Research Aim

Early childhood education (ECE), also referred to as nursery education is primarily a branch of schooling theory that narrates to the education of children (both formal and informal). It begins right from birth, till the age of eight, which is conventionally about the 3rd grade (Moss, Dahlberg and Pence 2013). A pre-school is likewise known as nursery school, playschool, pre-primary school, or kindergarten, and has been identified as a vital educational establishment or knowledge space that offers early childhood education to kids, before they initiate obligatory education at primary schools. While all pre-schools may be privately or publicly operated, the often receive subsidies from public funds. There is mounting evidence that identifies pre-school education as significant and advantageous for any child joining nursery school (Denham and Kochanoff 2018). This can be accredited to the fact that pre-schools create the provision for all children to have a head start over social communications.

With the help of psychosocial, cognitive, and physical development based learning, a kid in pre-schools gets the opportunity to learn about the setting and the ways by which they can verbally communicate with others. In the words of Fisher et al. (2013) children who attend pre-school also get the opportunity to gain an understanding of the ways by which their external environment works, via play and communication. Young children have often been associated with an increased liking towards a combination of music, rhythm, movement, and dance. This amalgamation allows them to appreciate the music and express their feelings and voices. According to Strange and Weekes (2016) music and movement when organised have proved beneficial in providing a range of assistances to the mental, social, and physical development amid children (Yoshikawa et al. 2013). Furthermore, integrating music and movement during the early childhood years are also effective in providing assistance to the young children with their social communication and language development.

Children are found to naturally relish music and will initiate responding to music at an early phase. With an increase in their age, their affection for music will result in bringing about one of the most apparent paybacks of children partaking in music and movement namely, the release of energy (Sievers et al. 2013). Burger et al. (2013) stated that music and movement incorporation in teaching has also been shown to advance kids’ memory, learning expertise, cognitive development, and expressive ability. Some other benefits of music and movement in pre-school learning encompass namely, (i) development of small motor skills, (ii) enhancement of large motor skills, (iii) increased learning for expression of emotions, and (iv) enhanced balance and coordination (Vlismas, Malloch and Burnham 2013). This report will explore the support provided by pre-school practitioners to creative learning of children, with the use of music and movement.

How do Pre-school practitioner support children’s creative learning through music and movement?

• To explore the methods used by pre-school practitioners while teaching creativity in relation to music and movement?
• To evaluate the challenges faced by pre-school practitioners in supporting creativity in relation to music and movement? 

Thus chapter will aim to highlight the studies which have been previously published in relation to the research topic. The chapter will qualitatively analyse the previously research articles in order to highlighted the available source of data which coincides with the scope of the research. The analysis of the previously published data will help in the identification of the research gap.

Research Objectives

In relation to the creative learning and its importance in the children’s education, Davies et al. (2013) conducted a systematic review. The analysis of the qualitative systematic review of the literary articles highlighted that the creating learning under children education facilitates flexible use of time and space. It also helps the children in working outside the classroom settings with proper autonomy. Moreover, the creative development among the children helps to facilitate respectful relationships between the teachers and collaboration among the peers. This healthy relationship helps the child in academic success in the long run. Thus the systematic review highlighted that creative learning is important for the academic success of the children Davies et al. (2013). However, one of the limitations of the study is, poor sample size. According to Davies et al. (2013), in spite of having an exhaustive academic research in this field, the team of six reviewers in relation to this study was successful in finding comparatively few empirical studies during the tenure of 2005 to 2011. Thus lack of adequate review of article for this systematic review prevented the generalization of the data.

