The purpose of this study was to examine to see if social understanding activities of Project Spectrum based on Gardner's multiple intelligences theory had any effects on the sociability and emotional development of young children.
The participants in...
The purpose of this study was to examine to see if social understanding activities of Project Spectrum based on Gardner's multiple intelligences theory had any effects on the sociability and emotional development of young children.
The participants in this study were 96 of 5-years-old young children in four different classes of P kindergarten in the city of Y. They were divided and assigned equally into two groups, an experimental group and a control group. This study was conducted for 15 weeks from September through December, 2004, in the procedure of pilot test, pretest, experiment and posttest.
The experimental group was engaged in the 19 kinds of social understanding activities of Project Spectrum that were associated with three major competences. The control group was engaged in regular activities according to existing theme-based integrated curriculum. Three young children whose socioemotional features were relatively unique were selected from the experimental group, and they were under intensive observation to track their changes during the experiment.
To assess their sociability, Kim So-young(1999)'s Preschooler Social Competence Development Scale which revised Kohn and Rosman(1972)'s Social Competence Scale(SCS) to suit Korean preschoolers was used. To assess their emotional development, Lee Seon-jeong(2003)'s Preschooler Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale that was revised by Lee Young-ja, Lee Jong-suk and Sin Eun-su(1999) was utilized. And to analyze behavior changes in three children, behavioral checklists devised by Kim Su-jeong(2002) and anecdotal journals were employed to keep and analyze their behaviors closely. The collected data were analyzed with t-test and Analysis of Covariance.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, as for the effects of the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum on the sociability development of the preschoolers, the experimental group that was exposed to those activities made more significant progress in overall sociability than the control group that wasn't. Therefore, the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum turned out to be effective in enhancing the overall sociability of the young children, and those activities had a good impact on the development of their social activity level, cooperativeness and safety as well, which were sub-elements of sociability.
Second, the experimental group that was engaged in the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum advanced more significantly in overall emotional intelligence than the control group that wasn't. Accordingly, the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum turned out to have an effect on improving the overall emotional intelligence of the young children. Among the sub-elements of emotional quotient, those activities also exercised a good influence on their emotional awareness, emotional expression, emotional thinking, utilization of emotional knowledge and reflective emotional regulation.
Third, regarding the effects of the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum on their behavioral change, the young children got low scores at the onset of the experiment, but their behavioral scores got higher as they were repeatedly engaged in the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum. So the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum had an effect on the behavioral development of the preschoolers.
In conclusion, the social understanding activities of Project Spectrum were conducive to the sociability and emotional development of the young children.