is music an active developmental tool or simply a supplement? early childhood preservice...

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Is Music an Active Developmental Tool orSimply a Supplement? Early ChildhoodPreservice Teachers' Beliefs About MusicHae Kyoung Kim a & Kristen M. Kemple ba Department of Early Childhood Education , Towson University ,Towson, Maryland, USAb School of Special Education, School Psychology, & Early ChildhoodStudies , University of Florida , Gainesville, Florida, USAPublished online: 09 May 2011.

To cite this article: Hae Kyoung Kim & Kristen M. Kemple (2011) Is Music an Active DevelopmentalTool or Simply a Supplement? Early Childhood Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About Music, Journal ofEarly Childhood Teacher Education, 32:2, 135-147, DOI: 10.1080/10901027.2011.572228

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Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 32:135–147, 2011Copyright © National Association of Early Childhood Teacher EducatorsISSN: 1090-1027 print / 1745-5642 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10901027.2011.572228

Is Music an Active Developmental Tool or Simplya Supplement? Early Childhood Preservice

Teachers’ Beliefs About Music

HAE KYOUNG KIM1 AND KRISTEN M. KEMPLE2

1Department of Early Childhood Education, Towson University, Towson,Maryland, USA2School of Special Education, School Psychology, & Early Childhood Studies,University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

This study examines early childhood preservice teachers’ beliefs about the importanceof music in early childhood and explores factors influencing those beliefs. The studyfound that preservice teachers in this study held relatively strong beliefs about theimportance of music, including aesthetic, quality-of-life, and social-emotional benefits.Study participants had limited knowledge of music content in general, and higher musi-cal knowledge predicted stronger beliefs about its importance. Preservice teachers’beliefs were associated with whether they viewed music as an active tool for develop-ment and learning, or as merely an enrichment. Other factors that influenced beliefsabout the importance of music were personal experiences, aspects of teacher edu-cation and field experiences, and confidence about teaching music. Implications arediscussed for shaping teacher education to better prepare teachers to include music intheir classrooms.

More than 10,000 school districts across the nation have reduced music instruction in orderto expand time to teach math and reading (Persellin, 2007). In spite of general agreementregarding the importance of music in early childhood education, music has been deempha-sized in recent years due to the increased emphasis on academic achievement in responseto social and political pressures (Hill, 2003; Raver & Zigler, 2004). However, music is acentral element in early childhood education. It is a beneficial and appropriate activity thathas supported child development and learning across cultures and histories. It is difficultto imagine a classroom for young children without music.

The Importance of Music in Early Childhood Curriculum

Music influences young children’s development and learning in many ways. Music is acommunicative tool for young children. Children express their feelings and thoughts, aswell as respond to others, through music (Custodero, 2002b). Music is a natural mediumfor communicating human emotions and thoughts (Andress, 1998; Levinowitz, 2001).Music makes another language for communication available to children. Music representsa pathway for children to communicate their thoughts and can be compared to school-agedchildren using verbal and written language to communicate with people in conventional

Received 17 March 2010; accepted 26 May 2010.Address correspondence to Hae Kyoung Kim, Department of Early Childhood Education,

Towson University, 800 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252-0001, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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136 H. K. Kim and K. M. Kemple

ways. Music can offer an advantage over traditional communication media for expressingan individual’s thoughts and feelings (Custodero, 2002a; Eisner, 2001).

Being engaged in music provides social interaction and shared meaning in context.Custodero (2002b) has emphasized the “musical child-in-context”, which describes inter-dependent relationships among children that are supported by the sharing of meaningsthrough music. Simply singing a song with a caregiver involves diverse aspects of socialinteraction and development. It helps a child feel attachment and connection with signif-icant others. A child also has the opportunity to respond to the melody, create a differentpitch, or remember different experiences that the lyrics provoke. In other words, childrenactively interpret and represent the music in their minds. These representations and cre-ations are socially interdependent and take place in a comfortable emotional environment(Custodero, 2002a).

