The Soundless Music Classroom
Listening Practices in the Hearing Impaired Classroom
Summer Davis, Bachelor of Music Program, James Madison University
Research Question
Mainstream general music classrooms have prevailed in
holding the auditory sense as the hierarchical ruler. This
practice runs rampant within the education and
involvement of the hearing-impaired community. This
community has a demand for a-typical communication
styles, thus they often participate in the act of musiking
differently than their peers. The inclusive K-12 general
music classroom has progressed to an age of using music
to teach communication skills to young students with
hearing disabilities. In many cases, individuals will learn
their spoken (or signed language) completely through a
musical context. This practice also involves breaking
down the barrier between music context listening and
music communication skills. By fostering a creative, artistic
space that allots for lexicon improvement, the general
music educator can aid students in a physical, emotional,
and psychological realm. It is pivotal that the scope of the
music classroom increases beyond musical listening and
its artistic function to aid hearing impaired individuals in the
act of musiking. By examining the modalities within the
classroom, the acoustical setting of the space, and the
mainstreaming of hearing impaired education, the sounds
of the music classroom can further be examined. The
following articles will be investigated to try and answer the
ever-pressing question of what are the listening practices
in the hearing-impaired classroom that promote multi-
modal communication?
Implications
With the increase of sound technology, there is a
growing hearing impaired community
The practice of musiking is constantly pushing to be
a broader and broader experience
We are currently in an age of inclusive education,
however this is an area that many music educators
feel uncomfortable teaching (Duncum, 2004)
Unanswered Questions and Suggestions
for Further Research
Does the soundless music classroom exist?
If so, ho do the teacher's and learner's objectives
differ?
Is the perfect classroom acoustic level achievable
Research
This Article describes the need for multi-literacy and multi-modality
education within public school art departments. Focusing on art as a
contemporary social practice, the author discusses how cultural forms
inform life beyond their perception. They also touch the linking of
music, writing, and pictures through the process of linking. (Duncum,
2004)
This article narrows in on the specifics of auditory recognition for deaf
and hard of hearing students. It also describes the educational
framework that should surround their music education in order to
connect with them on varied levels. (Hash, 2003)
Although all students are complex, perceptive individuals, the acoustic
setting of a classroom can damage their learning environment. This
study focuses on the testing of an average American classroom for legal
sound transmission and finds that they are far from the standard and
do not recognize this as an issue. (Jaramillo, 2010)
This grouping of concert series studies focused on the way that deaf
and hard of hearing students react to a live sound. Through different
technological innovations like the Radio Baton, Animusic, and
Tapestry along with a large amount of university performers and
educators, this study aided in creating a space for exploration,
sensation, and discovery. (Schraer-Joiner, 2014)
This article stresses the importance of creating pathways that are
linguistically meaningful for students through sound and music. It
further discusses the practices of sound literacy in the reading and
music classroom. (Nelson, 2016)
This study focused on the the use of music in defining self concept for
students who are deaf or hard of hearing in varying atmospheres.
Through giving students surveys that related to perception of music
and self, it was found that the majority of the deaf students studied had
very generalized views of music. (Paul, 2017)
This study focused on the acoustic learning space that is the public
school classroom. Through various experiments, they focused on the
retention of knowledge and focus of the students in an unhealthy
acoustic classroom. (Valente, 2012)
This study examined the synchronization of student beat production
with vibrotactile electronic dance music among hearing and deaf
individuals. (Tranchant, 2017)
This research study focuses on the negative practices of mainstreaming
hearing impaired and deaf students in public school classrooms. It
targets the educators as the ones perpetuating this bias practice.
(Darrow, 1991)
This article focuses on the aesthetics of sound for individuals with
hearing abilities and disabilities. He discussed the qualities of listening
and how they have been defined throughout times. (Abram, 2014)
Other Ideas
Are we going to see an expansion of technology devoted to
hearing impaired education in the next ten years?