RETRACTED: Music education: Which is more effective – Traditional learning or the introduction of modern technologies to increase student motivation?

Abstract

The introduction of mobile technologies and platforms in music education improves the efficiency of the educational process and can influence the motivation of students in higher educational institutions. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the traditional educational program and the program with the introduction of interactive music services, as well as to identify the impact of the introduction of specialized applications in the vocal training process on student motivation. The study relies on two vocal training apps: Yousician and Voice Training: Learn To Sing. A total of 322 students from three Chinese educational institutions took part in the experiment. The effectiveness of the use of mobile applications in the context of teaching students vocal skills and increasing their motivation for learning was established. It is worth noting that the Voice Training: Learn To Sing application has shown itself to be more effective, which can be explained by the clear specialization of this software, while Yousician was created not only to teach learners to sing but also to play musical instruments, which is what most of the app functionality is devoted to. There was an increase in the motivation of students from groups B and C when using interactive mobile environments by 24.8 % and 38.8 %, respectively. It was also shown that high rates of student motivation were ensured by the introduction of modern interactive environments in vocal training. This study can help in shaping the experience of using modern technologies in the context of rising student motivation.