Exploring Strategies for Teaching Music and Aurals to the Hearing-Impaired Learners: The Case of Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper explores the strategies of teaching Music and aurals to the Hearing-Impaired learners in Kakamega County, Kenya. It: establishes the challenges likely to be experienced by learners with HI in handling Music; analyses pedagogical challenges likely to be faced by potential music teachers of learners with HI in teaching Music and Strategies to be used in teaching Music to this category of learners. A number of institutions dealing with learners with HI were randomly sampled.Mumias Education Assessment Resource Centre (MEARC) was used to provide information on the selection and placement procedure of learners with disability. The study employed descriptive and experimental designs. Data was collected using questionnaires, observation and interview schedules. Some learners were subjected to selected teaching strategies (experimental group) whileotherswerenot (control group). Music and aural tests were administered on these learners. Both purposive and random sampling strategies were used to select target respondents. Collected data was subjected to content analysis in which triangulation was employed to get views from different sources. Variables were tested to make valid and reliable conclusions. The studyfound out that learners with HI have a lot of potential in music and therefore can do music as a subject, their assessment plays a big role in their learning ability, they can substitute their sense of hearing with their sense of sight, feel and touch to learn Music and aurals; and, HI teachers are not trained in the subject of Music. The study recommends that Learners with HI should be: provided with adequate teaching and learning materials in Music, given an opportunity to study music as a subject. Also, KISE should introduce Music as a subject as KICD and KNEC incorporates HI concerns in their syllabi.