Abstract
This paper presents an exhaustive review of data and literature pertaining to the music education of students with special needs. The paper will start by looking at the increasing number of special needs children within the education fraternity and the obvious implications of this. The paper will then delve into one subject of education that is music and focus on one major perspective, and that is the importance of adequately preparing music educators to teach students with special needs. In relation to this, a comprehensive literature review will be conducted ion some of the established facts and theories regarding this issue. The paper will then look at the areas which necessitate further research or areas where the existing literature needs to be improved. The paper will finally look at the importance of studying this topic and how classes on the topic can be used as basis for the creation of strategies to help out teachers when they graduate and work in schools.
In recent years, the number of students that need special assistance from children with disabilities public school programs has increased. According to Pamuk, Makuc, Heck, Rueben, & Lochner, (1998), this increase can be attributed to a myriad of factors that include childhood illnesses, low birth weight as well as well the increasing ability of service providers to recognize the students with special needs. This growing number of special needs children accompanied by various legislation changes, for instance the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act have inadvertently had a humongous impact on the education of special needs children.
According to Birkenshaw-Fleming (1993, p.77), music teachers have in recent years witnessed a rising figure of students with physical and mental disabilities in their classrooms and children with special needs who desire to study music are approaching private music teachers for lessons. In a nutshell, music teachers are under great demand to include disabled children in their music classrooms.
As mentioned above, various legislations advocating for full inclusion of special needs children have been enacted. Educators and legislators have been at the forefront of advocating for this full inclusion and according to Colwell & Thompson (2000, p.278), this means that music teachers across the country must fully prepared to both accept and teach students with special needs regardless of the severity or type of their disability. However, one fact that has emerged is that most music teachers have had very little prior contact or interaction with special needs children before and when these children therefore make an appearance in the classrooms, the teachers are often faced with a daunting challenge of integrating them with their normal counterparts. Kaiser and Johnson state that due to this little prior contact and interaction, many teachers have actually been unable to resolve some of the most prevalent attitudes and perceptions about special needs children. The music teachers also find themselves inadequately prepared and unsupported once they venture into the special education system (Wilson and McCrary, 1996, p.2641).
In light of the above facts, it is very clear that there is a huge need for music teachers to be adequately prepared to teach students with disabilities. A lot of research has been conducted on the need and importance of a good preparation of a music teacher to teach music to students in the classroom.
Kaiser and Johnson (2000, p. 228) conducted a study on the importance of prior field experience and how this can change the perspective of music majors in college on the teaching music to special needs children. In this particular study, the music major students were first handed a questionnaire that was based on how willing and prepared to work with disabled children, in this case deaf students. Although there most of them were willing to work with this group of special needs children, most of them felt that they were not adequately prepared. Later the majors took part in an interactive concert attended by the deaf students. Pretest scores from this endeavor seemed to indicate that the students were ecstatic about this field experience. Kaiser and Johnson (2000, p. 230) established that a field experience is one of the best ways of changing music’s teacher’s perspective on working with special needs children and can also help them to adequately prepare for this experience. The two found interactive experiences help the teachers to dispel any apprehension they may have with working with this class of students and in the process help them to deliver better.
VanWeelden and Whipple (2005, p. 64) also conducted an almost similar study to determine the need and importance of adequately preparing music teachers to teach special education students. This particular study also used music education students and focused on several aspects:
- Personal comfort on interacting with special needs children
- Perceptions regarding preparation in their educational training on working with special need children in a musical setting.
- Eagerness to provide music for special needs children
The study used 28 undergraduate music education students who were placed in two middle school classrooms composed of special needs children. Each of the two classrooms were supervised by either of the researchers. The undergraduates were accessed for a period of one semester where they underwent numerous assessments regarding their attitudes, perceptions, preparedness, and comfort on working with this class of students. A survey on the same aspects mentioned above was also conducted both at the commencement of the study and the end of it.
