Children's perceptions of and feelings about their musical performance.

摘要

This action research study investigates children's perceptions of and feelings about musical performance. The participants were 41 children from two intact third-grade classes at one private school in the southwest region of the United States.;The study occurred over nine weeks, including preparation for performance, the performance, and the week following performance. Classroom music instruction was grounded in Orff Schulwerk processes. As the teacher-researcher, I investigated students' feelings about and perceptions of the performance process using various data collection strategies. The students drew pictures, wrote about their thoughts and feelings during music class, and wrote letters to friends or relatives in individual journals. I interviewed individual participants to explore in more detail their drawings and journal writing. All classroom instruction, interviews, and group discussions were audio taped and recorded in a research log to document student behaviors and conversations between students. Questionnaires were distributed and collected from parents, faculty, and administrators. A reflective field log helped me organize research activities including my teaching, and provided additional data.;Analysis of the data revealed three categories: (1) emotions, feelings, and self-esteem, (2) social interactions, and (3) musical engagement. Third graders had mixed feelings about their upcoming performance, for example, they wrote in journals and made comments during interviews about being happy/excited and nervous at the same time. They demonstrated egocentric behavior throughout the entire performance process, and this behavior remained evident as their attention in their letters shifted from family to friends or themselves. They sought approval from adults and peers, indicating the social values of performance. Their focus was on musical skills; they didn't articulate conceptual music knowledge in the data.;Findings of this study demonstrate that children have their own thoughts and feelings about performance, and these are related to emotional and cognitive development. This study places a lens on the importance of the school music performance, and the multiple dimensions of children's performance experience, including, feelings, emotions, self-esteem, social interactions, and musical engagement.