Project title:
Exploring the effects of a musical play intervention on young children’s self-regulation
“This project explores whether introducing musical play as an intervention in schools could have beneficial effects on children’s self-regulation.”
Researcher:
Dr Antonia Zachariou
School of Education, Centre for Learning, Teaching and Human Development
University of Roehampton
Project proposal:
Recent observational research suggests that musical play is a context that fosters self-regulatory behaviour. Despite this, there is a lack of rigorous experimental research looking at the effects of musical play interventions on children’s self-regulation.
This project explores whether introducing musical play as an intervention in schools could have beneficial effects on children’s self-regulation. We propose a quasi-experimental, pre-test and post-test control-group design. At the start of the academic year, the children from the experimental (N=80) and control group (N=60) will be assessed in terms of their self-regulation. Children in the experimental group will then participate in a year-long intervention consisting of weekly musical play sessions run by their music teachers. These musical play sessions will be based on sessions previously employed in similar research. At the end of the academic year, children’s self-regulation will be re-assessed. The change in the experimental group’s self-regulation scores before and after the intervention will be compared to the change in the control group. It is expected that the experimental group will show a steeper increase in self-regulation.
This study aims to pave the way for future studies examining the effects of musical play in education, contributing to the understanding of young children’s development.
Photo by Siniz Kim on Unsplash
Themes:
Enabling transformational change
Encouraging the arts
Seeking justice
Promoting wellbeing
Nurturing rooted communities
Thinking globally
Amplifying voices