INTRODUCTION
There are some disciplines or areas of study that generate more
understanding and are result-oriented when the contents are fully synthesized
with the fabrics of another discipline. Music and childhood education have
things in common. Education at any level is aimed at transmitting knowledge,
values, attitudes and skills to develop a critical and innovative mind for
human and national development through instruction in theory and practice of
teaching. This art of transmitting and acquiring knowledge
that forms the ethos of every individual starts at early stages of childhood.
This is anchored by developing a good holistic learning. According to Bappah-Aliyu (2017:4) “Early childhood education lays the
foundation for smooth transition to levels of education”. It should be noted
that at the early years, children are very active mentally, emotionally, and
physically and have the desire and natural curiosity to learn. It is, therefore,
very pertinent to adopt proactive and stimulating learning strategies and
methodologies that could encourage them in developing life-long holistic
attitude towards learning. That strategy can only be achieved through fusing
music with various teaching methods. This is because it is believed that when a
concept is rendered or mastered with the aid of music, it has a higher rate of
retention in the memory of the learner. The Reggio Emilia approach supported
this assertion.
The Reggio
Emilia approach to learning is an educational philosophy and pedagogy which
focuses on preschool and primary school education. This approach is a child-cantered
and constructivist self-guided curriculum that uses self-directed, experiential
learning in relationship-driven environments. This methodology has two
principles, namely: Principle of Holistic Learning and Principles of Critical
Thinking (thinking outside the box). The Principle of Holistic Learning is a
philosophical rather than a rigid ‘system’ Mohammed (2017). This paper focused
on the holistic approach to both teaching and learning based on the principle
of learning by doing. It requires that children have some control over the
direction of their learning; that they must be able to learn through the
experiences of touching, moving, seeing, listening, and hearing; they must have
ways and opportunities to express themselves. Based on Reggio Emilia holistic
principle, it is believed that music would provide the best method of
instruction that would encompass a holistic learning in any given domain when
properly used. This can be achieved by singing those materials that are taught
them as they are shown and demonstrated to them.
Concept of Holistic Learning Development
Holistic approaches
to child development and learning has to do with connectedness of mind, body,
and spirit. When early childhood care professionals take a holistic approach in
teaching and learning of children, they pay attention to children’s physical,
personal, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as well as cognitive
aspects of children’s learning.
A Holistic
approach is important in teaching and learning of 21st Century
children. It allows the professionals to assess the child as an individual, and
understand what they have not been able to achieve by looking at how the
developmental areas link up and how progress in one area can affect progress in
another area. For instance, a child can sing a song of number 1 with a
demonstration of one finger pointing to some objects (physical), which leads to
greater independence and increased self-esteem (emotional). This approach
allows early learning, and childcare professionals to plan for future
activities involving the child, which will help in their overall learning and
development and wellbeing.
Holistic
learning approach helps children acquire all developmental domain of learning
simultaneously. It motivates children to learn about a subject in greater
depth. It also instils curiosity and allows children to learn naturally and
creatively. Twinkle (2002) refers to five aspects of Holistic Development in
Early Childhood Care Education, as follows: Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual,
and Intellectual. Holistic development in ECCE allows Professionals take an
activity that a child enjoys, such as Music and turn it into a learning
opportunity.
Early Childhood Education
Education is one
important aspect of life that cannot be jeopardized or played with. For it to
be meaningfully and adequately imparted, it has to start from the lower level
of early childhood education. Okafor (2019) opines that
early childhood education is a vital process in every individual child’s
development and environmental management. It is an important way of imparting
the necessary ethos and pathos in the life of children from early stage to be
morally sound and operate well within the society they live. The child is
helped to attain the development of his potentials and maximum activation when
necessary, according to right reason and to achieve his perfect
self-fulfilment.
