Having their song heard: tracking pre-service kindergarten teachers' perceptions and confidence in their singing skills

Abstract

This paper reports a study investigating pre-service kindergarten teachers' confidence levels and perceptions regarding their singing skills, and the impact of a music methods course on these self-perceptions. The course incorporated singing instruction in 24 lectures and two 10-minute private singing tutorials at the beginning and middle of the semester. A mixed methods research design was employed in order to systematically record, measure and analyse student's perceptions. Participants (N=33) kept a singing reflection notebook and completed a pre-test–post-test Singing Profile Questionnaire. Findings showed that initially participants felt insecure about their singing abilities and seemed to question whether vocal skills could be improved with training. T-test comparisons indicated that, after the intervention, participants significantly improved their confidence towards singing and their perceptions of their singing ability. Gains in the present study appear to be larger than those of previous studies, suggesting that the private signing tutorials and the use of reflection within a methods class might be effective strategies in helping pre-service teachers improve their confidence in their singing skills.