In relation to role of music in the creative learning and development of the pre-school children, Koops (2017) conducted a phenomenological study. The study mainly experienced the lived experience of the pre-school children measured in the parameter of enjoyment during musical play. The analysis of the study was conducted through review of the class video of extracurricular activity recorded from 15 weeks to 24 weeks. The participants mainly included 12 pre-school children and 4 adults. The phenomenological analysis followed by the Moustaka’s approach highlighted that music play under the classroom settings increase the level of enjoyment of the children. This promotes the children to actively participate in the playful activities and other creative activities which in turn facilitates academic development during the later stages of their life. The play of music under the classroom settings also increase the children’s knowledge about the music such that when asked to play with the musical instruments, they develop a tendency of mixing music or creating their own tune or rhythm. This indicates the evaluation of the creative thinking skills and thereby promoting creative development (Koops 2017). In relation to music and creative development of the children, Brockman (2016) study highlighted that the use of music helps in calming the class while decreasing the dysregulation in the classroom. Under this clam and composed atmosphere, the level of attention of the children increases helping to concentrate in the creative thinking skills.

Becker (2013) is of the opinion that one of the integral part of music is dancing. Dancing is a perfect amalgamation of music and movement which is beneficial for both physical and mental health. Becker (2013) further highlighted that dancing catapults creative learning in the field of elementary education. Becker (2013) stated that there are myriad reasons why dance is important for health and development of young people. Dance is an excellent form of exercise which encourages children to get up and move. This helps to burn calories, promotes muscle strength, increases the flexibility of body and increases the internal circulation of the blood. Increase in the blood circulation in the body promotes proper brain development and thereby promoting creating thinking skills.  Becker (2013) study further highlighted that dance helps in the promotion of cognitive development of the children. The integrative movement in the curriculum helps the student to get accustom with the different learning styles which promotes kinaesthetic intelligence and thereby promoting creative development among the children. The study conducted by Sheridan and Pramling Samuelsson (2013) highlighted that the dancing is an excellent form by which a children come across different culture in an authentic and in a fun filled way. This exposure of different types of culture increases their level of understanding in the domain of cultural competitiveness and thereby helping to promote creative thinking. Sheridan and Pramling Samuelsson (2013) further stated that use of movements and music in the form of dancing in the academic arena helps the children to develop skills, which are important for learning. One of the important skills highlighted by Sheridan and Pramling Samuelsson (2013) is creative which facilitates academic development in 21^st century. Through the creative process, the students are encouraged to make use of their imagination and collaborate with their peers in order to solve problems and to discover multiple solutions to handle challenges.

Literature Review

The implementation of the movement and music in promoting creative development among the pre-school children has its share of complication and challenges. The phenomenological analysis conducted by Kilic (2012) highlighted that the time allocated for the music and movement for the promotion of the creative thinking skills under the pre-school curriculum is not adequate. The majority of the pre-school have only once or twice a week curriculum and thus the children tend to forget the things. Each time the children joins the curriculum each week, they are required to be educated from scratch. The lack of interest among the parents in indulging their wards in the activities music and play or movements further creates barrier in the process implementation. Kilic (2012) highlighted that the majority of the educators lack proper skill in promoting creative skills through music and movements.

The main research gap in the study is there are no adequate research highlighting the challenges experienced by the pre-school practitioners in supporting the creativity development through music and movement. The main challenges highlighted are the lack of time in implementing the music and movement curriculum in creativity development. However, no research has yet been conducted in order to highlight the challenges which the educators think that the pre-school children experiences while they are involved in the movement and music curriculum. Moreover, the review of literature highlighted how music and movements help in the promotion creative thinking skills among the children, but there are no direct references of the approaches used by the pre-school educators in facilitating the creative thinking skills among the children through the application of music and movements. Thus the scope and the reach aim of the present study is unique and it will help in unveiling a new dimension in the pre-school curriculum.

Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the music and movement plays an important role in facilitating creative thinking skills among the pre-school children. The main research gap is lack of adequate data highlighting the approach used by the educators in facilitating music and movements’ curriculum for creative development among pre-school children and the challenges experienced by the children in getting accustomed with this curriculum. 

Research methodology refers to the set of procedures or steps that are utilized for the identification, selection, and analysis of information that are relevant to the phenomenon being investigated (Neuman 2013).

