Musical activities in pre-school institutions (case of Nicosia)

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Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1 (2009) 302–303
World Conference on Educational Sciences 2009
Musical activities in pre-school institutions (case of Nicosia)
Akile Ekizoglua*, Nihat Ekizoglub
a
a
Department of Pre-School Education, Near East University, Nicosia,North Cyprus
Department of Computer and Teaching Technologies, Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus
Received October 9, 2008; revised December 16, 2008; accepted January 4, 2009
Abstract
This study has been carried out in order to investigate the musical activities and musical problems in pre-school institutions in
Nicosia. Since the study aims to describe the present situation as it exists, it adopted a qualitative survey (Karasar, 1994a) and the
data was collected through interviews which were held with pre-school teachers. Interview is the technique in which the data is
collected by verbal communication (Karasar, 1994a). The questions of the interview have been prepared after searching the
related literature and by consulting to the professionals of the field. The collected data has been analyzed and interpreted by the
researcher. The research group of the study consisted of 23 teachers from the public kindergartens in Nicosia.
One of the most striking findings of the study was that; none of the six schools have got separate music rooms and only one has a
full-time music teacher. Also in this study it has been revealed that most of the classes haven’t got any music areas and the
teachers stated that in case of need, they shared the musical instruments of the school with the other teachers. However, in the
schools that have no separate music rooms, teachers have to prepare music areas in their classes (Omeroglu & Others, 2003). The
shared instruments were: organs, drums, tambourines, maracas, accordions, cymbals, finger cymbals, castanets, triangles and
xylophones. Also, in addition to these instruments guiro tone blocks and stir xylophones were the shared instruments in only one
school. Some of the teachers stated that they had music areas in their classes and they used musical instruments in these areas
such as: maracas made by children themselves, wooden/plastic maracas, triangles, xylophones, finger cymbals, castanets, drums,
hand bells, cymbals and claves.
The study has also revealed that pre-school teachers have used music frequently as a tool for teaching other subjects despite the
fact that they rarely gave musical education to students. The activities that the teachers have been using were: teaching a new
song related to the main theme of the topic, getting the children to listen to sound effects related to the unit, using music to teach
the local traditional culture, for recognizing and expressing emotions and in concept teaching.
The music based activities that are used by the teachers included: teaching songs, getting children to listen to music,
rhythm exercises, dramatizing songs, teaching how to play instruments (mostly rhythm instruments), introducing musical
instruments (mostly rhythm instruments), teaching simple dance sequences (ront), listening and recognizing the sounds, making
simple rhythm instruments and doing creative dance activities. Also working with choirs, making musical stories and having the
children transfer their hearings into drawings were activities rarely used.
* Akile Ekizoglu. Tel.: +90 533 866 33 10.
E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428/$–see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2009.01.056
Akile Ekizoglu et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1 (2009) 302–303
303
Another important finding was that, even though most teachers could play a musical instrument, only a few used these
instruments while the children sang songs. Most of the teachers can play the flute, some of them can play the organ and a few of
them can play the melodica and accordion. Also, it has been revealed that cassettes, CD’s, books related to nursery rhymes and
songs, CD players, TVs or DVD players and internet are materials that the teachers have benefited from in their musical
activities. Only a few teachers used computers, masks, puppets, magazines and materials suitable for drama.
The problems related to music that teachers had stated were; having no separate music rooms and full-time music teachers,
teachers’ considering themselves insufficient in playing a musical instrument and finally the shortage of musical instruments and
materials. Due to the fact that teachers consider themselves insufficient in playing musical instruments, it is thought that they are
reluctant to do the activities based on music itself. And also, they complained of having problems of using music in social,
cognitive, psychomotor and other activities.
© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Keywords: Musical education; pre-school education; musical education in pre-school education.
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