This study aims to offer a preliminary study of programs for practical use in the field of early childhood education by experimenting the effects of small group physical expression activities on young children's prosocial behavior and creativity physi...
This study aims to offer a preliminary study of programs for practical use in the field of early childhood education by experimenting the effects of small group physical expression activities on young children's prosocial behavior and creativity physical expression ability.
The research questions in this study are as follows:
1. What effects do small group physical expression activities have on young children's prosocial behavior?
2. What effects do small group physical expression activities have on young children's creativity physical expression ability?
The subjects used in this study were 42 five-years-old young children in the G kindergarten located in G city. Two classes were randomly assigned; One class was experimental group (n:21) and the other was comparative group (n:21). Children in the experimental group were made to treat small group physical expression activity and children in the comparative group were made to treat large group physical expression activity. The experimental treatments were carried out 15 times in total for 5 weeks in proportion of 3 times a week.
The measuring tool for children's prosocial behavior was the 「Prosocial Behavior Scale for Young Children: PBSYC」developed by Kim, Young-Ok(2003) and the measuring tool for children's creativity physical expression ability was the 「Creativity Physical Expression Ability Test」by Kim, Eun-Sim(1995).
The results of pretest to search the homogeneity between the experimental group and the comparative group is no significant difference in young children's prosocial behavior and creativity physical expression ability between the two groups, so these groups are assumed homogeneous group. Mean and standard deviation are obtained from the data collected pre and post investigation and analysis by t-test using SPSS program are performed.
The results of this study were as follows :
First, it is found that experimental group which conducted the small group physical expression activities showed significantly higher improvement in young children's prosocial behavior than comparative group which conducted the large group physical expression activities. It means that the small group physical expression activities improve young children's prosocial behavior. Especially, the result of the test showed that experimental group was superior to comparative group at sub-categorized items of prosocial behavior, leadership, helping, communication, initiative-concern, proximity, sharing and empathy.
Second, it is found that experimental group which conducted the small group physical expression activities showed significantly higher improvement in young children's creativity physical expression ability than comparative group which conducted the large group physical expression activities. It means that the small group physical expression activities improve young children's creativity physical expression ability. Especially, the result of the test showed that experimental group was superior to comparative group at sub-categorized items of creativity physical expression ability, diversity, direction, timeliness, flow, expression of movement.
The above-mentioned findings of the study suggested that the small group physical expression activities showed significantly higher improvement in young children's prosocial behavior and creativity physical expression ability than comparative group which conducted the large group physical expression activities. And it could be concluded that small group physical expression activities are one of efficient and appropriate methods to enhance the prosocial behavior and creativity physical expression ability of young children.