MUSIC-BASED ACTIVITIES IN THE PREVENTION OF SCHOOL STRESS AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

The paper deals with the problem of stress and other psychological burdens that the students encounter in the education process. It also examines the purpose, possibilities and ways of modulating stress. The core of the research was the students' experience of school stress and its emanations in the form of school anxiety as well as the ways of its prevention, with a special role given to music. The article presents the original idea of perception and play-based creative activities, designed to provide an experimental example of anti-stress prophylactics. Theoretical considerations, experiences and observations allowed for the design on research to be conducted among pupils, in which various forms of musical activity would be introduced during music lessons as a form of stress prevention. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether, and to what extent, the designed activities can contribute to reducing and prevention of school stress. The objective was to learn about the preventive effects of music in relation to school stress as well as to devise specific didactic resources within music, for the use of the teachers of other subjects. The empirical research on the use of various music-based types of activities, designed to prevent school stress, was carried out in 2012-2014 in five primary schools in Krakow. The research involved 310 grade 5 primary school pupils. Method of the natural pedagogical experiment and the diagnostic survey was implemented. The method was that of parallel group technique with initial and final measurements, and a single factor difference referring to the musical phenomena. Both in the control and experimental groups, the compliance was evident in the sphere of music alone. The initial measurement, prior to introducing the experimental factor, was conducted with the use of Spielberger's Anxiety as Trait Inventory and Zwierzynska's Ja i Moja Szkola [My School and I] test. The next step involved the two rounds of Spierlberger's Anxiety as State Inventory directly before and after the end-of-year competence test. The experiment was conducted as the part of music classes. Lessons in the experimental groups were based on the following structure: it begun with listening to the selected music. After listening to the music from the "sample record", which took approximately 5 minutes, 10-minute musical game was introduced. This was the last phase of the experimental part of the lesson, after which the teacher would return to the core curriculum. After eight months of the lessons with the experimental component, the final measurements were taken, keeping the same procedures as in the initial stages of the study. The difference was the content of the competency test and that prior to the Spielberg's Inventory being carried out in the experimental classes, pupils listened to the previously used music from the sample record, which announced the time of playing at the beginning of each lesson. The strategy was to make pupils recall the pleasant feelings associated with musical games and playing. The effectiveness of it was confirmed in the natural, pedagogical experiment. The original, innovative solutions whose effectiveness has been confirmed in research will contribute to the overall theme of the conference.