developed through the main expressive aspects of music: voice, instruments, body,
ear (aural) and musical language. These elements will constitute larger domains of
activities in the music classroom, for example singing, playing, dancing, listening and
reading and writing music. Figure 1 provides an overview of the main areas in the
music curriculum and how they are taught and linked in an integrated way.

Overview of present study

On the basis of the content of the curriculum and the areas of the activities involved
in it and taking into account the taxonomies of activities proposed by other authors
(Table 1), this study will use the following typology of musical activities in order to
analyse the music classroom activities included in this research:
 296 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc
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Figure 1. Synthesis of content and most salient elements of the music curriculum for primary
school in Spain.

(1) Playing instruments: We refer here to the interpretation of tuned and untuned
instruments that are in the classroom. In most cases the recorder is taught in
Spanish schools.
(2) Singing: All activities involving the use of musical and expressive possibilities
of the voice.
(3) Reading and writing music: All activities carried out to understand the
content of a score and musical theory. The creation of activities that rely on
scores or non-conventional music language to perpetuate the artistic creation
is also included in this category.
(4) Listening: All activities relating to listening to recorded or live music are
included here. Listening to music while singing, dancing or playing
instruments is not included here.
(5) Movement and dance: This category comprises all expressive body movement
exercises, either free or structured. Songs with gestures or body percussion
activities are not considered part of this category.

We consider that the classification of activities under these broad categories provides a
clear and comprehensive way of reflecting the wide range of tasks and exercises that
are performed in the music classroom daily. More specific and concrete types of
activities could have been included, but it would have been very difficult to reflect the
multiplicity of activities in more a delineated framework. The large sample size and the
complexity of the field would also invalidate any kind of comparison.

Objectives
The aims of this research are twofold, firstly to ascertain the ranking of the
preferences of primary school students for different classroom musical activities and
 Music Education Research 297

secondly, to understand the factors and variables that affect these interests and
musical preferences. This study was carried out in two distinct phases. The first
phase, reported here, focused on the large-scale quantitative study of the activities
most valued by students. The second phase, which will be published subsequently,
focuses on exploring what determines the preferences of the students using a more
exploratory, qualitative research paradigm.

Method
Population and sample
The study population consists of all pupils in primary education in the Region of
Murcia during 2009/2010. The total number of students is 99,5192 students, of whom
71,437 (71.8%) are in state schools and 28,082 (28.2%) are in private3 schools.
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For the selection of the sample, we used a quota sampling procedure. The region
was stratified into nine zones, following the areas assigned to the Teacher Training
Centres (Centro de Profesores y Recursos). Taking into account the percentage of
the total number of students for each area and the school type, a proportional
number of pupils/centre of each zone has been selected for convenience. The final
total sample amounted to 4722 students comprising 91.8% state owned and 8.2%
private, which is not as representative of the overall pattern of school types as was
intended. This situation developed after the data collection process had been
initiated. Four private schools and one state school reported at the last minute
that they did not want to complete the surveys. Because this information was
received at the end of academic year, it was impossible to replace them by other
schools.

Instrument
To collect information, two questionnaires have been designed. One for students,
comprising five identification questions and a unique question which must specify
the order of the preferences to the activities taking place in the music classroom:
singing, playing instruments, reading and writing music, listening and movement and
dance. The activity they like most receives a score of 5 and the least 1. There is no
possibility of giving the same score to two activities. The second questionnaire is
designed for teachers and it asks teachers to prioritise the activities mentioned in the
students’ questionnaire on the basis of two criteria; the time spent in the classroom
and the importance attached to each from the teacher’s point of view.

Procedure
Once the number of schools was determined by area, each music teacher was
contacted in order to obtain consent to take part in the investigation. This initial
contact was by telephone and, once they expressed their interest in participating, a
follow-up explanatory letter was sent by post.
A pilot study of the students’ questionnaire was conducted in a public school in
Murcia. The results of this pilot study led to a change in the questionnaire format;
pictures were used to make it easier to understand the options. The protocols for
 298 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc

Table 2. Student preferences for music-classroom activities.

