Instructional Strategies That Could Foster Musical Creativity of Students With Intellectual Disabilities

Background: In Hong Kong, students with intellectual disabilities [ID] are commonly placed in special schools. Under the principle of “one curriculum for all”, students with ID are expected to achieve the same learning targets as their counterparts in mainstream schools. Music is a subject that is offered to all students (Age 6 to 14). One of the major learning targets is “developing creativity and imagination”. Purpose of study: The purpose of this study is to explore special schools music teachers’ reflections on the instructional strategies that could foster musical creativity of students with intellectual disabilities. Methodology: This is a qualitative multiple-case study. Purposeful sampling was used to select nine cases of special schools music teachers. Face-to-face interview technique was used for soliciting music teachers’ reflections on the instructional strategies that they believe to be useful for fostering musical creativity of students with ID. An identical semi-structured interview guide was repeated to all nine cases. All interview data were transcribed and checked by the participants. All data were coded, categorized and analyzed. Findings: The instructional strategies that could foster musical creativity of students with ID are branched out through various music learning activities, such as listening and performing, instead of limiting to composing activities. The design of these instructional strategies must be meaningful and interesting to the students with ID; otherwise they would not be able to respond nor demonstrate their learning outcomes in the music lessons.