This research was exploratory in nature. An exploratory research is generally conducted for unravelling a problem that has not been investigated in details (Beavers et al. 2013). The primary aim of the research was to establish priorities and obtain responses to the two discrete research objectives. According to Creswell and Creswell (2017) conduction of a qualitative research provided insight into the problem. While quantitative research measures a research problem or question by deductively forming a hypothesis derived from theory, qualitative research approaches help in exploring human interactions and deeply probes into the research question in order to retrieved descriptive data (Brannen 2017).

Pre-school practitioners formed the target population for this study. An early childhood educator refers to an individual who works in collaboration with young kids and their families, from a year of their birth, till the third grade (Simpson 2013). These pre-school practitioners also comprised of music teachers who were requested to participate in interviews that formed a vital part of the data collection process. In the words of Fox and Schirrmacher (2014) they have the responsibility to work as an important element of the pre-school teams, under the able guidance of the manager, with the aim of providing a high quality and safe care and education for all young children. They have the duty of teaching children by providing a fitting level of support and inspiration (Broström et al. 2014). Thus, pre-school practitioners formed the sample of the explorative research.

Importance of Creative Learning Environment in Children’s Education

Sampling refers to the selection of a subset of people from within a larger populace in order to estimate the physiognomies of the larger population. Two major benefits of sampling can be associated with reduced costs, and rapid data collection, in place of measuring and evaluating the entire population (Csikszentmihaly and Larson 2014). According to Levy and Lemeshow (2013) some of the factors that were taken into account while deciding upon the sampling procedure were namely, the quality and nature of frame, presence of auxiliary information, expectation of detailed analysis, and cost concerns. Following consideration of these factors, the method of convenience sampling was adopted.

Also referred to as accidental sampling, this method typically comprises of selecting a sample from the populace that is close to hand (Etikan, Musa and Alkassim 2016). One pre-school located in the area were selected, based on their distance from the research centre, followed by contacting the pre-school practitioners, for the research. All the pre-school practitioners (including music teachers) were contacted via email, which was obtained from the pre-school authorities, following which they were sent a sealed envelope containing the purpose and objectives of the research. Informed consent was obtained from six pre-school practitioners, following which the research activity was begun. They were provided the opportunity to refuse answering to particular questions and could withdraw from the study at any point of time. Only two practitioners provided consent to the research.

Also known as chain-referral sampling, this type of non-probability sampling occurs under circumstances when the already existing research participants take part in recruiting future subjects from amid their friends and acquaintances (Wohlin 2014). Given the characteristic of snowball sampling, it is not well thought-out a demonstrative sample for statistical determinations. Nevertheless, it has been established by Badampudi, Wohlin and Petersen (2015) as an effective technique for piloting qualitative and/or exploratory research, with a precise and moderately small population that is difficult to classify or find (Acharya et al. 2013). In this research, the two pre-school practitioners who agreed to participate in the study helped in the recruitment of four more practitioners, who were their peers and/or associates. Thus, six practitioners formed the sample. Likewise, one music teacher agreed for participation, who later on helped in recruitment of another personnel. Hence, there were two music teachers who were subjected to the interview.

This refers to the collection and gathering of essential information from all relevant sources, with the aim of obtaining answers to the primary research problem. The choice of data collection method is often influenced by the research approach (Sullivan-Bolyai, Bova and Singh 2014). This was an email survey where the questionnaire or survey instrument was sent to the participants via email and they used it as the medium of providing their responses as well. The survey comprised of six questions that were both open and closed ended. According to Krosnick (2018) while presence of open ended questions revealed the thoughts of the respondents and could be expanded for clarifying the answers, closed ended questions improved response consistency and could be easily compared with others.