Activity

Playing Reading and writing Movement/

instruments Singing music Listening dance

N – valid 4721 4721 4722 4721 4722

N – missing 1 1 0 1 0
Minimum 1 1 1 1 1
value
Maximum 5 5 5 5 5
value
Mean 3.65 3.01 2.19 3.17 2.99
Median 4.00 3.00 2.00 3.00 3.00
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Mode 5 3 1 4 1
SD 1.391 1.224 1.289 1.260 1.495

administering the questionnaire in the classroom and the explanations used to

support the administration of the questionnaire were also adjusted.

Results
Table 2 shows the students’ ranking of the different musical activities. The study
indicates that the activity that the students like most is playing instruments (mean
3.65), followed by listening (mean 3.17). Conversely, reading and writing music is the
least preferred (mean 2.19), while the activities of singing and movement and dance
attract a midrange score. It is important to highlight that according to the modes
observed that the most frequent score for instrumental expression activity was the
highest (5), while the reading and writing music and movement/dance show as selected
value 1, the last possible position of the 5 options on the preferences ranking.
This classification of preferences established for the entire sample remains
unchanged when we examine the preferences indicated by boys (Table 3), although
their first choice (playing instruments) is different from the other activities. For girls,
the average obtained by playing instruments is lower than the total sample, although
it remains the most preferred activity. However, the movement/dance becomes the
second most chosen activity, with a significant difference with respect to boys on this

Table 3. Musical activities preferences by gender.

Boys (N = 3396) Girls (N = 2323)

Activity Meana Mode SD Meana Mode SD

Playing instruments 3.86 5 1.375 3.44 5 1.376

Singing 2.83 3 1.174 3.20 3 1.247
Reading and writing music 2.34 1 1.256 2.05 1 1.307
Listening to music 3.39 4 1.278 2.94 2 1.199
Movement/dance 2.61 1 1.430 3.39 5 1.459
a
The maximum possible value is 5 and the minimum 1.
 Music Education Research 299

Table 4. Musical activities preferences by grade.

Activity

Playing Reading and Movement/

Grade instruments Singing writing music Listening dance

1° (N = 764) Mean 3.47 3.00 2.52 2.97 3.05

SD 1.508 1.293 1.246 1.309 1.536
2° (N = 777) Mean 3.43 2.94 2.68 2.95 2.99
SD 1.565 1.261 1.407 1.203 1.507
3° (N = 788) Mean 3.63 3.04 2.48 3.02 2.86
SD 1.428 1.258 1.414 1.234 1.483
4° (N = 800) Mean 3.48 3.14 2.31 3.16 2.95
SD 1.463 1.142 1.370 1.300 1.510
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5° (N = 781) Mean 3.42 2.95 2.40 3.17 3.07

SD 1.402 1.168 1.540 1.220 1.508
6° (N = 811) Mean 3.40 2.96 2.29 3.28 3.08
SD 1.400 1.211 1.465 1.304 1.423
Note: The maximum possible value is 5 and the minimum 1.