The outcome or the results deduced from the researchers on this study seemed to indicate that students the music education students tended to be prepared to work with disabled children after this field experience. This preparation exercise helped the music students to be more comfortable to work with the special needs children, additionally; most of the indicated that they had gained adequate skills that could help them deliver better. This once again proved that there is a huge need to prepare teachers to teach special needs children.
Apart from these studies that focused primarily on teachers, there are a host of other studies that have been conducted on the importance of preparing music teachers dealing with special needs children.
A study by Heller (1994, p. 83) shows that teachers who have undergone intensive preparation exercises often tend to achieve better results in the classroom. For instance, this researcher conducted a study that focused on patience. The study seemed to indicate that one of the aspects that special education music teachers are usually taken through is patience. This is because patience is one of the most important virtues in teaching especially the special education students skills. Teachers who have received adequate preparation and training tend to have more patience in the classroom with the students. As a result, the final outcome is often an exemplary one unlike in situations where the music teacher becomes impatient with the special needs children, for instance due to their inability to learn fast and gives up on them altogether.
Darrow (1999, p. 260) found that adequate training of music education teachers makes them prepared to accommodate the capabilities, the needs, attitudes and physical restraints of students. Additionally, a well prepared teacher is able to identify the different learning styles suited for each special needs child and use them to the maximum to aid the child.
What needs to improve from this research?
Current research on teaching music to special need seems to indicate that observations, field experience and hands on experience are some of the most adequate tools that can be used to prepare music teachers for specials needs children (Heller, 1994, p. 101). However, there is need for further research in order to establish and understand the long term implications of the special needs framework in the music methods class.
Another crucial area of this topic where there is need or further research pertains to the internal special education coursework curricular implications (within a department of music) in comparison to outside the coursework that is outside the music school. This research will significantly strengthen the current teacher education programs and also present a firm background in special learning preparation for music teachers.
Research has also shown that collaboration with the special education community is very important (York & Reynolds, 1996, p. 829). There is however need for further need for further research into professional partnerships with educators in the special education sector, for instance relationships and collaborations with music therapists. The results of this research could ultimately provide consultation and support models that could be used in the development of music teacher education. According to Colwell and Thompson (2000, p. 215), music therapists have the ability to provide an exemplary service to special learning music educators because they are essentially trained to work with students who have various disabilities. This means that the music therapist can function as consultants or team teachers. They can therefore avail the required resources to adapt the activities and instruments required for inclusion of every student.
Music therapy programs are not present in every teaching or training institution. Consequently, music educators should collaborate and strategize with their special education colleagues about the best methods of preparing future music teachers to teach disabled or special needs children and also make inclusion topics more prevalent. This will ultimately strengthen the teachers’ ability and confidence in providing quality music education to special needs children (York and Reynolds, 1996, p. 833).
The need to learn about musical education to special needs children
The importance of this topic cannot be overemphasized. As stated earlier, the number of students with special needs has been steadily rising. In light of this, there is a humongous need for music educators to be well equipped to educate this special class of students. Engaging in meaningful discussion on this crucial issue will set a form for the establishment of these strategies (Abril, 2003 p. 41).
The musical fraternity has undergone massive changes and educators are generally expected to serve all students both normal and with disabilities. For music teachers already in service, this may prove to be a daunting task since they may not know how to incorporate disabled children into their classes.
There is a however a huge opportunity for music majors in universities still pursuing their studies. By starting classed that aim to prepare these future graduates to teach special needs children, the institutions will equip them with adequate skills that will help them make a smooth transition into the special learner education system (Hawkins 1991, p. 325). If universities are to achieve this however, they need to conduct extensive research into the topic so as to learn the best strategies that can be used to prepare future special needs music educators.
In conclusion, it is fairly safe to state that adequate training and preparation is paramount for music educators of children with special needs. Dealing with such a unique brand of students requires a lot of preparation and skills most of which cannot be acquired naturally.
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