This study is based on the great significance of music education in the institutes of early childhood education. Although teachers' and parents' roles may be different according to their positions and kinds of infants' learning activities, teachers ar...
This study is based on the great significance of music education in the institutes of early childhood education. Although teachers' and parents' roles may be different according to their positions and kinds of infants' learning activities, teachers are the most influential to infants' behaviors and development of their learning abilities. Also, the entire aspects of infant music education can be affected by teachers' and parents' recognition of the music education.
The goal for this study lies in revealing the gap between teachers' and parents' recognition of the aims, contents, and environments of early childhood music education.
Research questions for this study are as follows;
First, is there any difference in recognizing the aims of early childhood music education between the teachers and the parents?
Second, is there any difference in recognizing the contents of early childhood music education between the teachers and the parents?
Third, is there any difference in recognizing the environments of early childhood music education between and the parents
Questionnaires were given to 100 teachers at private kindergartens and childcare centers and to 100 parents whose children attended those institutes The results were analyzed with SAS Program, and used t-test to find the mean between the groups of teachers and parents
The result has been analyzed as follows:
1. With regard to the aim of early childhood music education, teachers and parents generally agree that infant music education is important. Teachers give the highest rank to "It helps infants to develop their language ability while parents give it to "It helps infants' emotional response." On the other hand, both teachers and parents responded in the lowest level to "It helps infants to form their identity or self-consciousness."
2. With regard to the contents of early childhood music education, teachers put a high value on "Let infants play their traditional musical instruments," "Let infants express themselves using bodily movements after listening to their teachers' directions," and "Let infants freely express themselves while listening music." In addition, both teachers and parents responded in the highest-level to "Let infants clap and play simple rhythmic instruments while singing." But both show a low-level interest in "Let infants tell the name of the instrument while listening to its sound with their eyes closed,"
3. With regard to the environment of early childhood music education, both teachers and parents take the highest-level interest in "Kindergartens and childcare centers teachers are responsible for early childhood music education." On the other hand, both shows the lowest-level interest in "Various kinds of musical instruments of the education."