Analysis of the educational practice of music teachers and their relationship with student motivation

This article explores the relationship between the characteristics of music teachers, their way of performing activities, and students' motivation. Four teachers and their 116 Primary School students were filmed on video to analyse the most characteristic activities in these areas: breakdown and presentation of the material being taught, and help offered. It was supplemented with interviews with the teachers and a questionnaire for students about how music was taught in the classroom. The results show that there are significant differences on the motivation for learning music in relation to different forms of teachers' work activities, especially presentation and fragmentation of content and support offered. In addition, the teacher whose students had a higher motivation showed a friendlier and more accessible approach. Finally, the majority of students who perceived that they found music difficult were in the group with low motivation, while most of those who perceived it as easier were in groups with higher motivation.