Music is also a cognitive activity for young children. Music stimulates cognition byarousing young children’s perceptions. Children cognitively construct knowledge throughmusic. While music as a communicative tool that reflects an outward aspect of music,the cognitive component of music is also related to the inward aspect because it occursin children’s minds (Custodero, 2002b). Musical experiences provide opportunities toexplore sounds, experience rhythmic movements of the body or objects, and play differ-ent instruments. Through exploration and experimentation, children realize how soundscan become music through their knowledge of musical elements such as melody andrhythm. Sound-making mechanisms and involvement in music making are important tothe development of musical ability and cognition in young children (Custodero, 2002a;Mueller, 2003).

Music can also be thought of as an aesthetic form of play in which young childreninnately want to be involved. Children naturally love to sing, move, dance, explore instru-ments, and invent sounds as play (Mueller, 2003; Tarnowski, 1999; Temmerman, 1998).Much research suggests that young children respond to any type of music with open mindsand receptive attitudes, and they show positive reactions to all types of music that they haveopportunities to hear and sing (Sims & Cassidy, 1997). Young children do not demonstratea particular attitude toward or preference for different types of musical characteristics suchas style, tempo, familiarity of songs, or songs with or without lyrics. They are receptive andresponsive to a wide diversity of musical types (LeBlanc & McCrary, 1983; Sims, 1987;Sims & Cassidy).

Music is part of culture. It reflects social, historical, and local characteristics in everyculture. Music has been created in every culture and every time period, and regional factorshave influenced the development and the styles of music (Eisner, 2001). One can experi-ence a culture by experiencing the music of that culture. Music exists within cultures andmusic is conveyed and imbedded within cultures (Custodero, 2003). A culture stronglyaffects children’s musical experience and basic attitude toward music. Music is one frame-work through which children experience many facets of culture (Eisner). Given the varietyof important functions that music provides for young children, it seems vital that music beactively included in early childhood education curricula.

Beliefs of Preservice Teachers

Beliefs about education are often referred to as “the heart of teaching” (Vartuli, 2005,p. 76). Teachers’ beliefs impact their classroom practices because those personal beliefs areclosely related to the decision-making process, the implementations of teaching practices,and daily interactions with children (Fang, 1996; File, 1994; Kowalski, Pretti-Fronczak, &Johnson, 2001; McMullen, 1997; Pajares, 1992; Piotrkowski, Botsko, & Matthews, 2000;

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Teachers’ Beliefs About Music 137

Stipek & Byler, 1997; Vartuli, 1999). All teachers hold beliefs about the specific domains ofeducation, such as math, literacy, or family involvement. Specific domain beliefs are impor-tant because they may enhance teachers’ understandings of how children learn in differentdomains, how teachers define their roles to improve children’s learning skills, and howthey select classroom teaching strategies for the content of different subjects (Schirmer,Casbon, & Twiss, 1997). There has been limited research focusing on the beliefs of earlychildhood in-service teachers, and even less centering on beliefs of preservice early child-hood teachers. Preservice teacher beliefs are important because teachers develop their ownperspectives and beliefs early in the preservice teaching careers; and once these beliefs aredeveloped, it is difficult to change them (Smith, 1997; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfok Hoy, &Hoy, 1998).

In today’s challenging educational climate, teachers’ beliefs about the importanceof music may have a powerful impact on the implementation of music in the classroombecause teachers’ beliefs play a primary role in educational practices. If teachers holdpositive beliefs about music, those beliefs may influence their decision-making and theinclusion of a variety of musical experiences in the curriculum.

To date, there has been no research investigating the beliefs of early childhood teach-ers about music. Teachers may hold various beliefs about the importance of music, howthey perceive their own ability to teach and implement music in the classroom, and theirperceptions of the relationship between music and other subjects. An examination of teach-ers’ beliefs about music could provide valuable information that might be helpful in theplanning and implementation of music programs.

In sum, music plays an important role in young children’s development and learn-ing. At the same time, teachers are abandoning music in an effort to make room for anintensified focus on more traditionally academic subjects. Because teachers’ beliefs serveas an important influence on their practices, it is important to explore the beliefs of earlychildhood preservice teachers regarding music. Thus, research questions were posed asfollows:

1. What are the beliefs of early childhood preservice teachers about the importance andthe benefits of music?

2. What basic knowledge about music do early childhood preservice teachers possess?3. What is the relationship between preservice teachers’ basic knowledge about music and

their beliefs about the importance of music?4. What other factors influence preservice teachers’ beliefs about music?

