Issues with Continuation of Concerts that Students take the Initiative in: A Case Study of Hiroshima University

Since 2011, students of the Department of Music Education, School of Education, Hiroshima University have been continuously organizing proactive concerts. These concerts comprise advantages such as the ability to perform in small groups and connections that transcend the boundaries of instruments. Conversely, they also engender issues such as a decreased sense of purpose and increased sense of burden in their management. This study aims to clarify issues with continuation of concerts that students take initiative in, explore the factors that caused these issues, as well as obtain suggestions for solving them. The study consists in conducting a questionnaire and an interview survey with the students who participated in the concert, and to analyze the results using methods such as factor analysis. Despite having a positive perspective toward learning and motivation for participation, the students face a sense of challenge in the concert. These challenges could be classified into six categories. The first category concerned bias in instruments and composition, the second regarded a decrease in the number of participants and participating groups. The third lied in the difference in motivation regarding management, difference and balance in workload, time, and burden related to management. The fourth lied in the difference in the sense of purpose among students, the fifth in the ambiguity in the purpose of the concert itself, and the sixth in human relations and hierarchy. It became clear that these factors were related to the diversity of values and experiences, as well as the stereotypical notion of homogeneity. Furthermore, to solve issues, it is necessary for students to recognize that facing the problem-solving process is a part of learning, which is the point at which the characteristics of student-centered concerts can be recognized