This perhaps
is the reason childhood education is referred to as “an instrument par
excellence (FRN, 2004).” Early childhood education is the manure that
fertilizes other levels of education in human life when applied well. It has
been found to be crucial for satisfactory adult development. It is very useful
to the holistic development of a child. The childhood education starts from
cradle. Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development states that catching
children young with quality education remains a veritable tool for lifelong
development. Therefore, the method of instruction at this stage is very
essential to the achievement of the stated objectives of early childhood
education. The National Policy on Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(FRN, 2013) stated that early childcare development and education (ECCE) is the
care, protection, stimulation and learning promoted in children from 0 – 4
years in a crèche or nursery. The purpose is to: effect a smooth transition
from the home to the school, prepare the child for the primary level of
education, provide adequate care, supervision and security for the children
while their parents are at work, Inculcate in the children the spirit of
enquiry and creativity through the exploration of nature, the environment, art,
music, and the use of toys, etc., develop a sense of cooperation and team
spirit, stimulate in the child good habits, including good health habits, Teach
the child rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms, etc., through
play.
Government
having known the importance of music and children’s learning, stated it clearly
in the purpose of early childhood care education, but it is very unfortunate
that in most childhood care centres, the children are handled with the old and
conventional method/approach towards learning. It is stated that children are
to learn rudiments of numbers (numeracy), and letters (literacy skills), but
this does not require the caregivers and teachers to start teaching the
children all forms of Mathematics and English language without proper censored
methodology. This stage is rather a period of holistic development involving
playing and learning through activities that involve music.
Music and children’s learning
Music plays a lot of
role in the learning and development of children. It impacts greatly on their
social, psychological and moral upbringing. This is a fact most people are
oblivious of, but it is true. Imen (2020) sees music
as sounds that have been organized by using rhythm, melody and harmony. The
author stated that rhythm is the way the musical sounds and silences are put
together in a sequence. Children absorb facts easily when they are presented by
means of music.
Music obviously plays much role in the life of the children which later
defines their outlook in life and much more in their social, psychological and spiritual
lives. But the perception of most people, if not all the persons such as
parents, childhood educators, general public, and so on, on music as solely for
entertainment has brought about the non-harnessing of music to help the
children develop…(Esimone & Ojukwu
2014:39).
Music ignites all
areas of a child’s development and improves reading skills acquisition
including intellectual, social, emotional, motor, language, and overall
literacy development. Introducing the concept of holistic learning to children
through music appears to facilitate learning outcome in all learning
developmental domain, thus, laying a strong foundation of education in the
child. Music appears to be the best thing to enhance children’s concepts
assimilation and also spur their interest towards learning. As a communication
art, Adetunji (2008) had observed that “music
education can be regarded as the acquisition of skills, knowledge and attitudes
in music selected, directed, and evaluated by the school on the basis of the
society, ability and interest of the learners to enable him to be useful to
himself and the society (p. 440)”.
This study is
also based on the postulations by Ekpo (2008:29) that
“The beat of the melodies he (the child) listens to inspires him to move and it
follows singing alternatively. Auditory habit in relation to music begins to
form. What the child hears or sees at this time forms the foundation of its
education later in life”. Going further, he opines that:
Researches have proven that young children in a good musical environment
acquire knowledge better than children who grew up in environment that provides
inadequate musical experiences. Where children listen to songs that are well
rendered or instrumental music recital, ordinarily… promotes all the processes
of musical development in children (ibid. p30)
At childhood level of
education, assimilation of simple commands is guided by a holistic teaching and
learning approach in which children are not being taught a single developmental
domain at a given period of lesson. In the lesson presented which the domain is
physical development with the topic “child’s growth and development” the
curriculum indicator are control body parts, jump, clap and bend. The children
learn all the objectives alongside with other developmental domains such as
cognitive domain and emotional domain. An example of this is children’s ability
to assimilate simple commands from the caregiver to jump up, clap, bend and
sing is based on capability of cognitive development. That ability of
comprehending, eye coordination, and speaking at the same time are called
holistic learning. Secondly, the ability of a child to assimilate simple
command means that the child is emotionally balanced. The child does not cry,
traumatize or feel unhappy, thus, assimilation of simple command through
holistic teaching and learning is taking place. As a result, the child develops
and has smooth transition to other levels of education in future. On the other hand, holistic method of
instruction is a form of positive behavioural approach that can be used with
preschool level of education. Through this approach, children are taught the
behaviours that are positive and the ones that are negative. The use of
holistic learning approach focuses on the child’s positive behaviours such as
social habits and health habits, for example, salutation, respecting the
feelings of others, compassion, taking care of others, honesty, empathy among
other social behaviours. This implies that holistic learning approach is a
behavioural strategy that allows children to learn academically and at the same
time develop good behaviour towards life in future. UNESCO-IBE (2022) refers to
holistic learning as a learning approach that activates the learner’s
intellect, emotions, imagination and body coordination for more effective and
comprehensive learning. Isidienu (2017:230) opines
that “A child today is a man tomorrow. In other words, a new born baby will
eventually become an adult; however what a child becomes today is what the
society will reap tomorrow.” Therefore, a child should be taught the right
things today in a proper way that would be consolidated in him for life. In the
same vein, Jowitt (2018:45 – 46) also shared the view
that “It cannot be denied that responsiveness to music, along with language,
religious beliefs, and technical inventiveness, is a higher attribute of the
human race, distinguishing the human race from animals; and the performance of
music features in the early childhood development of every human society of
which we possess any records”.