item. The contrast between the boys and girls modes in this category (1 and 5,
respectively) should be highlighted. There is also a greater preference for girls
towards singing, whereas boys on the contrary, value the listening activities.
Regarding the distribution of preferences by grades (Table 4), it can be observed
that playing instruments is the most selected activity at all levels, especially in the first
3 years, where it far exceeds the other options. However, in the last three grades their
scores are closer to the score for other activities, especially to those obtained by
listening, which increases considerably and is clearly positioned as a second activity
of choice. Also, there is a proportional relationship between the activities of listening
and the variable grade, the higher it is, the greater the preference is for this activity.
Reading and writing music is considered by all the grades in the full sample as the
least attractive option. Furthermore, based on the progression of its means along the
entire stage, there is an inverse relationship between the grade and the preference for
reading and writing music, the higher the grade the lower the interest for this activity
(except Years 2 and 5).
When preferences in relation to singing were examined, all the grades follow the
trend identified in the overall sample where they fluctuate between the second and
fourth positions. In the first and third grades, it is the third or second highest
activity, respectively, while in the other four grades of primary school gets the fourth
position.
With regard to the activities of movement/dance, we did not observe a special
tendency by grades. Their values are lower in the intermediate grades (Years 2 and 3)
and the highest in the others. In these cases preferences exceed the singing activities.
It must be underlined that in the two first grades, movement/dance is the second
activity of choice.
According to the relation between students’ preferences and the time spent by the
teachers on each of the activities, the results in Table 5 reveal interesting values
between the two variables. The activity that receives more attention by teachers is
 300 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc

Table 5. Student preferences, time dedicated by teachers and their opinion about the
importance of those activities.

Activity

No. of students = 4722 Playing Reading and Movement/

No. of teachers = 20 instruments Singing writing music Listening dance

Children 3.65 3.01 2.19 3.17 2.99

preferences (mean)
Time dedicated by 3.25 3.65 3.40 2.25 2.45
teachersa (mean)
Teachers 4.00 4.10 3.85 4.15 3.70
considerationb
(mean)
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a
Teachers have to give 5 point to the most used activity and 1 to the least.
b
Teachers can give the same score to different activities. The maximum possible value is 5 and the
minimum 1.

singing; however, it occupies an intermediate position in the ranking of preferences

among students. The second one as the time commitment is reading and writing
music, however, gets the lowest score by the students. On the contrary, listening
activities which are the least worked in the classroom reaches the second place in the
ranking of preferences.
Nevertheless, this mismatch results dissipate when comparing the activities
preferred by the learners and the importance accorded by teachers. In this case,
the activities most valued by teachers (listening, singing and playing instruments)
match those most appreciated by the students. Similarly, the least scored by students,
reading and writing music and movement/dance, receive lower valuations from music
specialists.
Finally, we would like to comment on some specific results by some schools that
show a difference and unusual distribution of the preferences when compared to the
full sample. For instance, School No. 4 and School No. 8 (Table 6) are the only ones
where reading and writing music gets the first position in the ranking of preferences.
In both centres, the time spent on this activity is one of the highest and it is also
considered by the teachers as the most important one. Something similar happens
with the School No. 15, where listening was the most favourite activity. In this
regard, teacher time devoted to it and their assessment scored the highest values.
This result suggests that time spent on the area and teachers’ preferred options are
important factors in determining students’ preferences for these activities. Notwith-
standing this, the pattern or link between time and teacher interest is not supported
in all areas. In School No. 6 and School No. 14, for example movement/dance was
scored as the second most favourite activity. This task occupied the fourth position
(out of five) according to the time spent on it. Regarding the importance given by the
teachers, movement/dance was rated last in the two schools. It is also interesting to
highlight that there were only two schools where a category of activities exceeded the
4 points mean in the ranking of preferences, i.e. School No. 12 and School No. 20
where playing instruments scored 4.10 and 4.09 (respectively) and more than 2 points
of difference with the lowest valued activity. However, the teacher in School No. 12
 Table 6. Student preferences, time dedicated by teachers and their opinion (consideration) about the importance of those activities by schools.

