Elementary Students’ Situational Interest in Lessons of World Music

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this collective case study was to discern the characteristics of lessons of world music that evoke situational interest in elementary school students. Situational interest refers to the temporary interest that emerges out of the specific characteristics of the immediate learning environment. As part of their normal curriculum, nine classes of students in kindergarten through fifth grade experienced lessons of unfamiliar world music. Each unit took up portions of 5–8 lessons and was rooted in sound recordings of culture-bearers, with students participating in a range of activities that included focused listening, singing, instrument playing, and learning cultural context about the music, people, history, and regions of study. Class sessions were videotaped and observed, and students participated in semistructured interviews designed to elicit their opinions of the most and least interesting aspects of the lessons. Four themes that impacted students’ level of situational interest emerged from analysis: the degree of novelty contained within the learning experiences, the opportunity for students to be physically engaged, the ways in which the activities related to their previous experiences and knowledge, and their sense that the music and performers were real people.

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