Music, in early childhood education : teachers' levels of confidence and happiness

This paper presents the results of a study which investigates early childhood teachers’ levels of confi dence
and happiness in conducting music activities with young children. A sample of 284 in-service and preservice
early childhood teachers in Hong Kong participated in the study. Two new research instruments
entitled Teachers Music Confi dence Scale (TMCS) and Teachers Happiness Scale (THS) were designed for
data collection to answer the research questions. Results showed that early childhood teachers have the
highest and the lowest level of confi dence in singing and composing/improvising respectively. In-service
teachers showed higher confi dence and happiness levels in conducting several musical activities with
young children than pre-service teachers. There was also a statistically signifi cant relationship between
these two variables. Implications for engagement in music are discussed in the paper.