Young people's music in and out of school
Abstract
This article examines the perceived and documented problems of school music, particularly at secondary level, through a study of young people's music in and out of school. Four issues are explored: teachers' approaches to music in school; pupils' levels of engagement in musical activities in and out of school; pupils' attitudes to music in and out of school; and pupils' aspirations in music. A Pupils' Music Questionnaire was administered to 1,479 pupils in Years 4, 6, 7 and 9 (aged 8–14 years) from 21 schools in England; Teacher Interviews were conducted with 42 head teachers and teachers responsible for music in all these schools; and follow-up Music Focus Groups were conducted with 134 pupils from the original sample. In contrast to earlier research, both teachers and pupils across the sample demonstrated very positive attitudes towards music, whilst also acknowledging constraints on good practice. Music listening formed an important part of pupils' lives, but music making was more prominent than suggested by previous research. Commitment to musical activity seemed more robust out of school than in school, and it is suggested that involvement in musical activity may be transitory for some children and adolescents.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
These findings are in line with previous work where enjoyment of music seems to decline as students approach KS4.
“These findings are in line with previous work (e.g.Lamont et al., 2003;Little, 2009) where it was found that enjoyment of music seems to decline as students approach KS4.”
From Enjoyment of music and GCSE uptake: survey findings from three North East schools in England (2024) · cites this paper as Lamont et al., 2003
In line with previous research, the most enjoyable parts of music lessons were those involving playing instruments, practical work, composing, learning new pieces, working in groups, and making use of music technology.
“In line with previous research, the most enjoyable parts of music lessons were those which involved playing instruments and participating in practical work, composing, learning new pieces, working in groups (Lamont et al. 2003;Little, 2009;Kokotsaki, 2016) and making use of music technology (Stavrou & Papageorgi, 2021).”
From Enjoyment of music and GCSE uptake: survey findings from three North East schools in England (2024) · cites this paper as Lamont et al. 2003
Many students still enjoyed parts of their lessons, similarly to previous findings.
“This indicated that many students still did enjoy parts of their lessons similarly to previous findings by Lamont et al. (2003).”
From Enjoyment of music and GCSE uptake: survey findings from three North East schools in England (2024) · cites this paper as Lamont et al. (2003)
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Enjoyment of music and GCSE uptake: survey findings from three North East schools in England
Whitford, H., & Kokotsaki, D. (2024) · British Journal of Music Education · doi:10.1017/s0265051723000438 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lamont, A., Hargreaves, D. J., Marshall, N. A., & Tarrant, M.
- Venue
- British Journal of Music Education
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2003-10-29
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 229-241
- ISSN
- 0265-0517 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2104
- OpenAlex
- W2150871848
- Cited by
- 262
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 143.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Music Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Diverse Music Education Insights
- Social Sciences › Education › Music Education and Analysis
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Music History and Culture
- Keywords
- school music, secondary school music, music listening, compositional process, children and adolescents
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
