Music in the Daily Experience of Grade Six Children: an Interpretive Study

The study involved a systematic search for an understanding of the ways in which students subjectively experience music. The purpose of the study was to investigate the reports of children on their thoughts when engaged in a music listening task. A group of eighteen grade six students, 12 girls and six boys, were studied in one school in a Saskatchewan city during May and June, 1982. Interviews with the parents of 12 of the children were conducted as part of the data collection. A qualitative research method guided the study through a series of phases: participant-observation in the classrooms, a laboratory setting within the school, stimulated-recall interviews, parent interviews, and the administration of the Music Aptitude Profile (Gordon, 1965). The study drew some conclusions about the meaning of music to the students. While pop/ rock music was the preferred musical style, students experienced considerable difficulty providing verbal explanations to explain their preference decisions. Both musical and non-musical associations were made by the students engaged in the music-listening task. The study also found that the research influenced the role of music in the experience of the student. Stimulated-recall may be a useful technique in probing the thinking processes of students so long as it is preceded by a research phase that allows students to become comfortable with the person to whom they will express their thoughts. Finally, the study concluded that the parents and the home were not influential in determining a child's musical preferences. The conclusions suggest the need for continued study of the relationship between music as an aesthetic experience and music education as a curriculum entity.