Instructional methods and students’ practical musicianship: A study of students of music in secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Music Education creates an environment in which the human potential is nurtured to bring forth and understand a variety of musical experiences. The environment entails instructional techniques that teachers’ employ to nurture students’ intrinsic ability in musicianship. There has been poor performance in the area of practical musicianship mainly because graduates of music from secondary schools in Kenya have never shown interest to further their musicianship upon leaving school. This begs the question on the nature of music training that these learners receive in secondary schools. This study sought to investigate the influence of instructional methods on the development of students’ practical musicianship. The study sought to: establish instructional techniques employed by teachers of music in teaching; find out instructional resources employed by teachers of music in teaching music; establish learners’ attitude towards practical musicianship, and determine learning activities that students engage in to enhance the development of practical musicianship in secondary schools in Bungoma County. Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) was employed. The study employed the pragmatic philosophical research paradigm, (the paradigm requires the use of qualitative method and the quantitative approaches). It also adopted constructionism paradigm to facilitate informed and sophisticated perspectives). Mixed methodology research design was adopted. The population comprised of teachers of music and students of music from the 15 purposively sampled secondary schools. 15 secondary schools, 19 teachers of Music and 177 Form Four students of Music were sampled. Data was collected using personal interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was generated for each objective. Qualitative data was thematically analysed. Findings were presented in form of charts and tables. The study established that all the teachers of Music mostly employed demonstration and imitation techniques in instructing content in Music with means of 1.953 and 1.483 respectively and majorly (100%) of the teachers used drums as the main instructional resource. There was a serious deficiency of traditional musical instruments and majority of the students of Music held a positive attitude towards practical musicianship with 100% of the teachers encouraging and motivating students towards attaining their desired career goals in musicianship. Students with a mean of 1.993 engaged in dances, song performances and played musical instruments to enhance their practical musicianship skills. However, the study noted that there was observable negativity about school music due to lack of instrumental (95%) and vocal training (59%). It is concluded that teachers of Music mostly employ demonstration and imitation techniques in instructing Music. They use drums as the main instructional resource in Music teaching. It is also concluded that there is a serious deficiency of traditional musical instruments (Marimba, Litungu, Shiriri) in the schools that offer Music as a subject in Bungoma County. Majority of the students of Music have positive attitudes towards practical musicianship. Finally, it is concluded that students engage in dancing, singing and playing of musical instruments as a way to enhance their practical musicianship skills. It is recommended that schools should provide instrumental and vocal lessons in schools, strike a balance between practical and theoretical components of the curriculum to ensure each of these components are exhaustively taught and learned. Students should be allowed to talk about their musical interests and preferences on a regular basis to better facilitate meaningful musical instruction and finally there should be a stronger marketing of music activities to ensure learners are fully aware of the music opportunities in the schools