Effective Use of Music in Children’s Learning

The primary advantage of using email surveys could be accredited to their cost efficiency, time saving characteristic, accessibility, flexibility, and feedback objectivity (McPeake, Bateson and O’Neill 2014). There was no interviewer bias in the responses and the pre-school practitioners were provided with the opportunity to respond at their own opportuneness (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). Interviews were also conducted since they facilitated the attainment of personalised information, and also created opportunities for exploring underlying factors that influenced their responses. Interview was a viable option under circumstances where there were limited respondents (2 music teachers). The primary advantage of this data collection procedure can be allied with the fact that it offered an exhaustive description of the research problem, without restricting the responses of the participants.

Autonomy of the participant might result in ethical dilemma among the participants. It is imperative for obtaining informed consent before enrolment of any participant in a research project. Ethically thought-provoking circumstances might arise if there was a need to deal with opposing issues and select between dissimilar methodological policies. Though there is no assurance of complete confidentiality, recording of the responses might assist the informants to agree the facts they wish to present on the record.   

This refers to the procedure of systematically applying logical and/or statistical techniques for describing, condensing, illustrating, and evaluating data that has been collected, in relation to the phenomenon being investigated (Miles, Huberman and Saldana 2013). A necessary component of safeguarding data integrity is the precise and suitable analysis of research findings.

Inductive approach in research usually beings with observations, followed by formulation of theories that are projected at the end of the research. Inductive research typically involves the exploration for patterns from feedback and observation, which is succeeded by the expansion of explanations and theories, relevant to the research question (Gioia, Corley and Hamilton 2013). An inductive approach was employed in this regard to generate specific meanings from the responses that were collected through the email surveys. In the words of Claessen et al. (2013) inductive reasoning has often been referred to as a “bottom-up” method to knowing, where the investigator uses clarifications to build a concept or to designate a depiction of the phenomenon that is being considered.  

Collection of demographic data from the pre-school practitioners suggested that all six of them were aged above 20 years, and not more than 51 years, and had an experience of minimum one year, in a pre-school setting. This indicated that they had the adequate experience of implementing music and movement in the creative learning of children, and identifying the challenges associated with it. The table given below represents the different demographic variables of the participants who provided responses to the survey:

Serial no.	Age group (in years)	Experience (in years)	Age of the pre-schoolers they are currently teaching (in years)
Practitioner 1	36-43	10-15	5-6
Practitioner 2	36-43	3-5	3-4
Practitioner 3	20-27	1-3	0-3
Practitioner 4	44-51	5-10	5-6
Practitioner 5	36-43	10-15	5-6
Practitioner 6	28-35	5-10	4-5

Table 1- Demographic characters of the respondents

The phenomenological procedure of data analysis proposed by Colaizzi helps in giving personal insights into the approaches that can be adopted for an auditable choice track in a research study, and also discovers the different questions of trustworthiness and rigour (Chan, Fung and Chien 2013). The major steps that were followed for a thematic analysis of the email survey responses are provided below:

1. Repeated reading of the responses
2. Extraction of noteworthy statements

• Construction of meanings

1. Formation of themes

Movements and Its Role in Children’s Creative Thinking

The table given below contains the formulated meanings from the survey responses.

