Views of Music Teachers on Psycho-Motor Activities

Abstract

The current study investigated the practices available to develop psycho-motor skills within the context of 8 th grade music courses offered at the secondary school level in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). The central research question focused on exploring how effectively psycho-motor skills-based activities were conducted in 8 th grade music classrooms to meet the goals set by the music curriculum, and included three subquestions: (a) What psycho-motor activities are applied in 8 th grade music lessons?, (b) What are music teachers' views of the psycho-motor activities applied in 8 th grade music lessons?, and (c) What difficulties are experienced by music teachers regarding the application of psycho-motor activities in music lessons? The research examined music teachers' views regarding activities used to develop psychomotor skills to answer these three subquestions. Qualitative data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with 15 music teachers, and data were analyzed through content analysis. Findings revealed that activities for developing psycho-motor skills were designed and used randomly based on music teachers' preferences and hence were not applied at a required level in an efficient way. Participants indicated that these problems were due to a lack of instructional materials and instruments, lack of appropriate music classrooms, lack of supervision and in-service training, and the negative attitude of both families and students towards music lessons. Based on the findings curriculum revisions and suggestions regarding how to develop psycho-motor skills through musical activities are proposed, and the importance of producing a realistic curriculum is emphasized.

Student Opinions on Psychomotor Learning Activities Used in Music Lessons

“…When we look at musical activities where psycho-motor skills are used in school music education, singing, body percussion studies, instrument playing and creative dance, synchronous reactions to music, creating new movements, managing, accompanying the song with ostinato and many learning activities that we can express as psychomotor response, are the most common musical applications we encounter in the basic education level (1-8th grades) (Soykunt and Gorgoretti, 2019). Lewis points out that music activities based on physical activities that take place in the music class in his study (1989) are widely preferred in the course because they are perceived by students as an extension of fun and musical games.…”