Declared and Actual Musical Competences of Future Teachers of Pre-school and Early Childhood Education in Poland
Declared and Actual Musical Competences of Future Teachers of Pre-school and Early Childhood Education in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Aim. The procedure for researching and detecting musical competencies mostoften involves two paths. The first is survey research on self-assessment or declared musicalcompetencies. The second is a test study of actual musical competencies. The present researchcombines the two paths and attempts to supplement and explore the area concerning theproblem of the declared and actual musical competencies of prospective kindergarten andelementary school teachers. Method. The study involved 91 female students of preschooland early childhood pedagogy training at one of the Polish universities. The author’s original diagnostic survey tool assessing students’ preparation for preschool and early childhood musiceducation classes was used to evaluate students’ declared musical competencies. The researchersconstructed an original music competence test to assess actual musical competencies. Results.The existence of a positive relationship between the actual level of musical competencies offuture teachers and the level of their self-assessed musical competence was found. The resultsdemonstrated that 55% of prospective teachers evaluated themselves inadequately. Thesefindings suggest introducing additional training to support the development of teachers’declared musical competencies. Practical tests of students’ musical competencies are also moreimportant than their self-description-based declarations.

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