Abstract:

Listening to music became part of the curriculum in Croatian schools in 1948 and has remained an integral part of the curriculum since then. The most common pedagogical approach to listening in Croatian schools can be described as cognitive or analytical listening (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007). It is oriented towards an analysis of the music with active listening tasks prescribed before hearing the music (Požgaj, 1988, Rojko, 1996, Vidulin 2016). Although cognitive listening is an essential component of learning how to listen to music, it is also very limiting if listening does not move beyond this type of engagement with music. Listening to music which is emotionally directed can lead to spontaneous change of affect (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007) connected with the listeners’ musical preferences (Rentfrow & MacDonald, 2010) and their prior knowledge. Emotional listening includes evaluative assessment of (dis)liking and expression of feelings while listening (Hunter & Shellenberg, 2010). Pupils also spontaneously react to music and often communicate their response to music in a number of musical ways: through movement, dancing, singing, playing instrument, with creative ideas. Encouraging a multimodal approach to listening could serve to enhance the experience. In multimodal learning, multisensory and interactive approaches to learning are used (Fadel & Lemke, 2012; Massaro, 2012).

In regards to the above mentioned, the new way of listening to music, the CEA (cognitive-emotional approach) will be described and the results from the research project carried out in Croatian schools in which compared two pedagogical approaches to listening to music will be shown. Thirty music classes in 16 general schools across 12 Croatian towns participated in this research. The lessons were taught by 14 music teachers. Teachers varied in experience from 2 to 19 years’ experience (M = 7.6, SD = 5.59). In all 557 fifth grade pupils (49% boys and 51% girls) participated with an average age of 10.7 years (SD = 0.80). For the purpose of the study one questionnaire was prepared for all pupils, and two questionnaires were prepared for the teachers. All questionnaires comprised YES/NO, open-ended, multiple choice questions and rating scales. Quantitative and qualitative approaches to data analysis were adopted. The results showed the advantage of the CEA over the standard one with its multimodal teaching context. The use of musical and non-musical activities and stimuli increased the pupils’ participation and helped them to become some sensitive to the music and understanding. Moreover, the results show that pupils following the CEA demonstrated increased concentration and involvement of fifth grade pupils during the lesson, and a more pronounced emotional experience as well as a greater motivation to listen to classical music. This resulted in a greater affinity with the music they heard and a motivation to listen to these pieces again during their free time. Besides being more stimulating for pupils, the CEA is also beneficial for teachers who are encouraged to be more creative in their music lessons.

Keywords:

Cognitive-emotional approach, general school, listening to music, pupils.