Methods

Participants

The participants in the study were 65 preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhoodeducation program in the southeastern U.S. The participants’ teacher education programhas a highly structured sequence of courses, through which students proceed as a cohort. Itis a 3-year program that students enter as juniors and complete at the end of a master’s year.The program prepares teachers for certification from birth through third grade. It includesa course on music and visual art in early childhood education, which is taken in the lastsemester of the program. None of the participants in this study had taken the music portionof this course at the time of data collection.

Of the group, 38.5% of the participants were juniors, 36.9% were seniors, and theremaining students were in the fifth (graduate) year of the program. Participants ranged in

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age from 19 to 32 (M = 21.86) years. All participants were female and 74 percent wereCaucasian. During the junior and senior years, students are required to finish a total of fourdifferent 60-hour practica in pre-K, kindergarten, first/second grade, and pre-K specialeducation classrooms, two in the junior year and two in the senior year. All of the graduatestudents in this study had completed four practicum experiences and one full semester ofinternship.

Instruments

In order to assess beliefs about the importance of music, the Music Belief Questionnaire(Austin & Reinhardt, 1999) was used. The Music Belief Questionnaire includes itemsrelated to beliefs about the importance of music (i.e., Music education provides studentswith opportunities to improve their self-esteem; Music education teaches students how towork together as a team; Music education exposes students to a different form of intel-ligence or way of knowing). This questionnaire has 36 items, and participants rate theirbeliefs about music by using a Likert-type scale (e.g., ranging from 1 for ‘definitely false’to 6 for ‘definitely true’). Factor analysis was calculated for 137 preservice music educa-tion teachers. Three factors were produced, accounting for 40% of the total variance anddemonstrating adequate reliability. These were aesthetic benefits (r = .86), quality-of-lifebenefits (r = .72), and social-emotional benefits (r = .76) To assess the basic music knowl-edge of the preservice teachers, participants answered music background survey with itemsinquiring as to their ability to read musical notations. To assess knowledge of music terms,five basic music terms were presented in the questionnaire. The participants were asked towrite brief definitions of the terms tempo, beat, melody, rhythm, and articulation.

Procedures

The Music Belief Questionnaire and the music background survey were administered tothe 65 participants at the end of a class session. To further examine teachers’ beliefs aboutmusic and factors influencing beliefs, qualitative data were collected through individualfollow-up interviews with three preservice teachers. One teacher was randomly selectedfrom each of three groups (higher/middle/lower music belief scores). The interview par-ticipants were Jen, Tara, and Cindy (pseudonyms). Jen and Tara were senior students andCindy was a junior. They were all 21 years old. Jen and Tara had completed 6 months ofpracticum experiences at four different practicum placements. Cindy was in her secondpracticum. Jen had the highest and Cindy received the lowest music belief score of thethree participants. Only Jen was able to read musical notation and correctly defined four ofthe five musical terms (i.e., tempo, beat, melody, and rhythm).

Each interview required approximately one to one-and-a-half hours. Interview ques-tions were prepared prior to the interviews, yet the direction of the interviews was flexibledepending on the teachers’ responses. Due to this flexibility in the interviews, there werevariations in content among the interviews. With the permission of participants, each inter-view was audiotaped. All interview content was transcribed by the first author into text innumbered transcription forms. A domain analysis that utilizes semantic relationships wasused to code protocols (Spradley, 1979). Based on all of the domain analyses, a taxonomyand cultural psychological theme were drawn. Taxonomies are ways to display findings,and they help to outline participants’ perceptions and beliefs (Glesne, 1999). Taxonomiesconsist of classification schemes and domains, and they demonstrate the relationshipsbetween and among subcategories.

