This study aims at investigating the interest, understanding, prior experience, performance, and barriers to performance of childcare teachers concerning the Standard Childcare Curriculum to check the current state of the Standard Childcare Curriculum...
This study aims at investigating the interest, understanding, prior experience, performance, and barriers to performance of childcare teachers concerning the Standard Childcare Curriculum to check the current state of the Standard Childcare Curriculum in practice and find a way for teachers to take more interest in it and actively put it to use.
This study polled 360 childcare teachers. The researcher created 95 questions using for reference the dissertations of Boo, Sung Sook(1999), Lee, Hoon Hee(2007), and Moore(1984) as well as the specific details of childcare and guidelines for teachers in the Standard Childcare Curriculum. All collected data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, t-inspection, ANOVA and Tukey post-factum inspection, and correlations.
The results of the research are as follows:
First, among the areas of the Standard Childcard Curriculum, the respondents were highly interested in the fields on information and cooperation. The degree of indifference was the lowest with these fields. Concerning the areas of interest regarding the childcare teachers’ reasons for background change, the ‘type of childcare center’ and ‘whether or not there is evaluation’ had significant influence on the childcare teachers’ degree of interest whereas ‘career record’ and ‘academic background’ did not.
Secondly, the areas where the childcare teachers’ degree of understanding about the Standard Childcare Curriculum was relatively high were: the six sections of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, the age groups of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, the standards of each age group of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, and the educational goal of the Standard Childcare Curriculum for each age group of the teacher in charge. In addition, the areas where the childcare teachers’ degree of understanding about the Standard Childcare Curriculum was intermediate were: forming a desirable physical environment for each section of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, the purpose of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, and knowledge about infants and children as deemed necessary according to each areas of the Standard Childcare Curriculum. On the other hand, the areas where the childcare teachers’ understanding was relatively low were: the teacher guidelines of the Standard Childcare Curriculum for each section, the character of the Standard Childcare Curriculum, the purpose of the Standard Childcare Curriculum evaluation, and the subject and method of the Standard Childcare Curriculum evaluation. Concerning the degree of understanding regarding the childcare teachers’ reasons for background change, career record or academic background had little influence as opposed to factors like ‘type of childcare center’ or ‘whether or not there is evaluation.’
Thirdly, the degree of prior experience which includes whether one had heard or read about the Standard Childcare Curriculum or received related training, showed significant statistical differences depending on the type of childcare center or whether or not there is evaluation.
Fourthly, the executive degree of each section of the Standard Childcare Curriculum was as follows(from strong to weak): the physical activities field, the communication field, the social relations field, the art field, the nature research field. The type of childcare center and whether or not there was evaluation made significant statistical differences.
Fifthly, the sections with which the daycare teachers felt the most difficulty were (from strong to weak): the nature research field, the art field, the social relations field, the communication field, the physical activities field, the basic living field. Whether or not there is evaluation made significant statistical differences in the recognition of barriors in each executive field of the Standard Childcare Curriculum. Teachers felt that the biggest obstacle against the execution of the Standard Childcare Curriculum was overwork. A few other important obstacles were lack of time to read and absorb the material, insufficienct personnel management, lack of adaquate planning, lack of teacher education such as in-service training and workshop, and the fact that the teachers are more familiar with other guidebooks on childcare rather than the Standard Childcare Curriculum.
Finally, among the degrees of interest regarding the Standard Childcare Curriculum, the section Awareness and the recognition of barriors were of a negative correlations with the Standard Childcare Curriculum. The management, results, supporting, alternative-searching fields of interest and the degree of understanding and experience were of a positive correlations.