DYNAMICS IN CANDIDATES’PREFERENCE CHOICES AT THE KENYA CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION (KCSE) MUSIC PRACTICAL EXAMINATION

African music scholars are currently grappling with the challenges of refocusing musical arts based on indigenous knowledge for classroom practice as well as developing Africa-sensed musical arts curricula that use culturally appropriate pedagogies derived from viable theoretical, philosophical and performance practices of indigenous music. The African spirit of humanity encourages all-inclusive participation that bonds participants in performance-based learning situations. The philosophy framing an assessment model should derive from the ideology of humanity (grounded in humane qualities and aspirations) embedded in musical arts education indigenous to the area of a culture. This model should enable and acknowledge demonstration of differentiated innate attributes and take into account the compatible skills of every participant in the learning activity. Rigid assessment yardsticks are often transferred from Western elitist music education practice and used in the assessment of the musical arts in Africa, thus compromising innate musicality. In this article we advocate for assessment initiatives that should enhance the humanity virtues of indigenous intellectual and praxial paradigms, as well as taking note of epistemological logic embedded in contemporary realities. Two different examples from two African countries are used to illustrate our argument

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2010

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African music scholars are currently grappling with the challenges of refocusing musical arts based on indigenous knowledge for classroom practice as well as developing Africa-sensed musical arts curricula that use culturally appropriate pedagogies derived from viable theoretical, philosophical and performance practices of indigenous music. The African spirit of humanity encourages all-inclusive participation that bonds participants in performance-based learning situations. The philosophy framing an assessment model should derive from the ideology of humanity (grounded in humane qualities and aspirations) embedded in musical arts education indigenous to the area of a culture. This model should enable and acknowledge demonstration of differentiated innate attributes and take into account the compatible skills of every participant in the learning activity. Rigid assessment yardsticks are often transferred from Western elitist music education practice and used in the assessment of the musical arts in Africa, thus compromising innate musicality. In this article we advocate for assessment initiatives that should enhance the humanity virtues of indigenous intellectual and praxial paradigms, as well as taking note of epistemological logic embedded in contemporary realities. Two different examples from two African countries are used to illustrate our argument

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Most studies have used the element of listening response to musical stimuli to determine music preferences of the various groups studied. In this study however, the term preference is used to mean the art of choosing one type of music (vocal or instrumental) over another without necessarily using a musical stimulus as the benchmark. This study investigated candidates’ perceived reasons for choosing to perform certain items in the African and Western sections of music practical performance to determine the factors influencing their preference choices in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. Questionnaires were administered to 33 music candidates from three girls and three boy’s schools from 6 districts in Nyanza province in Kenya who sat for their KCSE music practical examinations in 2009. Oral interview was used to collect data from 11 teachers. Content analysis of the secondary school music syllabus, Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Syllabus 20062007 and the Kenya National Examinations Council 20052007 KCSE Examination Report was done to establish the syllabus requirement and categories of choices outlined for candidates in paper 511/1. Musical analysis of 8 vocal pieces was done to explore the intrinsic characteristics of the pieces. The results showed that students do not make their own choices, instead, teachers use forced choice approach to select pieces for students based on the teachers’ specialization, inclination and competency.

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