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Results

Beliefs About the Importance and Benefits of Music

The music belief scores in this study ranged from 118 to 213 (the possible range beingfrom 36 to 216). The mean score was 167.8 (SD = 16.3). Higher scores on the music beliefscale indicate that respondents believed the statements about music were true, and lowerscores indicated that respondents felt the statements about music were false. Overall, higherscores indicate a stronger belief in the importance of music. Regarding the benefits ofmusic, belief in the social-emotional growth benefit was higher than beliefs in the aestheticand quality-of-life benefits (see Table 1).

Basic Knowledge About Music

Approximately, 50% of the participants were able to read musical notations. Among thefive musical terms (i.e., tempo, beat, melody, rhythm, and articulation), the term that wasmost frequently identified correctly was tempo. Forty-one of the participants (63.1%) wereable to provide the correct definition of tempo. Musical terms from the most correctly to theleast correctly identified were tempo, melody, rhythm, beat, and articulation (see Table 2).Regarding the correct identification of musical terms out of five, seven of the participantswere able to identify four of the five terms correctly, but none of the participants identifiedall five terms correctly. Sixteen of the participants (24.6%) were not able to identify anyterm correctly.

Relationship Between Music Beliefs and Musical Knowledge

The relationship between beliefs about the importance of music and musical contentknowledge was examined. In order to find the relationship between music belief scores and

Table 1Mean Scores for the Benefits of Music

Aesthetic Quality-of-life Social-emotionalbenefit benefit benefit

Mean 48.23 37.38 44.52SD 4.8 4.7 4.4Range 31–60 26–52 34–54

Table 2Knowledge of Musical Terms

Frequencies Percentages (%)

Tempo 41 63.1Beat 19 29.2Melody 28 43.1Rhythm 22 33.8Articulation 4 6.2

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numbers of correct identification of music terms, a Pearson product-moment correlationwas performed. The result shows a statistically significant positive relationship betweenthe two (r = .305, p = .014). This indicates that stronger beliefs about the importance ofmusic are correlated with more accurate knowledge on musical terms.

In order to determine whether there are differences in early childhood preservice teach-ers’ beliefs about music based on ability to read musical notation, a one-way ANOVA wasperformed. With an alpha level of .05, the effect of ability to read musical notation wasstatistically significant, F (2, 61) = 4.496, p = .015. To find the location of the statis-tically significant mean differences, a post hoc procedure was implemented at an alphalevel of .05. The difference between teachers who could read musical notation and whocould not read musical notation was statistically significant, t (61) = 20.81, p = .046. Thisindicates that the teachers with some ability to read musical notation demonstrated morepositive beliefs about the importance of music than the teachers who were not able to readmusical notation.

Beliefs About the Roles of Music for Young Children

The roles of music for young children emerged as a core concept from the qualitativedomain analysis of the interview data. Each of the three teachers interviewed had a differentconception of the roles of music. Teachers basically agreed that music plays an importantrole and can be both fun and educational for young children. However, teachers definedmost of the functions of music for children’s development in passive terms. Teachers’narratives follow.

Jen (who was drawn from the group with high beliefs about the importance ofmusic): Music is a means of expression. I mean you can express your emotionsor even by listening to music. . . . It’s a tool that can be used to supplementlearning as well. Something children enjoy.

Tara (who was drawn from the group with moderate beliefs about the impor-tance of music): I think it’s important because it’s also one of the differenttypes of learning styles and different kinds of multiple intelligences that chil-dren have. So I mean the role of music can help students succeed even betterin the classroom.

Music, it’s just . . . not so core. . . . It’s not as core subject as academic. It wasnever something that ‘oh this is what you’re going do because you have to’. Itwas just if you wanted to do it, you could choose to do it.

Cindy (who was drawn from the group with low beliefs about the impor-tance of music): It’s a good supplement to different activities. . . . I thinksometimes it’s good to use as a backdrop to your classroom. Like a back-ground music.

Only Jen believed in the importance of music as an active tool for child develop-ment. Tara made distinctions between core (literacy, math, science) and noncore (music,art, PE) subjects. Basically, Tara and Cindy agreed that music has a positive role in childdevelopment, but they considered it to be a supplementary subject that might help childrensucceed in school.