Respondent	Statements	Formulated meanings
Theme 1: Challenges faced during teaching creativity to pre-schoolers, with music and movement
Practitioner 1	“Time and skills”	Implementation of music and movement in pre-school learning environment is time consuming.
Practitioner 2	“Activity degree and action difficulty”	Vocal music is not sufficient to stimulate creative learning among kids by music and movement
Practitioner 3	“To help kids understand instructions and follow us”	Kids often find it difficult to follow the instructions that are being conveyed due to their young age
Practitioner 4	“No”	No challenges have been faced yet
Practitioner 5	“Lack of resources and space constraints”	Often pre-schools do not have adequate facilities and space to appropriately implement music and movement
Practitioner 6	“Teaching tempo, rhythm and pitch”	The combined implementation of rhythm, music and high pitch creates challenges
Music teacher 1	“there is a constraint of space in our school setting which often makes it difficult for the children to completely utilise the zone and engage in free movement.”……” lack of awareness amid the government educational policy makers”	Problems in time management, insufficient space in school, and lack of knowledge on music and movement benefits are some challenges chanced upon
Music teacher 2	“do not have sufficient resources for implementing music and movement in the pre-school curriculum”………” limited space and there is inadequate time”	Unavailability of resources for incorporation of music and movement in pre-school curriculum, lack of adequate time, and space constraint makes it difficult for enhancing children learning through music and movement.
Theme 2: Support required to enhance creative learning amid children through music and movement
Practitioner 1	“Training, resource and experience”	Creating provisions for training will help pre-school practitioners gain an awareness on better ways to implement music and movement
Practitioner 2	“Training”	Education and training opportunities are vital to knowledge enhancement and will stimulate creative learning among children
Practitioner 3	“Practice and training”	Training plays a vital role in creative learning through music and movement
Practitioner 4	“Open ended materials”	Children should be allowed to explore their environment
Practitioner 5	“Bigger space… more resources”	Resources like musical instruments will facilitate children’s creative learning
Practitioner 6	“Training courses”	Educators should provide necessary training for enhancing capabilities of practitioners

Table 2- Themes identified from the survey responses

Theme 3: Benefits of music and movement to pre-schoolers
Music teacher 1	“explore their movement via development of physical skills, music, channelizing of energy, and promotion of creativity”…..“their thinking can be made more divergent and their cognitive capabilities can be enhanced”	Develops motor skills of students and improves their coordination and balance
Music teacher 2	“plays an important role in promoting and enhancing active involvement among the kids”… “pre-schoolers are also able to master a range of concepts and also increase their cognitive skills”… “develops their coordination, and enhances their endurance, balance and strength”	Improves ability of the pre-schoolers to learn and enhances their expressive ability and cognitive skills

Table 3- Themes identified from the interview responses

The three major themes that emerged, following an analysis of the responses provided by the pre-school practitioners to the email survey are given below:

Theme 1	Challenges faced while teaching creativity to pre-schoolers, with music and movement
Theme 2	Support required to enhance creative learning amid children through music and movement
Theme 3	Benefits of music and movement to pre-schoolers

Table 4- Identified themes from the interviews and the surveys

While reviewing the responses provided by the pre-school practitioners, it was found that some of the most common challenges that were faced by the pre-school practitioners were related to time and skill management, the degree and difficulty of the music and movement related activities that were implemented, inadequate space and resources, and difficulties in making the children learn about music, rhythm and tempo. Furthermore, combining music and movement together in order to support early learning years often requires a range of resources such as, CDs, percussion instrument, ribbons, relaxation mats, illustrative books, hula hoops, and dance scarves (Van Hoorn et al. 2014).

Time management is another potential challenge since none of the school authorities consider it a feasible option to restrict the time spent in theoretical early childhood curriculum, and substitute it with activities that focus on music and movement. In other words, it can be suggested that there is lack of awareness among the early education policy makers on the many benefits that music and movement create in learning (Elpus 2013).

Reports of no challenge faced by the practitioner 4 suggests that her school has the necessary facilities to support such an interactive learning environment. An analysis of the responses also suggests that the practitioner 3, having lowest experience in the setting encountered more difficulties in interacting with the children and conveying instructions. The same was confirmed by music teacher 2 who indicated that although she was well acquainted with the benefits that music and movement brings about in the growth and development of the pre-schoolers, there was lack of initiative on the part of the school authorities in acquiring adequate resources for incorporation of the program in school curriculum, and presence of a restricted space added to the difficulties. Likewise, music teacher 1 stated that space limitation and insufficient awareness among the policy makers were some major challenges.

