Music in early childhood education: teachers’ levels of confidence and happiness

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study which investigates early childhood teachers’ levels of confidence and happiness in conducting music activities with young children. A sample of 284 in-service and preservice early childhood teachers in Hong Kong participated in the study. Two new research instruments entitled Teachers Music Confidence Scale (TMCS) and Teachers Happiness Scale (THS) were designed for data collection to answer the research questions. Results showed that early childhood teachers have the highest and the lowest level of confidence in singing and composing/improvising respectively. In-service teachers showed higher confidence and happiness levels in conducting several musical activities with young children than pre-service teachers. There was also a statistically significant relationship between these two variables. Implications for engagement in music are discussed in the paper.