This study attempts to clarify the importance of orchestra activities in elementary school, by examining the positive influence of orchestra activity on the development of cognitive ability among elementary school students. Furthermore, it aims at rem...
This study attempts to clarify the importance of orchestra activities in elementary school, by examining the positive influence of orchestra activity on the development of cognitive ability among elementary school students. Furthermore, it aims at reminding of the teachers, students, and their parents of the positive impact that can be earned from participating in orchestra activity and further to promote an active participation of more teachers and students in orchestra activities by providing music educational evidences.
The research contents include a literature review about the educational significance of orchestra, music education and cognitive development and a survey analysis that examines the impact of orchestra activity on the cognitive ability of the elementary school students.
The research subject consists of sixty students who are playing in a school orchestra in B elementary school located in Haewoondae-gu, Busan along with twenty homeroom teachers who are teaching the members of the orchestra.
For the survey analysis, the cognitive ability was specified in the following five sub domains, based on previous literature: academic performance, learning motivation, learning attitude, learning behavior, and learning skill. For each domain, four questions were created that were designed to compare before and after of the students’ participation in orchestra activities. The students were asked to answer the questionnaire with total of twenty questions. After the survey was completed, in-depth interview was conducted with homeroom teachers who are the members of orchestra, which provided further information that is useful in interpreting and finding out the reasons behind the survey results.
The study results can be summarized as follows. First, the orchestra activities of elementary school students always have a positive impact on academic performance of the students. As for the effect of academic performance improvement through the orchestra activity, 100% of teachers and 89.2% of students responded positively. Second, orchestra activity of elementary school students helps giving learning motivations to the students. As for the provision of learning motivation through the orchestra activity, 100% of teachers and 89.6% of students responded positively. Third, orchestra activity of elementary school students has an influence on positive change in learning attitude. As for the effect of changing learning attitude of the orchestra activity, 97.5% of teachers and 83.6% of students responded positively. Fourth, orchestra activity of elementary school students helps changing their learning behavior. As for the effect of changing learning behavior of the orchestra activity orchestra activity, 100% of teachers and 84.7% of students responded positively. Fifth, orchestra activity of elementary school students has a positive impact on developing learning skills. As for the effect of obtaining learning skill through the orchestra activities, 100% of teachers and 89.1% of students responded positively.
Hence, it is important to support orchestra activities in elementary schools using after school activity hours or other extracurricular activity hours. The elementary schools should provide the students with wide-open opportunities so that they can actively participate in orchestra activities.