Browsing by Author "Tuominiemi, Viivi"

The goal of this research is to explore the perceptions kindergarten teachers, working with children under the age of three, have on the execution of musical education within early childhood education and its significance on a child’s overall growth, development and learning. The research is limited to concerning only the opinions of kindergarten teachers, as for the teachers work as the groups pedagogical leaders and are responsible for the planning execution of high-quality early childhood education. Musical education is included as a part of other fine arts subjects and musical expression is a typical way of functioning and thinking for a child. Music has been proven to have an influence on the development of a childs’ personality and therefor it is necessary that various ways of musical expression are supported through musical education in early childhood education. The study has been carried out as a qualitative research, in which the material has been formed with an electronic questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent with an accompanying letter to 30 early childhood education centers in the city of Helsinki. The final sample consisted of the answers of 10 kindergarten teachers. The material was analyzed by using recurring themes and finding similarities and resemblances in the answers and studying the differences. According to the results, kindergarten teachers saw musical education as a significant support for the development of linguistics within children under the age of three. Musical education was also seen as creating the feeling of secureness for the child while basic needs were attended to like in toilet and clothing situations. Music was seen as a natural form of interaction with small children. Teachers experienced musical education in their training leading up to their job as a kindergarten teacher differently. The teachers saw for example their lack of skills in accompaniment and the scarce knowledge of musical theory as a challenge for accomplishing adequate musical education.