The effect of conducting primary school music lessons by and under the guidance of a music teacher on students' attitudes and achievements

This study was carried out to determine the impact of primary school music lessons, conducted by a music teacher and guided by a music teacher, on students' attitudes and achievement and to identify the most effective learning and collaboration method for achieving desired outcomes in primary school music education. Currently, according to Article 43 of the Ministry of National Education's regulation on preschool education and primary school education institutions, music lessons are conducted by classroom teachers in Türkiye. Given the current circumstances, this study is considered to contribute to the nationwide primary school educational system. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with nonequivalent control groups was used in the quantitative phase. The 8-week experimental process was carried out with one control group and two experimental groups, selected through simple random sampling and one non-random sampling method. In the qualitative phase, a descriptive approach was used to support the quantitative findings, obtain social validity data, and enrich the study with the researcher's observations. The research group comprised 137 fourth-grade students enrolled in a public primary school under the Ministry of National Education of Türkiye during the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, and four classroom teachers were involved in the experimental groups. For the quantitative aspect of the research, data were collected using a researcher-developed achievement test designed to assess whether students had acquired the expected behaviours in the fourth-grade music curriculum and a 28-item 5-point Likert scale: "Attitude Towards Music Course Scale" developed by Umuzdaş (2012) to measure students' attitudes toward music lessons before and after the study. In the qualitative phase, a questionnaire consisting of open-ended social validity questions prepared by the researchers was used for the classroom teachers in Experimental Group 1 (a-b) (lessons conducted by the music teacher) and Experimental Group 2 (a-b) (lessons conducted under the guidance of the music teacher) at the end of the experimental process. An independent samples t-test and a paired samples t-test were used to analyse the quantitative data. For the qualitative data analysis, data from teacher observations, opinions, and suggestions collected through the social validity questionnaire are presented descriptively. The research indicated no significant difference in students' attitudes toward music lessons between the pre-test and post-test. However, it was concluded that the overall attitude towards music lessons was positive. The results from the social validity questions revealed that the involvement of a subject matter expert in the lessons increased students' success in music classes, contributed positively toward their personal development, and positively influenced the self-recognition processes of students with musical talent. Additionally, it was found that music lessons increased students' overall motivation and significantly impacted their social, emotional, and academic development. The research also concluded a statistically significant difference in favour of the music teacher-led lessons and lessons guided by a music teacher regarding student achievement. Discussion and recommendations based on the findings are included.