Rodzina i przedszkole w kształtowaniu umiejętności muzycznych dzieci : zastosowania koncepcji Edwina E. Gordona

Abstract

The main purpose of the research carried out by the author was to define the role of the family and kindergarten environment in the development of six-year-old children music skills as well as finding an effective method and innovative procedures making this development optimum. In the research diagnostic soundings were used with the diagnosis being made in the aspect of environmental and pedagogical implications of the development of children’s music skills. The pedagogical experiment based on the main assumptions of E.E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory became an equivalent research method. Its purpose was to prove that applying E. E. Gordon’s method in music lessons at kindergarten will measurably increase the effectiveness of the development of children’s music competence, which may contribute to greater popularization of this extremely valuable idea and including it in the general system of music education of children. A questionnaire addressed to teachers and parents, E.E. Gordon’s test of music aptitude PMMA, a test of music perceptive skills and a set of tasks for individual examination of executive and improvisational skills of children were used in the research. Sounding research was carried out in the years 1996-1999. The pedagogical experiment was conducted in two kindergartens in Bydgoszcz from September 1997 to June 1998. The research comprised 226 families and 275 six-year-old children grouped in 12 selected at random kindergartens situated in Bydgoszcz and the province of Kujawy and Pomorze and also 150 kindergarten teachers from different regions of Poland. The research was done in three scopes. The first one comprised the family environment and was connected with defining the musical activity of parents, their influence stimulating the development of children’s music skills and the forms of family music performance. The second scope of research was related to the function of kindergarten in the domain of music education, with particular attention paid to music teachers and realization of the programme using specified methods of developing music skills. The third scope was related to the diagnosis of the music skills level of children and defining effects of the development of these skills under the influence of experimental activities. The results of the research related to family environment revealed that parents hardly ever participate in the musical development of their children using different forms of music activities like singing, teaching songs, dancing, playing simple musical instruments, listening to live music, listening to music on the radio, TV and records. The research also proved the existence of a large group of parents who tend to make different educational institutions responsible for musical development of their children. The effects of research releted to musical qualifications of kindergarten teachers confirmed the longlasting negative situation within this domain. Over one half of the respondents cannot play any musical instruments. A significant group of teachers have never had any direct contacts with music of a high artistic value (concerts in Philharmonic, opera performances) and during music lessons they encounter different difficulties being mainly the result of the lack of appropriate musical education. Experimental research revealed measurable effects in the development of perceptive, executive and improvisational music skills of children. In the experimrntal group a considerable increase of effects was noticed in the initially least mastered perceptive skills which were connected with the recognition of meter, long and short notes in rhythmic patterns and defining the number of notes the children hear. The dependence between music aptitude and music skills of children was also revealed in this group. The results of the research concerning the correlation between the influence of family environment and the level of children music competence proved that there is insignificant or hardly any dependence between these variables in the diagnosed group. The research results also revealed the existence of significant dependence between musical education and the ability to play a musical instrument of mothers and the level of music aptitude of children in the selected group of families characterized by the highest interest in children’s musical development. The research conducted in the aspect of pedagogical conditions of the level of perceptive music skills of examined children revealed the importance of some factors such as additional music lessons at kindergarten conducted by a specialist, the level of general education and musical interests of pre-school education teachers and correct realization of the programme related to the development of music skills. The author hopes that the research carried out by her will be helpful in making parents and kindergarten teachers aware of the importance and the role they play in the process of musical development of a child, because the future level and quality of musical culture of the Polish society will depend on their conscious participation in this development.