Musikstunder i förskolepraktik: Samband mellan musikens mening, aktivitet och aktivitetsformer.

Taking a start point in three Swedish daycare facilities, the purpose of this study is to investigate activities and types of activities in music lessons for children between the ages three to five.

The study concludes that there is a need for more investigative approaches to singing and dancing, whereas playing instruments with a more reproductive type of activity could provide the children with a deeper insight into the basic elements of musical instruments. The study shows that the activities in music lessons constitute singing, dancing and playing instruments, respectively. The study links singing and dancing to the reproductive type of activity. When singing, the child and the early childhood educator sing together. The songs are mainly selected from a well known repertoire and are typically related to the general activities the child and early childhood educator do together. Dancing can also be linked to the reproductive type of activity, e.g. in that the dance is typically used to illustrate a song focusing solely on movement. However, the study shows that when children are offered to take part in activities such as playing an instrument, the type of activity is more productive. In this context, the children are offered more creative, improvising and investigative approaches to music.

The study is based music lessons by three early childhood educators. The early childhood educators come from different daycare facilities. The daycare facilities were selected such that the three daycare centres reflect the whole city of Malmö both ethnically and socio-economically. Video footage of the three early childhood educators’ music lessons forms the data basis for this study. Data was sorted on the basis of how the children are involved in an activity (e.g. singing) and the type of the activity. With a view to linking the activity to a specific type of activity, data was categorised on the basis of whether the activity is reproductive, improvisive and/or investigative.

Holmberg, Y. (2012). Musikstunder i förskolepraktik: Samband mellan musikens mening, aktivitet och aktivitetsformer. Nordisk Barnehageforskning 5(23), 1-14.