Music and children. Good efforts for good results

Three different interventions in three Italian primary schools try to document the results of musical education on children. The research aims to monitor and study the effects of the introduction of innovative educational activities. The sample includes a total of 385 pupils of the Italian primary school (5-11 years). The data were collected through questionnaires containing questions with direct reference to music. The cross-sectional method provides a selected sample from three schools different by location and features: • the first is already part of a network, has structured learning paths and well-defined objectives; • the second is not part of any network; • the third has never joined any music initiative and has a high percentage of immigrant children. The intervention in the first school has minor significance in relation to the other two, where training courses held by the major musical institutions of the territory have been organized and monitored through documented participant observation on the field. The most effective and innovative actions have to be focused on the teachers, who first need to be trained in teaching music. The innovation suggests to increase synergies betweens institutions and music schools in primary education to create and strengthen music networks and socialization processes. Innovative educational activities consist of structured learning paths whose contents are defined by experts from such institutions working daily in research and training, from which the children indirectly receive the inputs.