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Other Influences Associated With Beliefs About Music

Through examination of interview responses regarding the development of their beliefsand what experiences may have influenced their beliefs, four domains of influence wereidentified. These were a) personal experiences, b) field experiences, c) teacher educationcoursework, and d) confidence in their ability to implement music activities.

Personal experiences with music. All three preservice teachers had different personalbackgrounds related to music. Two teachers, Jen and Tara, described a positive backgroundexperience with music. However, their positive backgrounds related to music seemed tohave different effects on their beliefs about music for young children. The effect of Jen’spersonal experiences with music on her positive beliefs toward music for young childrenwas evident in her interviews. Tara’s positive personal experiences with music did not seemto have an effect on her beliefs about music for young children.

Jen: Music is personally very important to me. It’s a part of my life. I guessthat’s why music should be important for everyone else.

Tara: I did music when I was in band when I was in middle school. I liked it,but it was always something that was just extracurricular. I wanted to learnto play different instruments. I thought it was interesting, but it was neversomething that “oh this is what you’re going to do because you have to.”

Cindy, who had the lowest music belief score of the three interviewees, had negativeexperiences in relation to music and a stressful musical influence related to her mother.These factors may influence her attitude toward music and appear to have had an effect onher beliefs toward music as well.

Cindy: My mom tried to make me play hand bells. I wasn’t very good at it. Ididn’t understand music. I think I didn’t like it because I didn’t get it. I couldn’tdo it. They highlighted the notes on the page for me. I didn’t know what mynote was like to play. I think that my mom was probably the most influential.She is the one that tried to make me take hand bells that I didn’t want to. Thereason she wanted me to do that is because her mom made her take piano. . . .I do regret. I know I do. I wish that I could. I think the way my mom tried tomake me do it didn’t work. She tried to force me into it more than encouragingor letting me do it on my own.

Field experiences. All of the interviewed preservice teachers expressed that theirmusical beliefs had been influenced by their field experiences. Overall, the participantsdid not see evidence of diverse music activities at their practicum sites.

Researcher: Have you seen many music activities in your practicum?

Jen: No. Not at all, really. I’m sure that it was little bit, but I think at least inthe public school setting, they think “oh, they are going to music on Tuesday.”So you know, “I don’t need to do music if they are going to music.” Maybe

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that’s their thinking. I don’t remember dancing, but I know in circle time, itwas probably the most usual time that singing happened.

Tara: I have always seen it where in the mornings and circle times there isconsistently music playing. Kids are participating by singing and dancing. Justbeing active with the music.

These statements seem to reflect the current educational attitude toward music. Becausethere are special classes for music, some early childhood educators tend to see music as a“special”, not a part of early childhood curriculum (I’Etoile, 2001).

Music in teacher education. The teachers frequently mentioned that they had fewopportunities to take music-related classes. They explained that the main reason for theirlow level of confidence in implementing music is due to the lack of opportunities to take amusic class that includes how to teach and integrate music for young children.

Cindy: Personally, I’m not trained musically to be able to. We didn’t havemusic class. I haven’t taken any music class at college. I wouldn’t be able toimplement music practices. I think elementary education takes a class on musicin the classroom, but we don’t. I want to be a normal classroom teacher, sothose three [literacy, math, and science] are really important to me. Particularly,because that’s what I have been taught to consider looking for it, I guess. I havetaken reading class and math and science class. There is always talk aboutmusic and art, how they are good like in addition to your class, but I haven’tbeen taught really how to use music in my classroom. My learning in thisprogram has been primarily focused on literacy, math, and science.

Tara: I think the biggest things right now in education would be literacy andmath, but also to learn how to integrate the subjects. It’s just how to teach andhow to read sounds, how to teach math, things like that. I don’t know if itnecessarily needs to be taught how to teach music, but it’s more if you have theability to play instruments or to sing, you can bring that into your classroom. Idon’t know if it specifically has to be a class that is taught. Like the tempo andrhythm, actual music content knowledge, it’s not necessary to learn that in anearly childhood classroom.

Confidence in implementing and supporting music. These preservice teachers demon-strated different levels of confidence in their ability to use and teach music to youngchildren. These different levels of confidence were influenced by field experiences andteacher education. Jen demonstrated stronger confidence levels in the area of musicimplementation than the other two teachers.

