Self-assessment of music playing skills of educators and the use of musical instrument when conducting music activities in kindergarten

Glazbene aktivnosti sastavni su dio predškolskog odgoja. Mogu se izvoditi na različite načine i s različitim sredstvima i pomagalima, a ono na što se ovaj rad usmjerava jest odgojiteljeva samoprocjena kompetentnosti za sviranje glazbenog instrumenta i korištenja istog u radu s djecom. Budući da odgojitelji na studiju imaju kvalitetno glazbeno obrazovanje u glazbenoj teoriji i praksi, pretpostavlja se da poslije završetka studija primijenjuju svoje znanje u radu s djecom. Cilj ovoga rada jest utvrditi na koji način odgojitelji vrednuju svoju vještinu sviranja glazbenog instrumenta i koriste li glazbeni instrument u radu s djecom. Istraživanje se provelo anketnim upitnikom sa četrdeset odgojitelja iz četiri mjesta: Belišća, Valpova, Bizovca i Petrijevaca. Pretpostavka ovog istraživanja bila je ta da odgojitelji pozitivno vrednuju svoju glazbenu kompetentnost sviranja glazbenog instrumenta, a uz to i vještinu pjevanja, izvođenje pojedinih glazbenih aktivnosti,da imajumaterijalne uvjete rada te pozitivne stavove o glazbenoj kompetentnosti odgojitelja. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da odgojitelji nisu pozitivno vrednovali svoju kompetentnost u sviranju glazbenog instrumenta, kao ni da glazbene aktivnosti provode svakodnevno, s čime možemo povezati i procjenu materijalnih uvjeta, gdje se instrumenti dijele na razini ustanove, ili ih nema dovoljno za sve. Odgojitelji ipak imaju pozitivne stavove o glazbenoj kompetentnosti odgojitelja te ju smatraju vrlo važnom, a pozitivno vrednuju i vještinu pjevanja u radu s djecom.Musical activities form an integral part of preschool education. They may be performed in various different ways and by using different resources and tools. This paper focuses on the preschool educator’s self-assessment of his or her competence to play a musical instrument and use said instrument when working with children. Since the preschool educators are given a high quality education in music during their studies, it is assumed that they apply their knowledge when working with children once they have finished their studies. The aim of this paper is to determine how the preschool educators evaluate their skill of playing a musical instrument and whether or not they use a musical instrument when working with children. The research was conductedusing a questionnaire and the participants were forty educators from four different places: Belišće, Valpovo, Bizovac and Petrijevci. The premise of this research was that educators positively evaluate their musical competence in playing a musical instrument, their singing skills as well as performing certain musical activities, that they have all necessary working conditions to perform such activities and that they have positive attitudes about their musical competence. The results of the research have demonstrated that preschool educators do not positively evaluate their competence in playing a musical instrument and that they do not perform musical activities on a daily basis. Furthermore, these results are related to their evaluation of the working conditions since the common practice in researched institutions was to share musical instruments and there has been often a lack of them. However, the research has shown that preschool educators have positive attitudes regarding the musical competence of preschool educators in general and consider is to be highly important. Moreover, they positively evaluate the skill of singing when working with children