An analysis of the email responses, in relation to the question that focused on the kind of support that is required by pre-school practitioners, four out of six practitioners cited training as the most essential support. Practitioner 4 and 5 suggested that open ended materials, more resources and larger space are imperative for the effective implementation of music and movement to support early childhood learning. Regardless of the experience that the practitioners had at their respective pre-school settings, four of them were able to identify the necessity of adequate education and training provisions. As educators, they are present in a remarkable position of sharing a diverse range of music with all their students. However, not all songs and music can be suggested suitable or enjoyable for kids in early childhood settings. While some might have great sense of musicality, and appropriate use of instruments, the words of some might be difficult or offensive for the children (Cutter-Mackenzie and Edwards 2013).

Hence, all pre-school managers and authorities should take efforts in allowing their practitioners to attend workshops, seminars and educational sessions where they will be taught about the types of music that are fit for enhancing creative learning among children. Music and movement act in the form of super-food for the child brain (Burger et al. 2013). Dynamic commitment in music and movement practises has been found to exert a holistic advantage to children’s development. Music and movement helps children practice and advance their social skills, speech, and motor development. Open ended play materials have been found to enable children to participate in free playing owing to the fact that the objects do not have any specific rules to follow. Thus, it can be suggested that practitioner 4 had adequate experience of 5-6 years that made her realise the benefits of open ended materials in music and movement namely, endless play, multiple use, and enhanced creativity, expressivity, and exploration capabilities.

Practitioner 5 who recognised space constraint as a major challenge was also accurate in considering the presence of a bigger empty space and musical instruments imperative for early childhood creative learning. Time and again it has been found that organising a space that promotes group participation and creativity is vital in early care environments. Hence, an analysis of the responses suggest that the practitioners recognised the need of adequate space and resources in the early learning centre to promote creative learning.

While most people consider learning alphabets, recognition of shapes, and counting numbers as utmost essential, during the envisioning of early childhood education, music and movement prove useful for the kids. Incorporation of music and movement in the curriculum of pre-school kids helps in their development, enhances their social interaction and also promotes their language growth. An analysis of the interview response suggests that playing music and coordination movement provides some kind of stimulating experiences to the pre-schoolers that fosters their learning capabilities and helps them learn specific activities that are central to their development. It was also deduced that the tempo of music often creates an impact on the speech and language comprehension capabilities of the pre-schoolers. The same was affirmed by the music teacher 2 who stated that incorporation of different kinds of music helps students improve communication skills and acquire the proper rhythm of speaking. Hence, it can be deduced from the responses that tapping or clapping while teaching the students can help them learn cadence and rhythm, while acquiring new words. Use of different resources that engages the pre-schoolers in learning activities that involve music and movement will help them explore their movement capabilities and the surrounding world.

From the thematic analysis, it can be deduced that the all but one pre-school practitioner face difficulties while they try to implement music and movement in pre-school settings. The most vital reason for providing a superior and high quality musical environment to young children can be accredited to the fact that pre-school years are a critical period of advancement in musical understanding and skills, as it is for different attributes of creative learning. Music and movement rich environment will provide the children with the occasion to enhance their potential talents and skills. Nonetheless, the questions asked to the two music teachers were quite different from the survey questions and had only one common element in them (challenges faced). Although both the music teachers were well versed with the potential benefits that music and movement exerts on the cognitive and physical development of the school children, only one had the appropriate provisions, where the strategies were effectively implemented in the school curriculum (music teacher 1). There was not much scope for the music teacher 2 to incorporate creativity through music and movement in the classrooms due to lack of approval from the pre-school administration.

However, most pre-school educators do not have the necessary experience and experiences in implementing music and movement based education in the classrooms. Often the theoretical child curriculum do not need any music proficiency in the coursework. Thus, the schools fails to create an environment for implementing music and movement education in the classrooms. Education and training programs, besides presence of large space and open children learning materials would greatly benefit the pre-school practitioners. 

