Author(s): Ellary A. Draper
Published: July, 2019 in General Music Today
URL to article
Research Focus Area: Asset-based best practices for serving students with disabilities/students in special ed
Abstract:
When teaching students with disabilities, it is important for music teachers to consider the functionality of the skills taught and learned beyond the music classroom. In special education, a curriculum centered on the life-long skills important for students to be independent in their communities is called a “functional curriculum.” Before considering how to adapt a traditional curriculum for students with disabilities, music teachers can used the ideas based in functional curriculum to develop a functional music curriculum, ensuring that both students with and without disabilities are learning the skills to engage in life-long music experiences.
Research Question(s):
Is this an appropriate, meaningful, and necessary skill for this student to engage in meaningful music experiences in and out of the classroom? Why am I teaching my students this particular skill? Are these activities I planned addressing students’ lifelong music-making goals?
Methods:
Literature Review
Key Findings:
- In traditional curriculums, students are given age-appropriate tasks, and their ability to move on to the next steps relies on their mastery of prerequisite skills. This leads to students with disabilities getting stuck on basic skills – impeding their progression to age-level skills.
- Functional curriculums teach students with disabilities, and those without, skills with life-long value. Not only do functional skills taught within a functional curriculum lessen the pressures placed on others by students with disabilities, but it also allows for greater self-efficacy, privacy, and choice for students.
- Given the evolvement of technology and society’s ever-growing engagement in musical experiences, a functional music curriculum allows for ways students with disabilities can engage in such experiences inside and outside the classroom – as both students and adults.
- To pinpoint each students’ personalized goal, speaking with professionals closely working with them, and considering their family’s musical goals for their children as they age are important factors that help teachers find common skills among students to build a framework for music instructions and activities.
Implications:
- For students who wish to actively engage with music as adults, learning skills to communicate about music – through listening to multiple genres and learning musical vocabulary – is critical. Students with alternative communication devices can have these key terms programmed into their devices to encourage appropriate conversation learning skills.
- For students who wish to make music as adults, learning the skills necessary to create music, such as singing and playing in-tune, is crucial for them to be able to participate in those ensembles.
- Students with severe or moderate disabilities may need help with adapting the musical notation itself to participate. In addition, students with physical disabilities may need adapted instruments to work with.
- Individual goal identification is important in working towards life-long goals beyond the classroom.
- It is crucial for teachers to establish ‘why’ and ‘what’ they are teaching students in the classroom to develop a functional curriculum for every student to benefit and gain skills to engage in lifelong musical experiences.
Limitations:
The qualitative study relies on existing literature related to the benefits of a functional curriculum in creating meaningful music experiences for students with disabilities. Primary data collection, through intervention, for instance, could prove useful in providing a more evidenced-based evaluation of a functional curriculum while testing the efficacy of such a curriculum in real-time. An intervention approach could also surface the potential shortfalls of the traditional curriculum.