In pursuance
of the purposes of the Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE),
as stated in the National Policy on Education, (2013) this study examined the
impact of music towards achieving a holistic development in childhood care
education in Pankshin, Plateau State.
Statement of the Problem
There has been a
growing concern that the Nigerian child is having a disproportionate growth. Attributes such as music which engenders aesthetic and holistic
growth continues to dwindle. Children and young person’s continue to
appear in antisocial activities and vices leading to unknown. There is urgent
need to investigate if music enhances holistic developments of children in
early childhood centres in Pankshin central of Plateau
state. Unfortunately, majority of ECCDE centres do not adopt the music method
because the Care-givers and parents consider it a waste of time and resources.
Consequent upon this, the study compares the learning outcome, behaviours and
assimilation of simple command levels of children in two different schools that
adopted music method of instruction, and another two schools that did not adopt
music method of instruction. The schools are located in Pankshin
community of Plateau State, the location of the study. The 4 ECCEDC were
previously used for practicum observation for two weeks by the researchers and
ECCE students of Federal College of Education Pankshin,
Plateau State.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose for the
study is to determine the impact of music in childhood education in Pankshin central of Plateau State towards an aesthetic
symbiotic fusion that engenders holistic learning. Specifically, the study
seeks to:
1.
determine the relationship between music and children’s holistic learning outcome
in childhood education.
2.
determine the impact of music towards holistic learning on children’s behaviour.
3.
determine the impact of music on holistic learning towards children’s
assimilation of simple commands.
Hypothesis
The null hypothesis
below was tested at P<0.05 level of significance.
HO1: There is
no significant main effect of treatment on the holistic learning outcome of
children in ECCD centres on literacy development.
HO2: There is
no significant moderating effect on the holistic learning of children in ECCD
centres on numeracy development.
METHOD
Quasi-experimental
research design examines whether there is a causal relationship between
independent and dependent variables. Quasi-experiments
are a subtype of non-experiments that attempt to mimic randomised, true
experiments in rigor and experimental structure but lack random assignment (Rogers
and Revesz: 2020:133). This study was carried out in Pankshin central of Pankshin Local
Government of Plateau State with the population of 160 children from all ECCD
Centres in Pankshin central. A sample of 38 children
was drawn from the population by selecting all the pre-primary school children
from the four schools which were randomly selected. The population was
stratified into two groups: Two ECCD centres that adopted music approach and
two ECCD centres that did not. The two centres that adopted were the only
schools within the study area that have been adopting music method,
therefore they were selected, while the other two were randomly selected. The
researchers developed two lesson plans, one on numeracy and the other on
literacy. The evaluation assessment was based on observation of learning
outcome, behaviour and assimilation of simple commands by the children which
was conducted by the researchers with caregivers as research assistants in the
centres as the teaching and learning activities where taking place in groups. The
researchers and caregivers assess the children’s learning outcome, behaviours
and assimilation of simple commands. The instrument was subjected to face
validation by three experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained
using Cronbach’s Alpha method. The data were analysed
using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to compare the differential effectiveness
of the treatments and the previous practicum observation results of the
children.
RESULTS
Hypothesis one;
There is no
significant mean effect of literacy development on the treatment of holistic
learning outcome of children in ECCD centres: to test this hypothesis, Analysis
of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to analyse the holistic learning outcome, using
two weeks practicum observation reports as covariates to find out if the
experimental differences were significant. The result obtained was tested at
0.05 significant levels as presented in table 1 below.
