A4 Refereed article in a conference publication
Identifying Factors for Integrating Math and Music Education at Primary Schools in Namibia
Authors: Samuli Laato, Romanus Shivoro, Nicolas Pope, Frednard Gideon, Erkki Sutinen
Editors: IEEE
Conference name: IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Publication year: 2019
Journal: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering
Book title : 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE)
Journal name in source: TALE 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education
First page : 1
Last page: 8
ISBN: 978-1-7281-2666-1
eISBN: 978-1-7281-2665-4
ISSN: 2374-0191
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225949(external)
The Namibian school system puts little emphasis on art subjects such as music and emphasizes STEM subjects instead. Despite heavy focus on math teaching at primary schools, many students are not learning. This study investigates how the rich music oriented indigenous culture of Namibia can be leveraged to assist in math education by teaching math via music. First, previous findings from literature are discussed in the Namibian context. Second, three focus groups (n=12, n=2 and n=3) are interviewed and consulted in order to find the potential benefits and barriers of starting to teach math and music together. The results indicate significant potential in cross-disciplinary math and music education for both learning and motivation. However, equally many barriers for implementing the new form of teaching were discovered. Currently the lack of support from the national school curriculum and teachers hesitation to adopt new teaching methods are the biggest challenges.