The development of musical abilities, skills and knowledge is based on musical experiences that pupils acquire through active participation in musical activities, which should be planned in a complex manner. The Music Education Curriculum (2011) also highlights the importance of active approaches to learning and teaching music. This can also be achieved by including musical instruments into music education lessons, which will in turn help pupils gain direct experience with sound, and they will also learn musical concepts through practical experience. In the process of integrating musical instruments in the music lesson, the teacher's role is of central importance, because it is the teacher who plans, implements and evaluates musical activities. In order to provide a quality lesson, it is essential to include a diverse range of musical instruments, which are carefully selected according to the children's physical abilities in a particular age group. Among teachers, the activity of playing a musical instrument is not considered one of the most important musical activities. However, for pupils in the lower grades of elementary school, playing musical instruments is a very popular activity. This is influenced by the supportive, tolerant and safe learning environment created by the teacher, in which pupils feel safe to explore and learn. In order to create that kind of a learning environment and also deliver a quality lesson, teachers have to be professionally and didactically competent. An important role in this plays the additional professional development. Despite the benefits of playing musical instruments in the music education lessons, this concept is only present to a lesser extent in Slovenian schools. Teachers face a number of challenges, including the shortage and inadequacy of musical instruments.
The main purpose of this master's thesis is to examine the current state of the integration of musical instruments into music education lessons in the first and second educational cycles of elementary education. The quantitative study was done using a survey, where 164 grade and lower secondary level of education teachers participated, who teach music in the first or second educational cycle. The respondents provided information on how teachers organize music education lessons from the perspective of including musical instruments in the lessons themselves, how pupils experience playing musical instruments, what opportunities and conditions elementary level teachers have for including musical instruments, and how frequently teachers receive additional professional development in the field of music. Based on the findings, we formulated and, in the conclusion of this paper, introduced guidelines for teachers, that can help to integrate musical instruments more effectively into the music education lessons, and thereby contribute to higher-quality music education that includes active approaches to music teaching and learning.
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