Integration of musical activities in junior grade education

Abstract

This non-experimental empirical research aims at examining junior grade teachers’ attitudes and evaluations on the kind and extent of integration of musical activities with other subjects in junior grade education. A specially designed  SPIMA scale (ɑ=0.80) regarding evaluation of possibilities of integration of musical activities in junior grade education  is applied on a representative sample of 122 junior grade teachers. The differences in influence of socio-demographic variables on the aforementioned evaluations are examined using the t-test for independent samples and the one-way analysis of variance test (ANOVA), with the data being processed using the SPSS 19.0 statistical software for Windows. With regard to five activities listed, the results show that, when Music classes are concerned, teachers resort to singing and then listening to music. Other three activities (playing an instrument, music creativity, and musical games) are not sufficiently represented. Thus, the activity of singing is most frequently integrated by the most experienced teachers. In terms of distribution of activities along subjects, musical games are widely applied in Physical Education classes, singing is favoured in Serbian and Science classes, whereas listening to music is preferred in Art classes. The least extent of integration is achieved in Mathematics classes.