Jen: I guess it’s just because my background includes a lot of music. And alsobecause I know that most children love music. They love to sing or hum orwhatever. So I think it’s something they’ll enjoy. I should be confident aboutusing it in a classroom.

Tara demonstrated separate levels of confidence between using music and teachingmusic. She mentioned that she is confident in using and incorporating music into othercore subjects, but she is not confident in her ability to teach music content knowledge.

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Tara: I’m more comfortable in incorporating music into my classroom.

Researcher: How do you feel that you are confident in teaching about music?

Tara: No. I don’t know. I’m not at all. I don’t think teachers have to knowabout it [music content knowledge] and it would be good if they did. I thinkit’s important to have the actual classroom teacher to introduce them to musicbut I feel it will be more like that the music educators to teach children aboutthe tempo or rhythm because music teachers are the ones that know about it.

Additionally, Tara mentioned that she feels most competent in teaching literacy skills.She explained the sources of her confidence with literacy as “it’s my coursework, the booksbecause I’ve always been interested in from when I was younger. Also seeing it [literacy]done in the kindergarten classroom and working with the kids . . .” This indicates thather confidence may derive from her own personal interest, strong content knowledge inthis area, and several positive experiences related to the subject through field experience.Cindy believed that she is able to implement some music activities, but she reported thatshe is not able to teach music content knowledge.

Cindy: I think it’s appropriate for teachers to know and understand to be ableto talk to kids about patterns and music like “here we hear the drum and thenwe hear the horn, then, that’s a pattern.” For the age that I want to teach, Idon’t think it would be incredibly important that I would be able to tell themor explain the notes drawn.

Based on Tara and Cindy’s narratives, their low levels of confidence were influencedby their lack of sufficient music content knowledge and training in how to implementmusic activities appropriately. This may point to the importance of content knowledge andopportunities to learn how to approach music for young children.

Discussion

The early childhood preservice teachers who participated in this study possessed strongbeliefs in support of the importance of music. This result is consistent with a study of musiceducation preservice teachers’ beliefs about music conducted by Austin and Reinhardt(1999). Since a recent review of the literature yields no research on preservice earlychildhood teachers’ beliefs about music, the outcome of the current study provides newand useful information about how future teachers of young children actually perceive theimportance of music in an early childhood curriculum. Although they had experienced nomusic education coursework, these preservice teachers appeared to value music in earlychildhood education.

The findings regarding aesthetic, quality-of-life, and social-emotional benefits indi-cate that these early childhood preservice teachers hold strong beliefs in the three domains.Participants’ responses indicate that they believe music offers more social-emotional ben-efits than the other two types of benefits. The reasons for this discrepancy are not clear,though it may be that early childhood education’s strong tradition of emphasizing theimportance of social development has made this a more salient domain for these pre-service teachers than the aesthetic and quality-of-life domains. Research supports theimportance of music as a social development tool. Music can assist children in developinginterdependent relationships as well as cooperation skills (Custodero, 2002b).

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A relationship was found between musical knowledge and beliefs about the impor-tance of music. The analysis of teachers’ interview narratives further suggested that weakerbeliefs about music’s importance were related to a lack of content knowledge. This linksto prior research, which indicates that early childhood educators view music as a specialsubject area requiring specific professional training (I’Etoile, 2001).

Interview results also suggest that the confidence of these early childhood preserviceteachers in implementing music varied. Some teachers in this study did not feel confidentin their ability to implement musical activities although they believe music is important inearly childhood education. Relevant studies of music implementation for young childrenhave also demonstrated that teachers may hesitate to actively implement music in the class-room due to a lack of confidence in their knowledge of music or a lack of adequate support(Gharavi, 1993; Hildebrandt, 1998; I’Etoile, 2001; McDonald, 1993). These findings sug-gest that efforts targeted toward increasing preservice teachers musical knowledge andconfidence may enhance their motivation to give music more priority in their classrooms.

