The purpose of this study is to investigate the meaning of becoming an elementary school student by exploring experiences of children acquired in the process of the transition from the kindergarten into the elementary school.
For the achievement of t...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the meaning of becoming an elementary school student by exploring experiences of children acquired in the process of the transition from the kindergarten into the elementary school.
For the achievement of this study, the subjects in this study were four students who transferred to S elementary school from H kindergarten located in Jeonju. The study was conducted for 14 months from September 2006 to October 2007 and employed the narrative investigation techniques. The results of the research reveal as follows.
First, the transition of elementary school students and kindergarten students was analyzed separately both aspects. The preparation of the first grade as a kindergarten student is attempted by outside force such as teacher and parents, which can be named 'making an elementary school student'. Kindergarten teachers and parents have been focusing on 'the development of general learning abilities', 'the preview of elementary school curriculum', and 'the adaptation to new school life' when it comes to the kindergarten education.
The internal aspects of children who participated in the projects of making an elementary school student by an external force have been formed in different ways and were called by 'the process of becoming pre-elementary school students'. During this period, children are in the process of growing one more step, that is, 'up-graded self esteem', having expectations of the elementary school life, and building up 'the high motivation and self-confidence for learning in elementary school'. In addition, they are suffering from kinds of 'the emotional growth process' by catching worries from out there and acquiring exaggerated information regarding as the elementary school.
The experiences in the process of becoming elementary school students were analyzed 'the self-fascination', 'the sufferings and conflicts', and 'the daily life'. 'The self-fascination' is referred as the pleasure to the new life, a fresh start to a new semester in March, and the self-concept formation while 'the sufferings and conflicts as the difficult school life, reminding of kindergarten life, and the self-realization. Furthermore, 'the daily life' is referred as restrictions, changes, growth, and hopes.
They started new life in elementary school with the pride of going into the next step and the pleasure of new life such as friends, teachers, and places. However, as time went by, they had problems with rules, restrictions, and boring curriculum that they need to get accustomed in elementary school. They missed the days they spent with teachers and friends in kindergarten and felt the desire to play more. They found themselves shrinking by surrounded environments as they wanted to be loved and cared by people. They adapted to elementary school life with their hardships and conflicts and then accepted it as 'daily life' which is not something new and special any more to them. They tend to have desire for freedom, change and growth due to their boring school life and lots of restrictions on them.
Second, the meaning of becoming elementary students based on the transition of four subjects was analyzed by 'the remarkable progress : a radical change of roles and expectations', 'the realistic self-consciousness : the discordance between the real and the ideal', 'the adaptation : the outward and positive adaptation'.
They showed a remarkable progress in the period of radical change regarding as social expectations and roles. In addition, they have been starting to look at the whole aspects of themselves with an objective point of view while going through the discordance between the real and the ideal. Under this circumstance, they have been getting accustomed to the elementary school system which is referred not as inward adaptation but as the outward and positive adaptation.