Teaching and learning in piano lessons for students with Down Syndrome in Macao

: experiences and perceptions

Abstract

Over the years as a voluntary piano teacher at the Macau Down Syndrome Association, the most poignant story I heard from the parents there was their difficulties in finding piano teachers willing to teach their children with Down syndrome (DS). One of the key factors behind this phenomenon is that most instrumental music teachers in Macao lack the experience in teaching students with SEND. There also seems to be little literature related to teaching musical instruments to students with learning difficulties. To my knowledge, little has been researched into Macao’s population with DS in relation to music pedagogy generally, and teaching the piano specifically. Thus, this study was motivated in recognition of this research gap. Furthermore, perspectives from existing research on DS tends to be dominated by the medical model of disability. Without discarding the medical model, this study includes perspectives from the social model of disability to consider how people with DS should be perceived in today’s society.

The objective of the research was to explore the teachers’, students’ and parents’ experiences and perceptions relating to piano teaching and learning for students with DS in Macao. It took the form of a qualitative study working within an interpretivist paradigm and adopted a collective case study methodological approach. Through a purposive sampling procedure, four triads of participants were selected to give four case studies, each involving a piano teacher, a student with DS, and one of the student’s parents. Several piano pedagogies for teaching students with DS were introduced to the teachers in order for them to select one or more to work with when teaching their own student in this study. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews, field notes during observation of the piano lessons, and diaries written by the teacher and parent from each case study during a five-week research period. The data within each case study were examined, and the whole data set underwent a cross-case analysis using a thematic approach.

Date of Award	6 Dec 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Marina R Y Gall (Supervisor) & Navin Kikabhai (Supervisor)