The purposes of this study are to evaluate the trends and relationships of the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, music teaching efficacy, and early childhood education practice, and to examine h...
The purposes of this study are to evaluate the trends and relationships of the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, music teaching efficacy, and early childhood education practice, and to examine how the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching and the music teaching efficacy affect the actual practice of early childhood music education. Therefore, the following questions were devised for the study. Study Question 1. What are the recent trends in the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, the music teaching efficacy, and the early childhood music education practice? Study Question 2. What are the relationships among the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, the music teaching efficacy, and the early childhood music education practice? Study Question 3. How do the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching and the music teaching efficacy affect the practice of early childhood music education? The subjects of the study were 360 early childhood teachers working at kindergartens and daycare centers in the metropolitan area. To measure the degree of their pedagogical content knowledge on music teaching, the Early Childhood Music Education Pedagogical Content Knowledge Scale developed by Yoon Ji-young (2014) was used, and for measurement of their attitude on music teaching, the Music Teaching Attitude Scale developed by Shannon (1999) and translated by Jang Eun-ju (2007) was used. MTEBI, a music teaching efficacy test tool by Bang Eun-young and Park Chan-wok (2005) was used for measurement of the music teaching efficacy, and the scale developed by Park Joo-yeon (2014) and revised and edited by Kim Ji-eon (2020) was used for measurement of the early childhood music education practice. The collected
data was analyzed with the use of SPSS 27.0, a statistical program. Descriptive statistical analysis was made to evaluate general characteristics of the subjects and Cronbach’s coefficient α was calculated to verify the reliability of measurement tools. For verification of the study questions, descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were made. The findings of the study are as follows. First, each of the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, music teaching efficacy, and early childhood education practice was found to be at the average or above. Second, analysis of the correlation with early childhood music education practice showed that most of the total score and sub-factor scores of the music teaching pedagogical content knowledge, music teaching attitude, and music teaching efficacy have significant positive correlations. These findings indicate that the higher the early childhood teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge on music teaching, the higher the level of the early childhood music teaching practice and it applies the same to the early childhood teacher’s attitude on music teaching as well as the music teaching efficacy. Third, from the analysis of influence of the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, music teaching efficacy, and early childhood education practice, it was found that the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching, and the music teaching efficacy have effects on the actual practice of early childhood music education. Especially, the effect of the early childhood teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge on music teaching is the most significant, followed by the music teaching efficacy and the music teaching
attitude, respectively. Therefore, it would be possible to assume that the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching and the music teaching efficacy could be crucial factors to predict the level of early childhood music education practice. It is hoped that these findings could be the ground to lead the development of training programs and environmental supports to raise the pedagogical content knowledge and attitude of early childhood teachers for music teaching and also, the music teaching efficacy.