Abstract
This research investigated how children aged five to six performed in social interactions and participation by learning American English through music technology activities in an inclusive class. The purposes of this research were to analyze, through music technology activities, the social interactions and participation of children in the inclusive class. Therefore, the research question was as follows: can music technology activities significantly improve children’s social interactions and participation in an inclusive class? There were two themes for the research teaching, each of which included seven weeks of instruction. The teaching content involved three stages, which were pre-test, implementation, and post-test. The research teaching was given 40 min per session twice a week and continued for 14 weeks with 28 teaching times. The methodology primarily consisted of a qualitative assessment of participation, observations, and interviews. In addition to collecting and analyzing qualitative data, quantitative data were also employed in the study. Data sources were semi-structured observation forms, anecdote records, language test scales and interview records, and feedback forms. The results indicated that all children had positive performance in social interactions and participating motivation, as supported by statistical results of social validity. Furthermore, the children’s cooperation and communication effectively improved through music technology activities. Nevertheless, the limitation of the study is the insufficient number of participants involved in the evaluation. For future research, utilizing more than 30 samples would be more appropriate and would supplement the social network analysis to carry out more in-depth investigations and discussions.
Highlights
Equality in education provides equal learning opportunities for children in the mainstream and guarantees learning opportunities as well as an environment for children with special needs
Children with special needs are placed in a preschool special education class; only for specific periods or activities are they placed in the regular class to learn with children in the mainstream
The research has shown that critical areas of the brain associated with language and social interactions are undeveloped in autistic children, making it difficult for them to internalize experiences related to social learning, communication, and processing social information
Summary
Equality in education provides equal learning opportunities for children in the mainstream and guarantees learning opportunities as well as an environment for children with special needs. After years of hands-on research, many positive results have been obtained using music technology in general and for children in special education settings. The motivation of this study is to explore the influence of music technology activities on the social interactions and participation status of children in an inclusive class. This research uses music technology courses to increase the frequency of social interactions and the number of activities children participate in during games and learning. Three observers observed and recorded the research participants, who were four children with special needs and four children in the mainstream, a total of eight samples, to conduct research on music technology and social interaction; 4. The study intended to increase the frequency of interpersonal interaction and the number of activities involved in the learning process through music technology
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