Music playing involves the use of various musical games in namely traditional, open and original in order to keep learners entertained while at the same time helping them to achieve various musical concepts. There are three important types of play in the foundation phase namely free play which is defined as the situations whereby learners have vast choices with regards to materials and that they are free to determine how they want to utilize these materials in their games, the second type of play is Guided play which refers to the play in which the teacher chooses specific material which learners can play with as a way to guide their discovery of certain objects or concepts and the third type of play is Directed play which involves the teacher instructing the learners how to accomplish a given task.

Answers to the questions given in the scenario.

a. What could have possibly made some learners uncomfortable during these activities?

some learners were uncomfortable due to the fact that these musical activities only used one language in this case Zulu which made it difficult for other learners to be able to fully engage in these activities as they could not properly speak or pronounce words in the given language and these activities were also religiously discriminating.

b. Why were some learners uncomfortable?

two learners namely a boy and a girl were uncomfortable in taking part in this activities, the boy felt that these games are unfair as they are played in a language that he cannot speak nor pronounce and the female learner was uncomfortable in taking part in these activities due to the fact that these activities were against her family's religious beliefs as those beliefs do not allow a female child to dance in front of boys.

c. Can i think of a way to address these issues? What will I change?

the only way to address the issues in the given scenario is to ensure that I choose musical activities that uses a language that accommodate all my learners and these games must be played in a language that everyone can understand instead of using only form of language and I will also introduce games that are not religiously discriminating in order to ensure that all my learners can comfortably engage in these activities.

d. How can we accommodate diverse learners? What must we beware of?

the only way to accommodate diverse learners is to ensure that we choose musical activities that do not favour any language above other languages and also ensure that our games are not religiously discriminating in any way.

 

Arts integration is defined as the approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding of a certain educational subject by means of an art form or in simple terms art integration means the teaching of a certain subject e.g. Mathematics by means of using any form of art e.g. music.

2. Arts integration is important in foundation phase education because according to Silverstein and Layne (2010) arts integration plays a key role in promoting teaching and learning strategies that addresses the outcomes in various subjects simultaneously while encouraging learners to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and skills through the arts.

3. How to integrate arts to a foundation phase subject: in order for my learners to successfully master the concept of arts integration I can use a body percussion activity as a form of art and integrate it to Mathematics foundation phase as a subject that I want to teach and from there aligned with CAPS I will choose one topic under CAPS Mathematics e.g. Addition and Subtraction then use various body parts to make sounds as a form of body percussion activity for example  3 leg stomps and 4 hand claps and ask my learners to use those body sounds in order to find solutions to mathematical questions.

4. What did I find interesting on SU4: the part that I found interesting in study unit 4 is the fact that arts can be used to teach a school related subject meaning as an upcoming foundation phase teacher I have found various ways that I can use in order to make my teaching more interesting to my learners in this case I will use different forms of art in order to teach my learners a certain subject for example I will integrate music in order to teach mathematics by using a body percussion activity to teach one of the key topics of mathematics.

5. What did I find challenging on study unit 4 which is Arts integration?

the part that i found the most challenging was the fact that i could not have a face to face interaction with the lecturer and engage in various arts integration activities in order for me to be able to fully understand the study unit and this will be a hindering factor when i teach my learners arts integration in future as i do not have the needed knowledge and i was unable to get the full understanding of the concept.

1. Music is the patterns of melody, rhythm,harmony, dynamics and timbre combined to make repetition, variation and contrast. This different patterns can then be put together in order to create music and they also play a key role in how to react emotionally and intellectually to how we view this musical patterns.

2. Musical concepts: we have 6 different types or forms of musical concepts namely: duration,

Pitch, Dynamics and Expression, Techniques, Tone colour, Texture and lastly Structure.

Questions

1. Explain your understanding of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.

2. Summarise the most important aspects of the learning theories of Erikson, Piaget and Vygotsky for your teaching practice as a foundation phase teacher.

3. Reflect on your newly gained knowledge of learning theories and holistic development and create a mind map in which you outline the most important aspects of holistic development in the foundation phase.

4. Why is it important to have basic knowledge about the musical development of foundation phase learners?

5. Create suggestions for music activities which will support the various developmental areas of foundation phase learners. see (1.3.1-1.3.5). formulate at least three music activities that could support and promote each developmental area.

