Influence of socio-cultural environment on development of childrens musical talents in 2nd trienium of primary school

The thesis examines the impact of socio-cultural environment on the development of musical talent among pupils in the 2nd three years of primary school. Thesis begins with a closer look at the definition of giftedness, which may be general or specific (partial). Specific giftedness means that children achieve above-average results in one area only, while general gifted children achieve above-average results in multiple different areas. The characteristics of gifted pupils which distinguish themselves from their ungifted peers are presented. Thesis also presents the impact of socio-cultural environment, which has a significant influence on the development of talent. If a child grows up in an unfavourable environment, the prospects for the development of his abilities are poor in spite of hereditary dispositions. In order to develop child's musical talent, early detection and work with talented pupil is important; not only by the parents, but also and especially by teachers in primary schools. Definition of a musical talent is presented, together with tests to determine the level of development of pupil’s musical abilities. The ways to recognize and promote the work of talented music pupils are presented in the context. In the empirical part of the research I identify the impact of socio-cultural environment on the development of musical talent of children. The study included 6 pupils from 4th class, 23 pupils from 5th class, 29 parents and 8 primary school teachers from one of the elementary schools in Gorenjska region. I used to explore different measurement instruments: tests of musical abilities for pupils of 4th and 5th class, a questionnaire for their parents and a questionnaire for primary school teachers. Survey has shown that the development of musical talent is greatly influenced by the socio-cultural environment and additional musical education of pupils (especially playing an instrument or music school attendance). Teachers do not apply any tests to identify musical talents; rather they discover gifted pupils with observation of their work and progress. Musically talented pupils are given the opportunity to participate in more complex tasks and are stimulated with various extra duties. The research has also shown that musically gifted pupils are not more motivated to perform musical activities in primary school than their peers which are not identified as musically gifted