Musical Creative Processes of Students with Intellectual Disabilities in the School Context

Type: Short Paper - Article nº 1695

Authors: Teresa Cristina Trizzolini Piekarski, Janice Possamai Fiedler, Salete Maria Chiamulera Böhler

Presenter: Janice Possamai Fiedler

Institution: Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Pontifície Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUC/PR)

Abstract

The present research aimed to study the musical creative processes of students through the intentional use of rhythm, melody, tempo, and dynamics in arrangements, musical accompaniments, and rhythmic and melodic ostinati in the school context. To understand the changes in music education in the 20th and 21st centuries, reference authors included Fonterrada (2008, 2011, 2014), Gainza (2011), Brito (2001, 2016, 2019), Beineke (2009, 2012, 2015), Craft (2005), Burnard (2012), and Webster (2008, 2016). Vigotski’s conceptions about intellectual disability, learning and development, and creativity and imagination in childhood and adolescence offered the theoretical substrate.

Regarding the method, the study opted for case study research in the qualitative approach (Creswell, 2014; Sampieri, Collado, & Lucio, 2013), enabling detailed investigation of the study object. Eleven interventions (music classes), each lasting two class hours, were carried out in a municipal school in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. The participants were eleven students of a Special Class, in which the permanence feature is transitory. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, audiovisual documentation of the interventions, and a field diary.

These interviews sought information to assist in understanding musical learning and development related to musical creation in the participants’ school context. The particularities of each participant were recorded on an observation agenda during the interventions. The activities developed were described with the aid of moving images (Loizos, 2011; Rose, 2011). The discussion was carried out in light of Vigotski’s historical-social theory, which pointed out that musical learning through active musical practice led participants to understand the elements of music studied here and enabled them to use them in musical creation activities.

This is because combinatorial creative activity takes place through the reworking of elements extracted from reality and previously experienced. In addition, the results indicated that peer-to-peer and adult-peer interactions can trigger creative musical processes. It is noteworthy that musical experiences must often be maintained with the child so that the creative processes are encouraged.

References

Beineke, V. (2009). Processos intersubjetivos na composição musical de crianças (Doctoral dissertation). UFRGS.

Brito, T. A. de. (2019). Um jogo chamado música: Escuta, experiência, criação, educação. Peirópolis.

Fonterrada, M. T. de O. (2008). De tramas e fios: Um ensaio sobre música e educação (2nd ed.). Editora UNESP; Funarte.

Vigotski, L. S. (2014). Imaginação e criatividade na infância. WMF Martins Fontes.

Webster, P. R. (2016). Creative thinking in music, twenty-five years on. Psychology of Music.