Exploring the unmeasurable

Valuing the long-term impacts of primary music education

Bibliographic Data

ID21717852
AuthorsKōji Matsunobu (0000-0001-6376-2553, Education University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume23
Issue1
Pages14-27
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMusic Education Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-3808 • E-ISSN: 1469-9893
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14613808.2020.1834524
OpenAlexW3107039490
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This study aims to explore the long-term impacts of primary music education in a progressive school in Tokyo where cooperative learning, democratic decision making, and mutual sharing of interests and purposes by students form the pedagogical basis. Establishing a causal relationship between music learning and its impact in later life is a challenging task, due to many confounding factors. Rather than looking for measurable effects, this study draws on students’ retrospective self-accounts. Although the latter may be viewed as less reliable, it possesses the benefit of allowing the students to assess what they consider to be the true value of their education. Positing that retrospective accounts can form the focus of a long-term impact study, this research targeted former sixth-grade students who became university students ten years later. While at primary school, they were actively involved in music making. A decade on, they were asked to reflect on their primary school music learning experiences. Based on their, and their teachers’, self-accounts, the research explored what they had learned in their music classes and how they valued their learning experiences

Mathematics education · Music education · Pedagogy · Primary education · Diverse Music Education Insights · Music Therapy and Health · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Psychology · Social Psychology

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