6. Write a short critique about the implications of knowledge about learning theories such as those Erikson, Piaget and Vygotsky with regards to the way in which you approach activity planning.

Answers

1. My understanding of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is that learners begin to develop new skills or knowledge through the help or guidance of a more experienced person (teacher) e.g. by using scaffolding which is a method used by either a teacher, parent or peer to help a learner gain new knowledge or skills.

2a.The most important aspect of Erikson's theory for my teaching practice as a foundation phase teacher is to ensure that i motivate and give credit to my learners whenever they do well this will ensure that they get an increase in confidence, self-esteem and they will try to work harder to get more recognition.

b. The most important aspect of Piaget's theory for my teaching practice as a foundation phase teacher is to teach learners to build new knowledge or skills based on their existing skills or prior knowledge, i will also apply the two stages of Piaget's theory which is the Pre-operational stage whereby i teach learners to represent words using images and drawings and the second stage is the Concrete operational stage whereby i teach my learners using real-life examples to enhance their learning abilities.

c. The most important aspect of Vygotsky's theory for my teaching practice as a foundation phase teacher is to first teach my learners according to their different social factors e.g. cultures and their immediate environment and to also apply the zone of proximal development whereby i guide or help my learners to gain new knowledge or skills through scaffolding.3. Through studying study unit 1 i have gained new knowledge of the different learning theories the first knowledge that i have gained is regarding Erikson's Psychchosocial theory whereby i learned that a learner's social factors play a huge role in their learning, the second one is Piaget's cognitive development theory whereby i have learned that learners are able to create or add new knowledge or skills when they are being taught according to their existing skills or prior knowledge and this theory has two stages which are applicable to foundation phase learners which is the Pre-operational stage and the concrete operational stage, the third one is Vygotsky and the zone of proximal development whereby i have learned that the immediate social factors e.g. culture and environment play a role in how a learner responds to learning and i have also gained knowledge that the zone of proximal development is the ability of a learner to gain new skills through the help of a more experienced person. i have also gained new knowledge regarding holistic development refers to the approach of learning that emphasises the importance of physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children, the most important aspects of holistic development include physical, cognitive, emotional, personal and social development.

4. It is important to have basic knowledge about musical development of foundation phase learners because musical development plays a huge role in making learning an enjoyable and easy process for foundation phase learners, music plays a huge role in helping learners to remember the concept taught during a lesson and musical development can be a tool used in order to keep foundation phase learners engaged in learning.

5a. physical development- dancing, playing with instruments and circle activities.

b. Cognitive development- singing songs in various languages and engaging in music activities such as playing with instruments.

c. Social development- singing in groups, ensemble playing and playing together.

d. Personal development- engaging in musical activities, creating their own musical instruments and taking part in different musical activities e.g. dancing.

e. Emotional development- engaging in musical activities with others to get better emotions, taking part in school emotional drama plays and listening to certain types of songs according to how they feel.

6. Having knowledge about the different theories will help me to have a better understanding of the teaching practice through applying the different theories to making teaching a great tool to improve both cognitive and social aspects of my learners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I personally feel proud to be one of those student teachers who have the the privilege to be studying this module as it prepares me to be a good foundation phase teacher because LSKM focuses on the development of young learners both mentally and psychologically. I have indeed had a tough week due to personal and close relationship reasons but regardless of the challenges that I have faced I have always remained firm in reaching my goal.

By reading Study unit 1 which is the value of music for hostilic development of foundation phase learners I have learned that hostilic development focuses closely in the development of learners in terms of physical, cognitive, emotional, personal and social development and SU1 also focuses on the importance of music in terms of learning of young learners as music makes it easier for learners to understand concepts, music plays a major role in ensuring that learners are able to remember the concept that is being taught and also music makes learning enjoyable for learners.

SU1 also talks about the different theories of development, the first theory that I have learned is Erikson's stages of psychosocial development which mainly focuses on the influence of social interactions and relationships on learning, the second theory is Piaget's cognitive development theory which means that learners are able to create new knowledge based on existing skills and prior knowledge and this theory has two stages which are applicable to foundation phase learners and this two stages are the pre-operational stage whereby learners use words and images to represent objects and the second stage is the concrete stage whereby learners have the developed the ability to think logically about concrete events, the last theory that I have learned in SU1 is Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development.