Conclusion

Young children have been found to love a blend of dance, rhythm, music, and movement. This combination provides them with the opportunity to express themselves and also enhances their mental, physical and social development. Incorporation of music and movement in the early learning years also facilitates language development and communication capabilities. Movement also allows the children to move and form a strong relationship of their brain and body. It could be deduced from the scholarly articles discussed in the previous sections that movement plays an important role in stimulating brain development amid kids, thus encouraging the development of neural connections across the different hemispheres. Furthermore, swaying along with music has also proved beneficial in developing balance, coordination and control among the children.

The literature review suggested that designing dance movements will help children imbibe proper listening skills, thus enhancing personality traits. Additionally, it was also found that music and movement allow the children to express themselves under circumstances when they do not have adequate vocabulary. As the advantages suggest, music and movement are central aspects of the personality development of a child. The things taught to children during their pre-school years often stay with them throughout the span of life. Owing to the fact that music enhances curiosity and creativity among pre-schoolers, the implementation of music and movement in early childhood education is essential. However, pre-school educators who do not have adequate experience often face difficulties while making the children learn the different lessons of music based curricula.

Furthermore, most pre-school managers have not recognised the need of procuring adequate resources and space that would provide assistance to the practitioners to enhance creative learning. There is a need of proper training and education that will help the educators and other stakeholders understand the potential benefits that music and movement has to offer to early childhood learning. Furthermore, creation of a wider space will greatly benefit the practitioners in steering the classes that encompass music and movement.

Although the study explored the different challenges that are encountered by pre-school practitioners in the implementation of music and movement for enhancing child creativity, there were some potential limitations. The adoption of a convenience sampling procedure might have resulted in bias since some of the pre-school practitioners were under-represented, while others were over-represented (those from the selected school). Furthermore, there remained a high likelihood of sampling error as well. Although snowballing technique increased the sample number by four units, there was little control over the sampling procedure, and there was no way to guarantee the representativeness of the sample.

Use of an email survey as the data collection instrument was related with possible problems in cooperation. One major limitation was that the survey questions did not focus on exploring the techniques that were adopted by the pre-school practitioners for enhancing creative learning through music and movement. Thus, further research needs to be conducted to explore the strategies that pre-school educators can use for encouraging creative learning among kids, with the help of music and movement. 

References

Acharya, A.S., Prakash, A., Saxena, P. and Nigam, A., 2013. Sampling: Why and how of it. Indian Journal of Medical Specialities, 4(2), pp.330-333.

Badampudi, D., Wohlin, C. and Petersen, K., 2015, April. Experiences from using snowballing and database searches in systematic literature studies. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (p. 17). ACM.

Beavers, A.S., Lounsbury, J.W., Richards, J.K., Huck, S.W., Skolits, G.J. and Esquivel, S.L., 2013. Practical considerations for using exploratory factor analysis in educational research. Practical assessment, research & evaluation, 18.

Becker, K.M., 2013. Dancing through the school day: How dance catapults learning in elementary education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 84(3), pp.6-8.

Brannen, J., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.

Brockman, E., 2016. Room for music: A multiple case study of teachers’ use of recorded music in the pre-school classroom(Doctoral dissertation, Mills College).

Broström, S., Johansson, I., Sandberg, A. and Frøkjær, T., 2014. Pre-school teachers’ view on learning in pre-school in Sweden and Denmark. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(5), pp.590-603.

Burger, B., Saarikallio, S., Luck, G., Thompson, M.R. and Toiviainen, P., 2013. Relationships between perceived emotions in music and music-induced movement. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 30(5), pp.517-533.

Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.

Chan, Z.C., Fung, Y.L. and Chien, W.T., 2013. Bracketing in phenomenology: Only undertaken in the data collection and analysis process. The Qualitative Report, 18(30), pp.1-9.

Claessen, K., Johansson, M., Rosén, D. and Smallbone, N., 2013, June. Automating inductive proofs using theory exploration. In International Conference on Automated Deduction (pp. 392-406). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Larson, R., 2014. Validity and reliability of the experience-sampling method. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 35-54). Springer, Dordrecht.

