Abstract:
This study aimed to: 1) develop classroom musical activities to improve rhythmic perception in the terms of downbeat rhythm, rhythmic patterns, and rhythmic notation of children with deafness, and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of classroom musical activities to improve rhythmic perception of children with deafness. The participants in this study were 19 children with deafness in grade 3 of academic year 2014 from Nakhon Pathom School for the Deaf. The participants attended classroom musical activities for 4 weeks, once a week, and 45 minutes a time. The researcher had self- teaching in the class, and the class teacher would be the interpreter of sign language. The instruments used in this study consisted of 1) the practical skills assessment form for evaluating the rhythmic perception of children with deafness, 2) the behaviour observation form of children with deafness in the classroom musical activities, and 3) the interviewing form for asking children with deafness about the preference of classroom musical activities. Data collection was divided into 3 steps: 1) to collect data from the experiment in classroom musical activities and assessment of the practical skills 2) to collect data from behaviour observation of children with deafness in the classroom musical activities, and 3) to collect data from group interviews for studying the preference of classroom musical activities. The data analysis was divided into two sections: 1) quantitative data analysis by analysing the basic information of the participants in this study and the practical test to evaluate the rhythmic perception of children with deafness by using descriptive statistics, 2) qualitative data analysis from the behaviour observation of rhythmic perception of children with deafness and the interviews for the preference of classroom musical activities by using content analysis. The results of this study showed that developed classroom musical activities were able to improve rhythmic perception of children with deafness because of the increased test results of the practical skills after attending the classroom from the first to the last time. The children with deafness could understand downbeat rhythm, rhythmic patterns, and rhythmic notation in different levels. According to the behaviour observation and preference interviews of classroom musical activities, it was found that the children with deafness learned enjoyably, had a willingness to cooperate in the class and they needed to attend these classroom musical activities in the future. The results of this study could show that the children with deafness could have good rhythmic perception through a process of learning and teaching with materials that were appropriate and consistent with the nature of children with deafness