When a student doesn't get to choose what they sing (e.g., teacher choice) there can be less motivation to progress in the learning of the song (less enjoyment, less singing). I think that emotional investment plays a large role in this. When we have the power to choose between an array of options, we start to invest ourselves in the music and want to be able to sing it well.
During my first quarter of lessons at university, I was paired with an instructor who relied heavily on the use of teachers choice. I felt like I had a lot of growing to do as a singer, so I was eager to see what kind of pieces she thought would be beneficial for me in developing new skills. However, we had a disconnect between our interests/goals, so the pieces that she chose didn't really interest me much. I started to become critical of myself because I lost motivation to keep studying, and even changed my music performance concentration to music research for a time. It was when I was finally paired with a new instructor (who utilized a mix of structured and student choice style) that I realized that song choice had a tremendous effect on my motivation.
With these perspectives in mind, I think it's more than fair to say that a singers' opinion about their song has a great affect on their learning. As singers, we want to sound good on songs that we enjoy. If we don't enjoy the song, there becomes little-to-no intrinsic motivation to drive learning and engagement. I think that finding a balance between songs which can challenge the student and songs which the student enjoys/likes (or has some sort of autonomy in selecting) is important for effective learning and progress. In my future studio, I think I would lean more into using a structured/student choice style (both the student and myself would be engaged in pursuing new music) to encourage this.
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