Music education for students with special needs is an area that has not been given much attention in Slovenia thus far. The aim of the doctoral dissertation is to present the argumentation, supported by research findings, of the necessity of enabling basic music education in music schools (hereinafter referred to as MS) for students with special needs (hereinafter referred to as SEN students), the drafting of a proposal for the necessary changes in the field of legislation, education of future and already employed teachers in MS, the possibility of systemic changes in the field of teacher professional promotion, specific adjustments of the educational process according to the needs of various groups of SEN students, and greater opportunities for inclusion and participation of SEN students in MS across Slovenia.
Although art has a great significance both in the life of an individual and the society as a whole, it is often overlooked in the field of education; therefore, a lot of attention is paid to the arguments for the inclusion of art in education in the introductory chapter of the theoretical part. Since the underlying question of this doctoral dissertation is the music education of SEN students, special attention is paid to musical art. Music has always played an important role in people's lives, hence a brief overview of the importance of musical art in different historical periods is presented, followed by the discussion of certain musical-pedagogical concepts (Dalcroze, Willems, Suzuki, Orff, Kodaly, Bašić, Gordon), and music lessons in Slovenian elementary schools and MS.
The analysis of internationally binding and national formal documents facilitated the identification of legal arguments for the music education of SEN students, and a lot of attention is devoted to pedagogical arguments derived mainly from the complex concept of inclusiveness. Despite some convincing arguments that SEN students should also be given the possibility of music education, the research points to the key role of attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes that may be raised by principals and teachers in the process of involving SEN students into MS.
Although SEN students are much less often mentioned in MS compared to elementary schools, it is important to be well acquainted with the basic characteristics of individual groups of SEN students in order to carry out quality teaching work in MS, especially the characteristics of learning and teaching. Therefore, various strategies of music teaching (instruments, notation), which could be helpful for teachers in MS, are presented.
In the empirical part of the research, questions and hypotheses are presented. Qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used, and the data were collected with questionnaires administered to a representative sample of principals and teachers from Slovenian MS, and by means of semi-structured interviews with three SEN students, their parents, and teachers.
The results of the research showed that the majority of principals somewhat unexpectedly recognize the "co-shaping of the personality and planned improvement of the music education of the population" as the most important goal rather than the aim to "discover and develop musical and dance talent". The majority of school principals and teachers estimate that the musical talent is conditioned by a student's disorder or deficit; therefore, the assessment made by principals and teachers that students with speech-language disorders would be the easiest to include in MS, while deaf and hard of hearing students would be the most difficult to include, is not surprising. The vast majority of principals and teachers expressed doubts regarding the entrance examination criteria in terms of recognizing the musical talent, as well as the doubt that the result of an entrance examination is a sufficient criterion for enrolment in MS. The obtained data on the number of all students in MS and, in particular, the number of SEN students in MS, indicate that a quarter of the principals report that there are no SEN students in their MS, therefore, the calculated share of SEN students in Slovenian MS is very low, amounting to only 0,25 % of all students included in the MS. From the perspective of experience with teaching SEN students, the data are consistent with the established low share of SEN students in MS, as only just over two fifths of the teachers and just under a half of the principals have this type of experience. One of the most important findings of teachers that have experience with teaching SEN students is that, according to a good third of these teachers, the experience contributed to personal growth, and more than a third emphasized that the experience of teaching SEN students contributed to professional development, as they learned new approaches to teaching and became more flexible. Three-quarters of the teachers with this kind of teaching experience reported that they had problems with SEN students in musical teaching; they observed the most common problems with reading the notation, unwillingness and poor concentration, weaker motor skills, poorer understanding of music content, and poorer understanding of the teacher's instructions. However, according to the assessment of the performance of SEN students, we can conclude that teachers were quite good at solving these problems, as only just over a tenth of the teachers reported that the SEN students were not successful at all. The self-assessment of the teachers' SEN students teaching skills is surprising as well, as only half of them think that they are not qualified to teach SEN students, and two-fifths of them report that they are qualified to teach some groups of SEN students. It is especially striking to note that, according to the teachers' assessment, the teacher's willingness to teach SEN students is the most important in the process of music education of SEN students, followed by the knowledge in the field of special didactics and the teacher’s qualitative pedagogical and andragogical qualifications. In particular, it should be emphasized that more than two thirds of teachers are convinced that additional professional training would influence the willingness to teach SEN students. It is surprising, however, that almost half of the teachers agreed with the assertion that SEN students can also be included in public music schools or schools with concession, although it has often been perceived that curriculum design can pose a problem when integrating SEN students. Of particular importance are the findings of the qualitative part of the research which, based on interviews with students, reveal that most of them feel good at MS, however, a good student-teacher relationship and the teacher’s ability to adapt his pedagogical work obviously contribute significantly to the wellbeing at MS. Teachers report that the methods used when teaching SEN students are not significantly different from those used in teaching students who do not have special needs, and the difficulties of the three SEN students included in the study did not differ significantly from those identified by teachers in teaching students who do not have special needs. With regards to music education, parents expect teachers to have clearly defined expectations from their children and to be able to motivate them, while the goals of music education, according to them, primarily include the development of general knowledge, personal development, and the formation of work ethic. Another crucial finding is the fact that, according to the teachers' experience, the development of musical skills is primarily dependent upon the students’ work ethic and motivation.
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