Early Childhood Teachers' Professional Development in Music: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

THis papEr dEals wiTH profEssional teacher development. It specifically focuses on a research study of early childhood teachers' views and involvement in teaching music to young children. It presents findings from a comparative study of 38 teachers in three childcare centres in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and 24 teachers in four childcare centres in South Australia. Two research questions are discussed and answered: (1) What are early childhood teachers' levels of involvement in professional development in music? (2) Are there any significant relationships, that is differences and commonalities, in the findings between teachers' levels of involvement in these two cultural contexts? A unique research tool entitled Teachers' Music Development Scale was devised to collect data and measure teachers' involvement in music development. Specific findings and their implications are presented in the paper.

Music and movement teacher professional development: An interview study with Hong Kong kindergarten teachers

“…Finally, regarding preferred learning activities to improve in music and movement, Yim and Ebbeck (2011) compared the preferences of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and Australia. Results showed that "reading books/ articles/websites" was the most popular learning activity among Hong Kong participants, while "watching music-related video(s)/TV program(s)" was the most popular in Australia.…”

The Use of Technology to Facilitate Music Learning Experiences in Preschools

“…This suggests that technology has the potential to provide preschool teachers with personalised professional development in music. Similarly in a study focusing on early childhood teachers' views and involvement in music professional development, Yim & Ebbeck (2011) found participants identified viewing music-related TV programs not only as entertainment but as professional development. The nature of music professional development need not necessarily be part of a formalised course or seminar, but can be something that teachers access as they need it.…”

Music and Movement in Hong Kong Kindergartens: Teachers’ Preparation, Perceived Usefulness, Confidence, and Readiness

“…Encontramos que solo alrededor de un tercio de la muestra había participado en DPD sobre música y movimiento, y que la provisión de DPD era particularmente baja para grupo de Docentes Principiantes-precisamente quienes más lo necesitan. Estos resultados reflejan la misma realidad de Hong Kong que Chan y Leong (2007) describieron hace más de una década, lo que muestra que la provisión de DPD en música y movimiento lamentablemente no ha mejorado, al igual que en países occidentales (Lenzo, 2014;Yim & Ebbeck, 2011). La falta de DPD especializado es preocupante, sobre todo si consideramos que los docentes de Infantil requieren un alto nivel de apoyo en esta área (Bautista et al, 2016).…”

“…Respecto al DPD, también referido como formación continua (Bautista et al, 2017), la investigación muestra que una de las áreas donde los docentes de Infantil requieren los niveles de apoyo más altos es música y movimiento, aunque la provisión de iniciativas especializadas tiende a ser de las más bajas en todo el mundo, por ejemplo en Estados Unidos (Kos, 2018), Inglaterra (Young, 2018), Australia (Yim & Ebbeck, 2011), Grecia (Koutsoupidou, 2010), así como en sociedades Asiáticas como Singapur (Bautista et al, 2016). En un estudio relativamente antiguo, Chan y Leong (2007) identificaron tendencias similares en Hong Kong.…”