Hoo, Cher Liek; (2021) Singaporean students' experiences of flow in the primary and secondary school music classroom. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

First articulated by American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, flow theory describes a state of deep involvement in an activity which is valued by the person doing it for its own sake and has an element of challenge. With its strong association with intrinsic motivation and enjoyment, flow can potentially play an important role in the Singapore education system as it embarks on the ‘learn for life’ phase to encourage and cultivate a mentality of lifelong learning in students. Flow is particularly relevant in music education as research had shown that music, being an inherently enjoyable activity, has an affinity with flow. This study therefore sought to examine and understand the flow experiences of Singaporean primary and secondary school students in the context of their school music classroom. The main objectives of the study were twofold: firstly, to determine if Singaporean students experienced flow during their school music classes, and if so, what the nature of their flow experiences were. In addition, the study sought to explore if the flow experiences of students with and without additional music training differed, and if so, how. The findings could then potentially inform practices and strategies to engender flow in the music classroom to realise the synergies between flow and music to improve students’ dispositions towards music learning. The sample was made up of 310 primary five (year 5) students from three primary schools and 100 secondary one (year 7) students from three secondary schools. A mixed method approach was adopted for the study to build a multi-faceted perspective of the students’ flow experiences by triangulating data from different sources. This involved the collection of quantitative data using a questionnaire and qualitative data through focus groups and video observations. The findings showed that the nine dimensions of flow could be mapped to the students’ experiences, indicating that they enjoyed flow-like experiences. Strongly characterised by enjoyment, the students’ experiences were generally positive, although the apparent prominence of some flow dimensions over others appeared to lend credence to the view that there were different nuances of flow and these impacted how students experienced flow. In particular, the relative weakness of challenge-skill balance in the students’ experiences could have resulted in their adopting a ‘relaxed’ attitude towards musical learning, which would not be conducive to cultivating a mindset of lifelong learning in students. The implication was that stronger elements of challenge needed to be planned in the classroom activities in order to bring about students’ musical growth through their enjoyment of the process of continually overcoming musical challenges to develop their intrinsic motivation to want to learn music. There was also a need to enable greater student autonomy and ownership in the music learning process to better facilitate flow.

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