Research questions

1. What were pupils' preferences regarding the various class session components in the classes taught by the student teachers: literacy, listening to music, singing, playing instruments, and movement?
2. How did the pupils describe their classroom behavior during sessions taught by the student teachers: paid attention, participated, talked to classmates, disrupted, enjoyed themselves and others?

Music is a cornerstone of a broad education that each child should receive: It touches hearts and minds, gladdens and thrills, challenges us, and connects us (HM government, 2022). The 2030 OECD Learning Compass (2019) states that until now, researchers have not succeeded in identifying another activity that develops children's cognitive abilities in the same ways or to the same extent as arts education in general, among which is music. Engagement in the arts develops pupils' empathic intelligence, enhancing emotional involvement, a sense of responsibility, and empathy for others (Davis, 2008). Via art classes, including music, pupils learn to think about what they cannot see. These skills are transferable to other skills, such as hypothesizing, re-enacting events, and future thinking (OECD, 2019). 

Listening is an integral part of music education. Rojko (2012) claimed that the essence of music education is discovering the world of music, enabled by listening to music and appreciating its beauty. Listening to music is one of the most complex music skills to transmit to elementary school pupils (Hopper, 2007; Beach & Bolden, 2018). The teaching of listening demands that the teacher be very knowledgeable of the content being learned and lead active listening on the part of the pupils, who do not see the music but instead imagine it. 

From an educational perspective, listening lays a foundation for other skills. It is considered an essential first skill in language acquisition, reading, writing, and speech (Hopper, 2007; Prananti, Ratminingsih, & Marjohan, 2019). Therefore, there is broad significance to the skill of listening that is learned in music class, whose environment provides the optimal conditions for listening so that the pupils can follow a line of thought that perhaps differs from their own, sharpen their understanding, and actively link new components to their previous knowledge (Wolvin & Coakley, 2000; Imhof, 2008). Moreover, pupils need listening skills to comprehend the teacher's oral instructions, such as for homework assignments (Owca, Pawlak, & Pronobis, 2003), as well as to develop social skills for school, such as group discussions in the classroom (Wolvin & Coakley, 2000; Adelmann, 2012).

From a constructivist standpoint, Liebman (2013) claimed that it would be a mistake to relate to listening as having no benefit. The main thrust of the constructivist view is how to stimulate the learner to be active and involved in consolidating her knowledge after listening. The methodological implication is to look at various ways of teaching, as these act as links to the process of creating and building among learners, among other things using listening, which is an important activity in all educational approaches.

Listening to music contributes to developing personal and social identity, creating interpersonal connections, and to pupils' mood and emotional regulation. Pupils of various ages created social ties during shared processes of creating, rehearsing, executing, and listening to, music. Specifically, pupils' listening to music develops their focusing ability. Listening activities in music class prepare the pupils for life, i.e., enable them to employ listening skills throughout their schooling and after that. Listening to music is an objective and a means of educational power (Svalina & Sukop, 2021).

Methodology The data collection was carried out between 2020 and 2022. Study participants 366 first through fifth graders from four elementary schools in central Israel (24.1% first graders; 15.4% second graders; 13.4% third graders; 22.8% fourth graders; 24.3% fifth graders). Research tools A questionnaire was designed for the study, based on that developed by Vicente-Nicolás and Mac Ruairc (2014). The questionnaire examined pupils’ viewpoints on content learned in music class. It surveyed five content areas in music curricula: music literacy (teaching notes and rhythms), singing, playing instruments, listening to music, and movement. The questionnaire was examined by experts in music education who approved its validity. The questionnaire had two parts: 1. Ranking enjoyment of five typical components of a music class session from 1 to 5 (5 – most enjoyed - 1 – least enjoyed); 2 ranking five common behaviors during music class. Ethics We received the approval of the Education Ministry Chief Scientist for our anonymous questionnaires distributed to the pupils, who had the option to fill them out or not. To test whether there were differences in the extent of enjoyment of the various components by class, a one-way ANOVA was performed with repeated measures in the dependent variable, where the independent variable was the class. We used a Bonferroni analysis to test the hierarchy of the various components. Moreover, variance analyses with repeated measures were performed for each class separately, and a repeated measures effect. Furthermore, to test the differences vis-a-vis the classes regarding each of the components of the class session, an ANOVA analysis was performed alongside a post-hoc DUNCAN analysis.

Results The first question; What components of a typical music class session did the pupils enjoy most/least? The pupils were asked to rank each component from 1 (least enjoyed) to 5 (most enjoyed). . A main effect of repeating indices (F(4,374 = 42.81; p < 0.001; ƞ2 = 0.314) was found. In a Bonferroni analysis to test what the hierarchy of the various components is, it was found that playing an instrument > listening to music > learning rhythms, movement/dance, and singing. The average of “playing instruments” was very high (over four on a scale of 1 to 5), and the standard of “listening” was high (close to 4); the averages of the other components were pretty high. A repeated measures effect was found in every class (p < 0.001). In all of the classes, the “playing instruments” component was the highest ranked, with “listening” the second highest. To test the differences vis-a-vis the classes regarding each of the components of the class session, an ANOVA analysis was performed alongside a post-hoc DUNCAN analysis, yielding the following findings: The parts “playing instruments” and “listening” – no differences were found between classes; “listening” – differences were found (F(4,377) = 3.43, p < 0.01) stemming from the average for 3rd grade > the average for 5th grade. The second question is: What do the pupils enjoy doing in music class? A similar pattern in all of the types, where “listening” was the most-chosen behavior (between 49% and 57%), with “participating” in second place (between 15% and 32%), and “disrupting” least chosen (between 1.1% and 2.5), i.e., the behaviors that promote learning were the most preferred.

Adelmann, K. (2012) The art of listening in an educational perspective: Listening reception in the mother tongue. Education Inquiry, 3(4), 513-534. Beach, P. & Bolden, B. (2018) Music education meets critical literacy: A framework for guiding music listening. Music Educators Journal, 105(2), 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432118808580 Davis, J. (2008) Why our schools need the arts. New York: Teachers College Press. Hopper, J. (2007) An exploratory essay on listening instruction in the K-12 curriculum. International Journal of Listening, 12, 81-105. HM government, Policy paper (2022) The power of music to change lives – A National Plan for Music Education. Imhof, M. (2008) What have you listened to in school today? International Journal of Listening, 22, 1-12. Leibman, T. (2013) “Constructivism in education” in T. Leibman (ed.) To learn, to understand, to know: Journey on the paths of constructivist teaching. Mofet Institute and haKibbutz haMeuchad Publishing, pp. 13-52. [Hebrew] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2019) OECD future of education and skills 2030: OECD Learning Compass 2030.‏ Owca, S., Pawlak, E., & Pronobis, M. (2003) Improving student academic success through the promotion of listening skills. Chicago: Saint Xavier University. ED 478 233. Prananti, A., Ratminingsih, M., & Marjohan, A. (2019) The Study of TPR Implementation in Teaching, Listening, and Speaking for Elementary School at SD Laboratorium UNDIKSHA Singaraja in the Academic Year 2013/2014. Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris undiksha, 7(2), 1-10.‏ Svalina, V. & Sukop, I. (2021) Listening to music as a teaching area in Croatian primary schools: The teacher’s perspective. Music Education Research, 23(3), 321-334.‏ Teachers’ Portal (2022) Evaluation tools and planning elementary school music studies. https://pop.education.gov.il/tchumey_daat/music/elementary/pedagogy-of-music/assessment-planning-tools/ [Hebrew] Wolvin, A. & Coakley, C. G. (2000) Listening education in the 21st century. International Journal of Listening 14, 143-152.