Cutter-Mackenzie, A. and Edwards, S., 2013. Toward a model for early childhood environmental education: Foregrounding, developing, and connecting knowledge through play-based learning. The Journal of Environmental Education, 44(3), pp.195-213.

Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P. and Howe, A., 2013. Creative learning environments in education—A systematic literature review. Thinking skills and creativity, 8, pp.80-91.

Denham, S. and Kochanoff, A.T., 2018. to Pre-schoolers’ Understanding of Emotion. Emotions and the Family, p.311.

Elpus, K., 2013. Music in US federal education policy: Estimating the effect of “core status” for music. Arts Education Policy Review, 114(1), pp.13-24.

Etikan, I., Musa, S.A. and Alkassim, R.S., 2016. Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), pp.1-4.

Fisher, K.R., Hirsh?Pasek, K., Newcombe, N. and Golinkoff, R.M., 2013. Taking shape: Supporting pre-schoolers’ acquisition of geometric knowledge through guided play. Child development, 84(6), pp.1872-1878.

Fox, J.E. and Schirrmacher, R., 2014. Art and creative development for young children. Cengage Learning.

Gioia, D.A., Corley, K.G. and Hamilton, A.L., 2013. Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational research methods, 16(1), pp.15-31.

Kilic, I., 2012. The problems of music teachers in primary education schools in Turkey and solution offers. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 51, pp.209-215.

Koops, L.H., 2017. The enjoyment cycle: A phenomenology of musical enjoyment of 4-to 7-year-olds during musical play. Journal of Research in Music Education, 65(3), pp.360-380.

Krosnick, J.A., 2018. Questionnaire design. In The Palgrave Handbook of Survey Research (pp. 439-455). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Levy, P.S. and Lemeshow, S., 2013. Sampling of populations: methods and applications. John Wiley & Sons.

McPeake, J., Bateson, M. and O’Neill, A., 2014. Electronic surveys: how to maximise success. Nurse Researcher (2014+), 21(3), p.24.

Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M. and Saldana, J., 2013. Qualitative data analysis. Sage.

Moss, P., Dahlberg, G. and Pence, A., 2013. Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation. Routledge.

Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson education.

Sheridan, S. and Pramling Samuelsson, I., 2013. Pre-school a source for young children’s learning and well-being. International Journal of Early Years Education, 21(2-3), pp.207-222.

Sievers, B., Polansky, L., Casey, M. and Wheatley, T., 2013. Music and movement share a dynamic structure that supports universal expressions of emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(1), pp.70-75.

Simpson, D., 2013. Remediating child poverty via pre-school: exploring practitioners’ perspectives in England. International Journal of Early Years Education, 21(1), pp.85-96.

Strange, J. and Weekes, L., 2016. Music and Movement. Collaboration and Assistance in Music Therapy Practice: Roles, Relationships, Challenges, p.227.

Sullivan-Bolyai, S., Bova, C. and Singh, M.D., 2014. Data-collection methods. Nursing Research in Canada-E-Book: Methods, Critical Appraisal, and Utilization, 287.

Van Hoorn, J.L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B. and Alward, K.R., 2014. Play at the center of the curriculum. Pearson.

Vlismas, W., Malloch, S. and Burnham, D., 2013. The effects of music and movement on mother–infant interactions. Early Child Development and Care, 183(11), pp.1669-1688.

Wohlin, C., 2014, May. Guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering. In Proceedings of the 18th international conference on evaluation and assessment in software engineering (p. 38). ACM.

Yoshikawa, H., Weiland, C., Brooks-Gunn, J., Burchinal, M.R., Espinosa, L.M., Gormley, W.T., Ludwig, J., Magnuson, K.A., Phillips, D. and Zaslow, M.J., 2013. Investing in our future: The evidence base on pre-school education.