The Multimedia Technologies Applications indd

Elementary School Pupils’ Opinions 
on Contemporary Music Education
Markéta Prudíková
Pupils at elementary schools have one lesson of music education per week which 
is signifi cantly less than of some other subjects, mainly mathematics, Czech language 
and literature and foreign languages; the number of IT lessons is gradually increa-
sing. According to the Research into the Use of Multimedia Technologies in Lessons 
of Music Education, more than half of the pupils (52%) consider these subjects which 
are devoted most time in educational process more important than music education. 
According to them, the most important are mathematics, Czech and English. The 
pupils who think their parents do not value music education the same as other subje-
cts suppose their parents fi nd the same subjects as they more important (mathematics, 
Czech, English).
Music education is the part of the educational fi eld Art and Culture. Other subje-
cts in this area are art and drama.
According to the survey, more than half of the respondents are convinced of the 
importance of music education. 14.60% is of the opposite opinion, while 33.47% do 
not know whether this subject is important.
Pupils have stated that music education is important for further studies, possibly 
for entrance exams, for further profession, etc. Others think music education is an 
opportunity to relaxation.
It is gratifying to know that most pupils think music education is important becau-
se it enables them to learn facts from history and familiarise with composers and their 
work and with musical instruments, it is connected with history and literature and it 
informs about interesting events, it is the part of comprehensive education and pro-
vides information about music styles and genres. Some of them further believe that 
music education (more likely they thought music) develops imagination and senses, 
develops personality and practises memory. Another part of respondents appreciates 
the fact that they learn notes, how to create rhythmical accompaniment and keep to 
the rhythm. They think music education enables them to learn how to sing and play 
instruments, possibly gives them the opportunity to play some musical instruments. 
They value the listening activities, especially listening to classical music because 
some of them do not have access to this music or would not listen to it themselves. 
Music education is important also because of dancing. Most pupils are grateful for 
the fact that they learn new songs.
Some pupils do not consider music education important. In their opinion, music 
education is useless, nobody is interested in it if is not useful for life. Some are bored 

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by this subject. If their profession is not going to be connected with music, they do not 
think they will need it. According to some of the pupils, music education is important 
only to children who also study at elementary music schools. This is a place they can 
go to if they want to sing. Another thing they do not like about music education is its 
interest in old styles. Again, this supports the idea that music education is to entertain 
the pupil and not to burden them with lots of demands if they do not want to make 
a living by music.
Pupils have also discussed changes to music education.
Some pupils have focused on the equipment of the music classroom where les-
sons of music education usually take place. Pupils would welcome the use of modern 
appliances and technologies, more frequent use of the Internet and computers, better 
aids and more frequent use of the television.
Other respondents would prefer more activities in music education, especially 
singing (they are usually unhappy with the songs choice and they would like to have 
more popular songs). Some would prefer to have more opportunities to solo sin-
ging or to have only singing activities in music lessons. On the other hand, some 
pupils would prefer less singing activity. One respondent has stated they would like 
to analyze lyrics of popular songs which is an interesting idea although not all the 
texts of popular songs are worth this. However, sometimes pupils can face a deman-
ding text which requires an explanation. The need to work with text is not only with 
popular songs but generally with all songs presented in music lessons. The teacher 
should prevent situations when pupils are singing a song without understanding. At 
the same time, the song should be suitable for the given age and school environment 
without unnecessary “censorship” which would seem brutal and would cause pupils’ 
dissatisfaction. Pupils also judge the proportion between classical and non-classical 
music, usually in favour of non-classical music which they would like to listen to 
more and sing more. According to the popularity of hip hop which the survey has 
proved, it was interesting to fi nd out that one respondent stated they would prefer 
fewer hip-hop songs.
Some respondents would like to listen to music more in music lessons, but it is 
not clear whether only to a specifi c type of music or whether they lack the chance to 
listen to music generally. Most pupils have been specifi c about the type of music they 
would like to listen to. We have already mentioned that some of them prefer popular 
music, further some pupils would like to listen to more genres. Among mentioned 
music activities, pupils would like to dance more but not the embarrassing dances 
such as Avignon but some more modern dances. Some respondents would like to 
have more musical instruments in the lesson or to work with instruments more, some 
of them would like to play more musical instruments, some of the pupils have stated 
that they are not interested in playing the fl ute. Respondents have also named the 
individual instruments they would like to familiarise with, namely drums and electric 
guitar. This proves the fact that teachers sometimes use musical instruments less of-

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ten than their pupils would like to. This may be caused by their worry not to disrupt 
the lesson by too much noise which destroys every attempt to “producing music”. 
Moreover, pupils would like to learn about instruments used for example in rock 
bands without thinking how to do this as it is impossible to teach them for example 
playing the guitar in lessons of music education.
Some respondents would like to visit concerts free of charge or go to a musical 
or at least watch it on video or DVD, others would like to watch fi lms. Some pupils 
suggested they could compose their own pieces. Some would like to play music or 
other games. One of the pupils surprisingly expressed that they would reduce the time 
devoted to learning of notes. The question is to what extent the pupils are interested 
in music and cultural experience, and to what extent they just need to weather music 
lessons with a minimum effort made.
53 respondents out of the total number 1839 would dissolve music education 
completely. 788 respondents do not only want to dissolve it, they do not want to 
change anything about it either. Very rarely pupils mentioned they would like to 
have more lessons of music education, they also wish the lesson to be shortened to 
30 minutes or to take place less frequently or to be only voluntary or as an after-
school activity. There were pupils who blame music teachers or who are not satisfi ed 
with the teacher’s explanation and lessons topics. Exceptionally, pupils think that the 
problem is in evaluation, that there should not be any examinations or there should 
be lower demands on “non-musical” children. This is connected with their request to 
learn less classical music, to gain less information and not to make record of teacher’s 
explanation. They want music education to be funny and relaxing.
It seems that music education is demoted to the role of entertainment in eyes of 
some pupils which they do not consider equal to other subjects. Interesting comment 
has been made by one pupil (girl) who has stated she wished music education would 
not be regarded as a minor subject which shows that pupils themselves are aware of 
the position of music education in both their and public awareness.
According to the fact that educational framework in the educational fi eld Art and 
Culture mentions that education in this area offers different learning about the world 
than only rational (it enables to capture the world in aesthetic way), it is impossible 
to ignore signifi cant contrast between pupils’ view and the ideas of the educational 
framework. Pupils do not perceive music education as a means of learning about the 
world in an aesthetic way, they do not perceive music as a tool for learning about the 
world at all. If we ignore the part of the respondents who are satisfi ed with music 
education and we focus on the criticism, we will fi nd out that a big discrepancy is 
given by the fact that pupils usually do not want to consider music education an equal 
subject, a means of their education, but an entertainment, something minor, a sub-
ject where they want to relax and where they do not want to be disturbed by some 
demands and requirements, they do not want to be forced to listen to music which no 
one else listens to.

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The educational framework says that music education guides the pupil through