The effect of the Kodály based music curriculum on musical hearing and reading skills in the education of children's choir

Kodály referred to the importance of singing, music literacy, early music education, and school music education in achieving all segments of society and he emphasized the importance of folk music and children's choirs in transmitting national folk culture from generation to generation. Within the framework of these ideas, Kodály's philosophy and method, one of the prominent music teaching approaches in the world, especially in children's music education since the second half of the twentieth century, also began to find its place in Turkey in the last 30-year period. Among the reseaches conducted in Turkey, while it is seen that the applications related to the Kodály philosophy and method are included in various dimensions, no research has been found that includes a teaching sequence conducted with children that takes an important place in Kodály philosophy. In this research, it was aimed to determine the effect of the Kodály based music curriculum, which was prepared according to the Kodály philosophy, method, and lesson planning principles, on the musical hearing and reading skills of children in the preparatory children's choir. For this purpose, in the research process, a curriculum containing 30 lesson plans was prepared considering the sequence of the method, the techniques, tools, and materials used in the method and applied to children who were trained in the preparatory choir. The research was conducted with a single group pretest-posttest design. Tonal Hearing and Sight-Reading Performance Test (TİDPT) and Musical Reading Exam Set (MOST) prepared by researcher were used besides Gordon's IMMA test in the pretest and posttest process. In the evaluation process regarding the pretest-posttest applications, in addition to the IMMA test answer key, the Tonal Hearing Rubric (TİDPA), Tonal Sight-Reading Rubric (TDDPA), and Musical Reading Rubric (MODPA) which were prepared by the researcher with expert opinions were used. As a result of the study, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of the posttests between the pretest-posttest scores of the children for all tests (IMMA, TİDPT- Tonal hearing, TİDPT- Tonal sight-reading, MOST- Rhythmic reading, MOST- Solfege), and it was determined that the Kodály-based music curriculum was effective on children's musical hearing and reading skills. Also, the pretest and posttest results of the children were examined in detail, and it was determined that there was a certain level of increase in the musical hearing and reading skills of all children. In summary, it is recommended to use the Kodály-based music curriculum prepared in a gradual and sequential structure, especially for the development of children's musical hearing and reading skills, in different children's choirs. However, it is thought that this curriculum will be a guide and set an example for the teaching processes and curriculum that will be designed following the Kodály philosophy for different groups with different grade/age levels. In this direction, it can be suggested that the Kodály-based music curriculum can be adapted and used in general music education as well as in different children's choirs.