Musical Activities of Primary School Students and Parents’ Engagement in Remote Music Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the learning process of music in primary school determined the topicality of the paper.The aim of the study is to define the musical activities of primary school students and parental engagement in remote music learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Previous studies on students’ motivation to learn music remotely, teachers’ readiness to teach music online and parental engagement in musical activities of students were analysed, as well as an empirical study was carried out to achieve the study aim. The empirical study involved 162 (N=162) students aged eight to nine. Aquestionnaire was conducted to determine students’ musical activities and parental engagement. The statements in the questionnaire were grouped into four study scales: parental engagement in students’ musical activities; students’ independent musical activities; music genres that students prefer; the language in which students sing or listen to music. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Cronbach's alpha, and Pearson coefficient were used to analyse the study results. The study found that the parents watch musical shows and listen to music with their children more than sing or play a musical instrument. By analysing the students’ independent musical activities during remote music learning, it is determined that the dominant type of musical activity that both boys and girls prefer is listening to music. Primary school students use different types of music: folk music, classical music, and popular music. The study found that girls like folk music, while boys choose popular music genres. Students whose native language is not the official state language prefer to sing in both languages. However, they listen to compositions and dance to the music written in their native language. The study concluded that boys spend less time doing musical activities than girls, and that parental engagement in musical activities is essential for primary school students during remote music learning.