Browsing by Author "Hyppänen, Martta"

Children’s socio-emotional, cognitive and psychomotor learning development can be supported by deliberate and target-oriented music education. There is evidence of music functioning as a mean in expressing and processing emotions, and as a thrust in interaction between adult and child. In my thesis I examine kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of music education. My aim is not only to observe common conceptions but as well explore if music education materializes in Helsinki hence it is entered in the early childhood curriculum. Apart from this I’m clarifying how kindergarten teachers find their competence as executors of early childhood curriculum based music education. Qualitative methods were applied in the study. Data was collected by theme-centered interviews. The themes and a few questions were outlined and carried out in the interviews. Five kindergarten teachers took part in the interviews. Content analysis was applied in analysing the data. In findings there emerged a conception of music education as a significant part of kindergarten routines among teachers. Each of the informants signified the importance of music education in different ways. All of the teachers found one selves to execute music education nearly as entered in kindergartens curriculum. Some of the teachers’ reflected on ones’ action during the interviews and described how music education could be executed even better. The teachers’ found also that they posses the required knowledge and skills in executing music education as entered in the curriculum. According to the interviews there is nonetheless evidence that teachers’ posses varying level of skills. Some of the teachers’ were aware of requirements in developing ones’ skills despite of not being able to specify those.