The creative use of music in inclusive education: Bringing harmony to the classroom

Abstract

In this article the author suggests that music can be utilised to help teachers to address some of the challenges of the inclusive classroomto expand their developmental and academic skills. Two of these challenges are the lack of material to support learners and the barriers to learning that learners experience. The article focuses on examples of elements of music that teachers, who are not trained in music, can employ in a creative way in their classrooms, and at the same time encouraging the teachers to create their own exercises for specific purposes in everyday practice. The argument for using music as pedagogical tool was grounded in the classic Vygotskian theory of semiotic mediation in which tools, such as music, are seen as powerful learning mediating artefacts in the inclusive classroom context. The Delphi method was used for enrichment and quality control of the ideas of the researcher.

Keywords:

• inclusive education
• creative use of music
• semiotic mediation
• Delphi method