In the field of early childhood education, play has become synonymous with curriculum but is sometimes viewed narrowly as a pedagogical tool to enhance child development. However, it is known from a range of multidisciplinary work that child-initiated and child-guided forms and contexts of playing can offer rich insight into diversity in…

Although early childhood caregivers in South African townships integrate singing into their teaching on a daily basis, they are often unaware of how to facilitate other musical interactions through movement, playing instruments or body percussion. The 'Bejazzled' action research project was initiated to facilitate these interactions through…

In 1936 attorney Evan S. Pillsbury left a legacy to establish a foundation for the advancement of music education. To determine how the funds might be most usefully spent, the three appointed trustees sought the advice of conductor Leopold Stokowski. He told them that what he thought was most needed was an in-depth study of the spontaneous music…

This article describes a didactic experience concerning the interaction between young children and the Continuator, an Interactive Reflexive Musical System (IRMS) elaborated at SONY- Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. The general aim was to analyse whether and how the Continuator can be used in the kindergartner during the daily school…

Act, Sing, Play (ASP) offered music and drama tuition to Year 2 pupils. The aim of the programme was to evaluate whether music workshops had a bigger impact than drama workshops in terms of pupils' maths and literacy attainment. The evaluation was based on the hypothesis that participation in high-quality music instruction promotes educational…