The Impact of Arts and Cultural Education on Pupils’ Opinions of Musical Culture – Interdisciplinary Project

Abstract

In contemporary education, the arts and cultural education provide the possibilities for the development of pupils' creativity, critical thinking and critical attitude towards art and culture. In this respect, we present an interdisciplinary project, based on the implementation of arts and cultural education objectives in didactic units of music education and history, and cooperation between music and history teachers and the composer. The experimental programme was performed in four classes of two Slovenian primary schools. The results of the research confirmed positive effects of the implementation of arts and cultural education regarding the pupils' opinions of musical culture (classical music, musicians, consumerism, musical education and classical music of the 20th century) and the overall popularity of the subjects connected. The example of the designed interdisciplinary project can serve as the guideline for systematic implementation of the arts and culture education in the learning process as well as contribution to raising awareness about the importance of collaboration between schools and artists. Keywords: arts and cultural education; collaboration with the composer; history; interdisciplinarity; music education