Self-Efficacy of Preschool Teachers in Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Implementing Musical Play

Studies indicate that musical play enhances children’s musical and overall development. In Hong Kong, “play” has been officially recommended as the focus of the preschool curriculum, advocating for musical play in music education. Utilizing Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, this study examined self-efficacy beliefs among Hong Kong preschool teachers regarding their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for implementing musical play. It also investigates the impact of factors such as prior musical experience, years of teaching, and age on teachers’ self-efficacy in this context. A survey was conducted among 438 teachers, and the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, linear regression analysis, and Spearman’s correlation analysis. The results demonstrate that teachers had only moderate self-efficacy in implementing musical play, with their self-efficacy regarding content knowledge being relatively lower than that regarding pedagogical content knowledge. Participants who learned a musical instrument reported significantly higher self-efficacy beliefs when implementing musical play. In contrast to studies that highlight the significance of teaching experience in self-efficacy formation, the findings indicate that years of teaching experience do not significantly predict teachers’ self-efficacy in musical play. This study concludes with suggestions for targeted music teacher training to address teachers’ context-specific needs in implementing musical play.