How do we learn music? Collecting feedback from Kastamonu University music students

Abstract

The study studied how students studying music at Kastamonu University learn about music and whether they receive additional help in 2020. The first study detailed in this article focused on identifying student perceptions and how they learned music, and aimed to come up with suggestions on how to better meet the needs of music students. To do this, we conducted two focus group interviews with music graduate (N = 6) and undergraduate (N = 4) students. Participants said that the timing of the study should better reflect their work and that the studies should be more disciplinary and better designed for graduate students. They also felt that they did not get enough critical feedback and there was a lack of standardization in the training and concert work. However, the participants also felt that the teachers were helpful, the programming contributed well to their work and the support increased their confidence. Two unexpected findings were that students generally access some form of programming offered by the school rather than take advantage of the diverse offerings, and students have misconceptions about the possibilities the school offers and how to use them. It is hoped that this study will help inform other student academic support services about focus group research for the purpose of collecting music program evaluation and student feedback.

Keywords: Music, music education, music student, feedback, learning.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0