The purpose of this study is to find differences between the outlook of Kindergarten and Day-care center and teachers' recognition in the whole field of the object, content, method, evaluation, material of early childhood mathematical education. To re...
The purpose of this study is to find differences between the outlook of Kindergarten and Day-care center and teachers' recognition in the whole field of the object, content, method, evaluation, material of early childhood mathematical education. To research these questions are as follows.
1. Are there differences of the outlook of Kindergarten and Day-care centers on early childhood mathematical education?
2. Are there differences of recognition between kindergarten teachers and day-care teachers on early childhood math education?
The subjects were 110 kindergarten teachers and 120 day-care teachers (i.e. totally 230 teachers) each who work for private kindergartens and day-care centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi. I performed t and χ² verification to verify the differences between kindergarten teachers' group and day-care center teachers' group on the data collected through questionnaire which made up 36 questions.
Results of this study were summarized as follows.
First, kindergarten and day-care center possessed materials at the average level, but kindergarten have more math material than day-care center so, show differences between the two groups. However, both group presented more deficient material in the statistic than the other type.
Second, kindergarten and day-care centers utilized material once or twice a week and purchased learning material in the commonplace. Both group changed materials in mathematics often or in about one or two weeks to show little differences between the two.
Third, in the importance of early childhood mathematics education purpose, kindergarten teachers and day-care teachers recognized objects of mathematics education as a important thing, but kindergarten teachers recognized one more important than day-care teachers to show the differences between the two.
Fourth, in the importance of early childhood mathematics education contents, both teachers recognized contents of mathematics educations as a important thing, but kindergarten teachers recognized one more important than day-care teachers to show the differences between the two. However, both group presented a low response for the mathematic contents such as measurement, statistics, computer regarded an important thing in the modern mathematics education.
Fifth, kindergarten teachers and day-care teachers show little differences in the method of early childhood mathematics education. Both groups of teacher recognized the small size of population was the just easiest size for the activity of mathematic. In addition, they recognized a method through daily life as a very efficient approach , regarded a concrete operation as useful media and, received an interaction with child among the roles of teacher as the most important thing. Also, both teacher regarded that the most difficult factors to teach math were deficient time for doing too much tasks in teaching mathematics and deficient materials.
Sixth, in the evaluation of early childhood mathematics education, both group presented differences. Kindergarten teachers utilized anecdotal records and day-care teachers utilized results of an activity as the most desirable method in evaluation. However, both group recognized results of evaluation were the most desirable for them to be used as a basic material for planning activity.