This study examines the overall perception and practice of the kindergarten teachers regarding the children’s music education and also attempts to investigate how the teacher's education level, and teaching experience, and age of the students influ...
This study examines the overall perception and practice of the kindergarten teachers regarding the children’s music education and also attempts to investigate how the teacher's education level, and teaching experience, and age of the students influence the recognition of the children’s music education.
The research poses the following questions:
1. What is the perception and practice of the teacher reagrading the children’s music education?
1-1. What is perception on the purpose of the children’s music education?
1-2. What is practice on the contents of the children’s music education?
1-3. What is practice on the teaching method of the children’s education?
1-4. What is perception on the request on the chidlren’s music education?
2. Do perception and practice of the chilren’s music education differ depending on the teacher factors?
2-1. Do perception and practice differ depending on the education level of the teacher?
2-2. Do perception and practice differ depending on the teaching experience of the teacher?
2-3. Do perception and practice differ depending on the age of the students?
The subject of this study are 230 teachers who teach children in the ages of 1 and 2 at various public, workplace, or private childcare centers in Seoul. The researcher created a questionnaire based on the questions of Ok Ju Kim (2006) and Eun Shil Na (2009) and the collected data were handled using SPSS/win 18.0. The frequency analysis, one-way ANOVA, and post-hoc analysis Scheffe tests were carried out to examine the thought differences of the teachers depending on the education level, teaching experience, and age of the students as well as analyzing the general thoughts on the children’s music education.
The results of this study are as follows:
First, the thought on the children’s music education showed a high level of recognition on purpose and content selection. The purpose of the children’s music education was thought of as the “interests or requests of the children,” “opportunities to have a sensual experience,” “integrative activities with other interested areas,” and the environment that provides mental stability.” In addition, the factors considered when selecting the children’s music education contents are “children’s development level,” “interests and requests of children,” “topics and learning materials,’ “experience of various expressive methods,” and “standard education curriculum.”
Among the teaching methods, the activities for singing included, “using the board with words,” “using the board with pictures,” “showing the song and dances together,” and “showing the background music before learning new songs,” which showed that the board with words is the most preferred method despite the young age with the inability to read while the favorable methods of song and dance or the background music were not as popular, which ignored the developmental characteristics when preparing the activities.
The activity times among the teaching methods showed “music areas,” “transitional activities time,” “at the time of request,” and “pre-planned activities time” and the usual group method included “electives,” “large groups,” and “small groups.”
The support request of the teachers regarding the children’s music education showed “ativities book and reference materials development and distribution support,” “age-appropriate children’s music activities learning opportunities and training,” “activities methods and interactions training,” “financial support for the music environment,” and “the employment of professional music teacher” which showed a high expectation for material development and training.
Second, the background factor of the teacher that affected the children’s mysic education was the education level, rather than the teaching experience, or the age of the studetsn. The teachers with higher level of education recognized the purpose of the chidlren’s music activities as “an educational method for the demands and interests of the children.” Ina ddition, the teachers with higher education level tend to consider the “interests and demands of the children” when selecting the music activities. The higher euation level also showed the “financial support” and the “activities and reference material development” more than “age apprirpate training,” “professional music teacher,” or “the interactive methods.”
Third, the education level of the kindergarten teachers showed that higher educatin level often led to more elective music activities although it wasnot statistically significant in the activities time and support request results among the purpose, content revognition, and teaching methods.
Fourth, the age of students for the kindergarten teachers did not show a significant result in the purpose, content recognition, teaching methods, such as activity time, group type, or support requests.