The effect of 'Music education in early childhood' course on creativity domains of preschool teacher candidates

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of music on the creativity domains of preschool teacher candidates. The control and test groups in the study consisted of 80 students who had not received any instrument training. To examine the differences in creativity scores between the groups following the 'Early Childhood Music Education Class', a quasi-experimental design was employed. Within the scope of this design, pre-tests and post-tests were administered to both groups although the control group did not take this course. The Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS)served as the data collection instrument. Differences in mean scores between the test and control groups were analyzed using independent-sample and dependent-sample t-tests, while relationships between the total and sub-dimension scores were examined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results indicated that the total and sub-dimension scores of the K-DOCS ranged from 0.758 to 0.959. Moreover, statistically significant differences were observed in the total and artistic performance sub-dimension scores between the groups after the post-test was administered to the test group (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that music education has a positive impact on the creativity of preschool teacher candidates, which is of paramount importance given its implications for early childhood education.