Music is an integral part of culture and is crucial in the development of an all round individual. Its influence begins before birth and continues after death. Education, on the other hand, ought to develop the whole person from birth and throughout life. Therefore music and education play a complementary role and cannot be divorced-there is education in music and music in education. Without music, education becomes diluted and degraded. This paper highlights research on music and holistic education of the learner. Holistic education involves the cognitive, physical, spiritual and socio-emotional development. The review revealed that music is indispensable in quality education. The paper concludes by recommending that music be included at all levels to improve quality of education.
An examination of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) music results reveals that the performance index in aural (Paper 511/2) has been consistently low over the years. Yet the importance of this section of the examination, the "hearing with the eyes and seeing with the ear" cannot be downplayed. This study set out to test the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in performance in aural tests between students trained using the voice and those trained using the recorder. Subjects were students at a National Girl's School within the outskirts of Nairobi where the researcher was the music teacher. The research adopted a quasi-experimental design, using two groups of 9 and 12 students, dubbed the experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 respectively. Experimental group 1 got its intervention through use of the recorder, which the students learned to play from day one and continued for two years, while experimental group 2 used the voice in all practical lessons for the same period of time. Scores on the pre-test and post-test were compared at the end of the study period. Though the researcher could not rule out the John Henry effect, the results revealed no significant difference between the groups in the performance of the aural test. However, the experimental group 1 was better at sight reading at the end of the study. It was recommended that music teachers use a mixture of both voice and instruments in the development of aural acuity at the formative stages.
<p>Music is beneficial to all people, even those living with challenges, and can boost their self-confidence and acceptability in society. Educators know that practice is one of the key psychological principles of learning and that repetition will lead to perfection in all areas, especially so in playing instruments. The following account is a personal intervention with a low-esteem, mentally challenged boy using music. The intervention was done at Limuru, a small town in Kiambu County, Kenya. It involved teaching the boy how to play the keyboard. The boy’s self-confidence changed noticeably after he was accepted as an integral part of the worship group in his church. It is envisaged that sharing this experience can inform parents, guardians, social workers, teachers and other personnel who deal with struggling students, low esteem or mentally challenged individuals on the benefits of music intervention, even as it spurs interest in research on benefits of exposure to music.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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