School number

Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
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Children preferences (mean)

Playing 4.09 2.97 3.99 2.17 3.91 3.72 3.53 2.63 4.13 3.69 3.77 4.10 3.50 3.94 3.41 3.88 3.76 3.77 3.74 4.09
instruments
Singing 2.95 3.21 3.07 3.25 3.00 2.81 3.32 3.01 3.01 2.93 3.12 2.98 2.93 2.93 2.84 2.80 3.17 2.89 3.21 2.72
Reading and 1.99 3.46 1.80 3.88 2.03 2.15 1.82 3.73 2.23 1.98 1.88 2.01 2.11 2.04 1.90 2.02 2.00 1.87 1.85 1.93
writing music
Listening 3.34 2.84 3.20 2.50 3.27 3.02 3.36 2.42 3.10 3.24 3.20 2.82 3.32 2.96 3.69 3.50 3.29 3.62 3.23 3.32
Movement/dance 2.70 2.53 2.91 3.21 2.80 3.30 2.97 3.21 2.54 3.16 3.05 3.09 3.15 3.20 3.16 2.85 2.78 2.85 2.95 3.03
Time spent by teachers
Playing 5 5 2 3 5 3 2 1 4 1 4 1 4 3 2 4 4 3 5 4
instruments
Singing 2 1 1 5 3 4 5 5 3 5 2 5 5 4 1 5 5 5 4 3
Reading and 3 3 5 4 4 5 3 4 1 4 5 4 2 5 3 1 3 4 3 2
writing music
Listening 4 2 4 2 2 1 4 3 2 2 3 2 1 1 5 2 1 2 1 1

Music Education Research

Movements/dance 1 4 3 1 1 2 1 2 5 3 1 3 3 2 4 3 2 1 2 5
Teachers consideration
Playing 5 4 1 4 5 4 4 5 5 5 1 3 4 5 3 5 4 4 5 4
instruments
Singing 4 1 2 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 2 5 5 5 3 5 3 4 5 5
Reading and 3 3 5 5 4 4 3 5 3 5 4 5 3 3 3 3 3 5 5 3
writing music
Listening 5 5 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 3 4 3 5 4 4 3 2 5 4
Movements/dance 4 2 3 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 1 4 4 4 5 4 4 2 4 5

301
 302 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc

did not invest too much time in this type of activities and considered playing
instruments as the least important one. By contrast, these tasks were categorised as
second in time spent and importance by the teacher in School No. 20. The lack of a
consistent correlation between these two sets of variables suggests that it is not
possible to establish conclusively causal links between the children’s experience of
music in school and their expressed preferences for particular musical activities. The
negative correlation between the most frequent type of musical activity in school and
students’ attitudes in some cases requires a more nuanced type of engagement, one
could argue with the students themselves, to identify the factors that contribute to
this inconsistency with regard to preferences in the findings.

Discussion
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Musical activities were ranked in the following order by the sample of students in
this study: playing instruments, listening to music, singing, movement/dance, and
reading and writing music. The activity the students like most in the music classroom
is playing instruments, and these results concur with findings obtained in previous
studies (Arriaga 2005; Bowles 1998; Murphy and Brown 1986; Nolin 1973;
Temmerman 2000). Reading and writing music activities occupy the last position in
the ranking of preferences as happened in previous research by Bowles (1998), Nolin
(1973) and Vander Ark, Nolin, and Newman (1980).
The study reveals some significant differences on the basis of gender in relation to
how the different activities were ranked. Boys’ preferences are similar to the trends
identified in the overall sample, while girls gave a higher ranking to movement/dance.
Girls also indicate a stronger preference for singing than boys. In the latter case, the
results contrast with those obtained by other studies (Siebenaler 2008), which did not
reveal important differences between both sexes regarding the attitude towards
singing activities. It is worth noting that the issue of gender is not fully explored in
many of the previous studies on music activity preferences.
When the age and grade are examined, there is a decline in interest in reading and
writing music as we approach the final stages of primary school. This confirms the
findings of Bowles’ study (1998). By contrast, the preference for the listening
activities increases proportionally with the grade. With regard to movement/dance, it
is notable that these activities get the highest score in the higher grades of primary
school concurring again with Bowles (1998). In contrast to Bowles findings, our first
graders (Years 1 and 2) valued movement/dance as the second most favourite option,
while Bowles’ youngest participants answered less positively to dance than to any
other activity. This interest among younger students for movement activities is
similar to Temmerman’s findings with kindergarten students (2000), particularly
when the similarity in ages between the two groups of children is taken into account.
Although numerous authors (Arriaga 2005; Droe 2006; Finnäs 1989; Temmer-
man 2000) indicate some correlation between teachers’ views and practices in
relation to the importance of specific activities in the music classroom and the
preferences expressed by their students, the results in this study do not confirm this
link between teachers and their teaching practices and the expressed preferences,
tastes and interests of their students. When the teacher sample and the student
sample were compared, the results did not produce a definite pattern. Some students
expressed a preference for activities that were not valued highly by their teachers
 Music Education Research 303

