SPECIAL REPORT

December 2013

With the Department of Music at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, the Children's Music Foundation conducted a study during the 2012 - 2013 school year and as promised, we are sharing those findings with you here.

Aim of the Study

The study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the First Note Music program in helping teachers to develop children's musical skills. We gave voice to the children themselves and measured their self-perceived competence in music. Additionally, we explored whether the teachers perceived the program useful in advancing their own competence in teaching music. The study thus included two research questions: 1) How did the program influence children's self-perceived music skills and attitudes? and 2) How did the teachers perceive the influence of the program on their teaching?

Participants

130 children and their teachers from six schools participated in the study. The children were 4-to-7 year-olds (mean age 5.42, sd .91), including 69 boys (53%). The children had practically no formal musical training prior to First Note. All teachers taught children aged 3-to-7.  Some were special education teachers, and some had in-school support from a certified music teacher but most not. 31 teachers implemented the program, with 10 of them providing questionnaire data for the study. Schools included both public and private schools with one school having a public/Montessori school mix. 

Teachers

As regards attitudes, significant improvement was found for liking and confidence. The qualitative results showed that the teachers found the program useful, fun, and easy to use, with only minor suggestions for improvement (e.g., adding lyrics to videos). Teachers reported effects on children's improved musical abilities, program enjoyment, and some transfer-effects with general competencies, such as in the quote below:

"First Note had a positive impact on the students. A new group of students got to excel at rhythm and beat than excel at say reading. This helped gain their confidence. This confidence transferred into other subject areas. There was also a noted improvement in the students' musical ability. In the beginning, they were just banging sticks together but, by the end, they had real rhythm."

However, even more pronouncedly than the effect on children, the teacher comments were illustrative of finding the program useful in developing their own abilities in teaching music:

"I loved the program! I am NOT knowledgeable about music and this program made it really easy to teach. The program was supportive to helping me help the children learn."

Finally, it seems that the program was particularly valuable in helping teachers to gain competence and skills for their own teaching. The only item showing no significant change was the perceived importance of music, which already received high ratings from teachers prior to the program starting. All other aspects improved significantly, and the value of the program for developing one's teaching skills in music was further supported by the comments.

Conclusions

The results showed significant increase in the children's self-perceived musical skills, particularly regarding instruments and music cultures. This emphasis may relate to the program's design of presenting new musical material though "guests" coming from different cultures. It may also have been easier for the children t o evaluate their skills in these concrete domains instead of the more abstract concepts of rhythm and pitch. In comparison, the teachers' self-perceived teaching skills improved in all musical aspects, and the teacher comments indicated that the children also did learn skills related to melody and rhythm.

Children's overall attitude towards school improved. Although it is difficult to say how much of this was due to the First Note program, the comments from teachers did support the idea of some competence-related transfer effects occurring. Children's relationship to peers did not change, but significant increase was found in how much their family encouraged their music making. This is important, since parental support is crucial for fostering musical engagement.

Saarikallio & O'Brien: Fostering the musical skills of children and their teachers through a newly designed music program. Paper submitted to the Early Childhood Music Education Seminar in Brazil 2014.