Findings suggest the importance of further examining the role of coursework and fieldexperiences in preparing teachers to teach and integrate music. The literature suggests thateducation programs influence the beliefs of preservice teachers (File & Gullo, 2002; Smith,1997). The participants in this study had not yet taken courses with a specific focus on earlychildhood music in their teacher education program. Research shows teachers who haveaccess to in-service music education were able to implement a variety of music activitiesand facilitate children’s development of musical abilities (I’Etoile, 2001). This implies thatmusic education, including music activities and content knowledge, could help increaseteachers’ confidence in implementing music.

Responses to interview questions suggest a limited use of music in the participants’field experiences. Although the three preservice teachers who were interviewed held posi-tive beliefs about music, many of the experiences they encountered at their practicum siteswere not diverse and did not demonstrate sufficient music practice for the optimum earlychildhood curriculum. This finding reflects the current educational climate in that there hasbeen an increase in high stakes testing, thus emphasizing academic subjects in early child-hood practice. Since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), many school personnel feelcompelled to focus solely on academic outcomes, while other developmental areas havebeen overlooked (Hill, 2003; Raver & Zigler, 2004).

Although there are meaningful findings in this study, there are limitations. This studywas conducted with a small group of preservice teachers at a single university. Most ofthe participants were Caucasian, middle-class females. Generalization of the results of thisstudy is limited in terms of race, gender, socioeconomic status, teaching context, and earlychildhood teacher education programs.

Implications for Teacher Education

Teacher education programs influence the beliefs of preservice teachers (File & Gullo,2002; Smith, 1997). The current study may help teacher educators consider what areas ofmusic curriculum in teacher preparation programs could be changed to equip early child-hood preservice teachers with information about basic music knowledge and different waysto integrate music across the curriculum.

This study suggests that low levels of confidence in musical areas may derive froma lack of music content knowledge and skill, as well as a lack of practical instructionalknowledge about how to implement musical activities in the classroom. The main sourcesof music content knowledge for the interviewed participants came from personal music

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background rather than from teacher education. In part, this could be because studentshad not yet taken a course about music in early childhood. If these teachers have moreopportunities to take courses that facilitate their knowledge of music as a subject and ofhow to implement music activities in early childhood classrooms, they may be better able torecognize the importance of music. Experiences that help preservice teachers basic skillsin reading and playing music may enhance their confidence and encourage an increasedappreciation for the role of music in classrooms for young children.

Early childhood preservice teachers should learn how to use diverse music activitiesas well as how to integrate music in other subjects, such as math, literacy, or science.Preservice coursework should help early childhood preservice teachers creatively developideas for music integration, implementation, and give them content and practical knowl-edge of music. Providing basic music content knowledge with information on how toimplement appropriate activities may enhance teachers’ confidence and comfort levels inthe area of music, thus increasing the implementation of music activities in future class-rooms. Using workshops or demonstrations of appropriate music integrated activities couldexpand teachers’ ability to use music in the classroom. Through active supervision ofinternship and practicum experiences, discussions with the preservice teachers can helpthem reflect on the importance of music and confront the current educational problemsof academic pressure and test-focused curriculums. It is also important to make musican integral part of teacher training to overcome possible negative influences of personalexperiences with music.

Future Directions

The current study suggests several possible research extensions. First, this study wasimplemented only with preservice teachers, and similar research could be carried out toassess in-service teacher beliefs about music. Research supports the idea that beliefs areaffected by teaching experiences because in-service teachers encounter different situationsthan preservice teachers may expect when entering a classroom (Smith, 1997). Therefore,in-service teacher beliefs about music may be different than those of preservice teach-ers because of greater exposure to practical teaching experience. In addition, it wouldbe important to examine the beliefs of early childhood teachers who originate from dif-ferent cultural backgrounds. Since cultures are closely related to music, views on musicmay differ depending on specific cultural backgrounds. Exposure to and involvement withmusic in different cultural contexts may affect teachers’ beliefs about music. Finally, itis suggested that future research employ more comprehensive and in-depth assessment ofteachers’ musical knowledge, musical competence, and knowledge of methods for teachingand integrating music. These may then be examined in relation to how they impact teach-ers’ valuing of music as well as their actual classroom practices regarding the teaching andintegration of music.

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is music an active developmental tool or simply a supplement? early childhood preservice...

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