while the expressed preference of other students corresponded more closely to their
teacher’s views. It is, however, important to take into account the mall sample of
teachers (N = 20) who participated in this study so it is difficult therefore to draw
firm conclusions from the data. However, the fact that the patterns identified seem to
challenge previous research creates an imperative for further research using a more
qualitative approach that would not only describe but also seek to explain possible
causes and effects of teacher influence on student outcomes with respect to preferred
musical activities.
Clearly, the musical education professionals can have an influence on their
students’ preferences; therefore, all knowledge about these will improve the quality
of teaching. Another question arises here relating to the influence of teachers on
students’ preferences, Finnäs (1989) argues that this could be greater if teachers were
more receptive to the musical tastes of their students. This points to the need for a
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greater degree of shared ownership between teachers and students in determining the
nature and content of the music programme. Research has revealed that preference
for particular music activities begin to develop at preschool and in the first years of
primary school (Temmerman 2000). It is axiomatic therefore, that music teachers
should pay attention to breath of musical experiences in the curriculum at this level
in order to develop and broaden the musical preferences and experiences of the
students from an early age.
There is another important issue worth considering, i.e. the idea of repetition
(Teo et al. 2008; Walker 1980). It could create simplification of a complex activity
and broaden students’ music as happened when discussing about preferences for one
or another music style. Our results reveal that although teachers invest a lot of time
in reading and writing music activities, the students’ interest for these exercises is not
what one would expect. Perhaps doing more of the same activity has a negative
impact on student preferences and it might be worth focusing instead on engaging
students in a variety of activities combining a diverse range of musical experiences
which would develop the desired set of musical skills and competencies while at the
same time keeping students as engaged as possible with the music curriculum.
To conclude, this study has revealed some issues and trends relating to music
activity preferences that create imperatives for exploring new ideas and approaches
with respect to music pedagogy. Nevertheless, if the majority of researchers agree
that education and educators play an important role in the task of enhancing student
musical preferences, it is likely that research needs to focus not only on what
influences students’ preferences but also how to broaden them. In this way teachers
can have a much greater impact on student’s overall engagement with the music
curriculum.

Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the students, teachers and colleagues who
contributed to this project.

Notes
1. Oposiciones: Civil Service Competitive Examination.
2. According to the Murcia Statistic Regional Centre, year 2008/2009.
3. All these private schools receive public funds so they have to follow the same curriculum
and organisational approach as state schools. Their name in Spanish is ‘concertada’.
 304 G. Vicente-Nicolás and G. Mac Ruairc

Notes on contributors
Gregorio Vicente-Nicolás is a former primary school teacher. He is currently working as a
Lecturer in the Department of Art, Music and Physical Education, Faculty of Education,
where he teaches courses on graduate and postgraduate levels in the area of Didactics of
Music. His research interests include music education and values, movement and music and
music curriculum, methodologies and teaching materials.
Gerry Mac Ruairc is a former primary school teacher and member of the Inspectorate in the
Department of Education and Science, Ireland. He is currently working as a lecturer in
Education in University College Dublin where he is Director of Masters Studies in Education
in the School of Education and where he holds a Fellow in Teaching and Academic
Development. His research interests include educational disadvantage, language, social class
and education, sociolinguistics, inclusive education, school leadership in challenging circum-
stances, leading inclusive schools, assessment and educational underachievement.
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