As in Phase 1, the teachers in all the school groups were asked to participate in Phase 2 of the study. Similarly, the post-intervention questionnaires included additional information for the teachers who used the song as an intervention in order to provide the researcher with information on what happened in the class while the researcher was not there. The teachers were provided with the same questionnaire that the children received for Questions 1 to 9. The answers are shown in
Table 3 and
Table 4 regarding the teachers’ scores for the control and intervention groups, respectively.
In
Table 3, there was no statistical significance in any questions for the control teachers; the sample size was small, with only four participants. There was, however, a decrease in knowledge in Question 5 and Question 8. The reason the teachers answered correctly in the pre-intervention questionnaire and not in the post-intervention questionnaire is unknown.
In
Table 4, there was no statistical significance in any questions for the teachers. The sample size was too small with only four participants in Phase 2. There was, however, knowledge growth in Question 6 and Question 8. Both questions saw the teachers score half correct in the pre-intervention questionnaire, while all the teachers answered correctly in the post-intervention questionnaire. There was, however, a decrease in Question 5. Teacher TA2A admittedly informed the researcher and field assistants that he did not teach the song with the children after the initial training.
Teacher Group Post-Intervention Findings from Phase 2
The post-intervention questionnaires for all the teachers that received the song as an intervention asked additional questions about what happened during the six-week intervention period. The teachers provided insight into what the children said during the interventions, what additional teaching methods they may have used during this time, and anything else the research team needed to know about the study. The responses from the teachers regarding different aspects of the song-only intervention group are gathered in
Table 5,
Table 6,
Table 7,
Table 8 and
Table 9.
The teachers were each provided the song only to teach. The teaching methods or ways of teaching the song were up to the teacher. Each teacher had a different teaching style for the song. Each teacher seemed to have a lesson plan of their own to accompany the song and ensure that the children were learning the materials. Regardless of teaching style, the results indicate all the children managed to increase their knowledge growth.
Teacher TA2D stated that even when not learning the song in the classroom, the children were singing the song outside the classroom. Teacher TA2D mentioned how she witnessed children singing in the courtyard and hearing the song during break time. Moreover, the children introduced the song to other children in different classes and grades. Thus, it motivated students to spread the information further within the community. This validates the revelation by Jäncke [
23] on the influence of song and music to motivate young children to learn English. Their study employed pre-and post-intervention questionnaires to examine how young children are motivated by music and the results in terms of learning English through songs. Their results demonstrated the positive influence of songs in motivating children to learn the songs themselves, with the children even continued to practice it outside the classroom [
24].
Teachers TA2B and TA2C expressed that the children had told their parents or family members at home about the song. This finding was seen in the parents’ response, as well; they mentioning hearing the song at home. Teacher TA2B went on to say that parents even addressed learning about prevention from their children. Similar findings were found in a study carried out on dementia patients, where it was found that music therapy has a potential “ripple effect” on the well-being of dementia patients. Moreover, it was found that music impacts both dementia patients and the surrounding people, even people from outside the dementia community [
25].
The only teachers to talk about their children asking questions were Teachers TA2C and TA2D. In both classes, it seems the children were asking questions and eager to know more about malaria. Teacher TA2D, in
Table 5, discussed the danger of malaria if untreated, and discussed the importance of telling their parents about the symptoms of malaria if they are sick. In both situations, the teacher stressed how important malaria is to children’s health. In School A2C, the children had more questions about malaria and the symptoms of malaria. However, it is not clear whether the teacher taught coughing as a sign of malaria or not. Similar findings have been observed in other studies, with students becoming motivated both to memorize the taught song and to discover more about the song and encourage others to learn it [
24].
The three teachers quoted in
Table 8 all liked the song as an intervention. They all believed the song helped the children to learn the information. Teacher TA2B said it was a good tool to use in the future. The hope would be to incorporate it into the life skills lesson on malaria the following year. Teachers TA2C and TA2D mentioned singing the song with others in the future. This idea for singing the song in the future would be great for the teachers to continue using it, as the results have shown that singing is effective and future children could learn from using the song as well. These results strengthen the observations of previous studies that have investigated childhood songs versus information in college. One study highlighted the concept of “cement memory”, and stated that the older one grows, the harder it is to remember things or learn things. However, these researchers nullified any potential effect of songs and lyrics on this cement memory. Therefore, they concluded that the younger one is when learning a song, the easier it is to learn even more, and not fill up the cement memory [
26].
When asked about what else could be done, the teachers said a demonstration would be helpful, along with more informative sessions. The other two teachers had no recommendations for the song intervention. A demonstration was performed along with the song in Phase 1; however, this did not show the same effects as the song-only intervention in terms of knowledge growth. Teacher TA2D suggested using experts in the field of malaria to help answer questions about malaria. If this is a desire, the hope would be for the local clinic or malaria team to stop by and answer the questions. It is great to see children asking follow-up questions and wanting to learn. Therefore, the best resources and educational tools should be available for follow-up. Recently, much research has been carried out on the importance of different means of teaching songs to children with the melody. One of these studies highlighted the creative execution of a class project directly or indirectly connected with music [
27].