Data Analysis
ANCOVA (Analysis of
Covariance) was used as the statistical tool for the study. Analysis of Covariance
(ANCOVA) was used to compare the differential effectiveness of the treatment.
Table 1: there is no significant
mean difference on holistic learning on literacy with music across the three
basic variables tested between the experimental group and control group on
learning outcome, behaviour and assimilation of simple commands based on
planning my day on literacy f holistic development in childhood education.
The result in
table 2 showed that there was significant mean difference across the three
basic variables tested between the experimental group and control group on
learning outcome, behaviour and assimilation of simple commands based on
planning my day on numeracy of holistic development in childhood
education.
Analysis in
Table 2 reveals that children in ECCE centres that adopted music as a mode of
instruction shows the high rate of learning outcome, good behaviour and
assimilation of simple commands in a holistic teaching and learning with music
on concept of numeracy. On the other hand children in ECCE centres that did not
adopt music approach show some level of good learning outcome, good behaviour
and some good level of assimilation of simple commands in teaching and learning
of holistic development in concept of numeracy but not equate with the children
in the ECCE centres that adopted music as a method of instruction.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Based on the three
variables tested, namely: learning outcome, behaviour and assimilation of
simple commands at the level of holistic development through music as a mode of
instruction at early childhood education, it was clearly shown that music if
adopted and applied well in teaching of concepts such as numeracy, literacy,
emotional development among other developmental skills will enhance learning as
well as playing into learning as recommended for the early childhood education
by Federal Republic of Nigeria in her National Policy on Education.
The finding in null
hypothesis 1 shows that there is a significant relationship between music and
holistic learning on literacy and development of children in early childhood
education level. This is not surprising as the finding is consistent with the
views of Ekpo (2008) who postulated that “With the
major opportunities music provides the child for self-involvement and
personally initiated activities, it is an effective way for the individual to
become acquainted with his unique musical abilities, his ways of solving
musical problems creatively”. Adetunji (2018:440)
furthermore observed that, “music in itself is the communication of the culture
and practices of certain group by means of songs and other practices”. Thus,
music remains the best medium of communication to children and get their interest and in turn a learning goal is achieved.
The finding of the study is also in line with the view of Esimone
and Ojukwu (2014) as they affirmed that “importance
and benefits of music transcend its entertainment objective”. The authors said
that music is said to be a universal language of the soul, and as such can
achieve more vital issues than ordinary words or other subjects can ever
achieve, they stated that its role in early childhood education in social,
psychological and spiritual development of children surpasses what mere words
can explain. Also, null hypothesis 2 states that there is no significant mean
effect of treatment on numeracy development of children in ECCED centres. The
result showed that there was significant effect of holistic learning through
music on numeracy development of children in ECCED centres based on the three
moderating variables namely: learning outcome, behaviour and assimilation of
simple commands.
Thus, it is a well-established
fact that music is a good medium of instruction in the early childhood care
education level for holistic learning and development in the ethos and pathos
that make up human (children) development for a successful transition to other
educational levels.
Educational implications of the study
Music as a method of
instruction, which involves holistic learning and development with play
inclusive in early childhood care education gives the child the opportunity to express
his/her inner feelings and at the same time make connections with the ethos and
pathos of educational learning. The use of music as a method in early childhood
education makes for easy learning of concepts in a holistic learning and
development manner.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A holistic learning
and development at early childhood education stage prepares the child for sound
development because it gives every individual child opportunity of acquiring
all the developmental skills in a certain domain of development.
Based on the
findings of the study, the following recommendations are made:
·
The government and
proprietors of ECCE centres should ensure the employment of qualified early
childhood professionals who are properly trained in the right pedagogy for
teaching at that level of education.
·
The government and
proprietors of ECCE centres are to create awareness to parents and teachers
that using music as a mode of instruction does not destroy the values of
education at that level, rather it fosters and adds great impetus to teaching
and learning.
·
All ECCE centres
should adopt the use of music as a means of instructions for early childhood
education
·
Teachers at this
level are expected to have formal music background to enable them perform
better in this regard
·
It is also advised
that ECCE/Music combination in Colleges of Education and Universities would be
a welcome development in order to equip students with relevant knowledge to
perform better when employed in an ECCE centre as teachers.
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