The Effects of Story Time Discussion Activity with Multcultural Picture Books
on Young Children's Prosocial Behavior and Bias Reduction
Hong, Hyun-Yi
Department of Early Childhood Education
Graduate School of Chonnam National University
(Directed b...
The Effects of Story Time Discussion Activity with Multcultural Picture Books
on Young Children's Prosocial Behavior and Bias Reduction
Hong, Hyun-Yi
Department of Early Childhood Education
Graduate School of Chonnam National University
(Directed by Professor Kim, Young-Ok)
<Abstract>
The modern society is the multicultural society in which various people of different races, sexes, social classes, languages, and cultural backgrounds live together. So, in such a society, people should communicate each other through mutual understanding and cooperation and narrow down the bias toward others. This study aims to consider an effect which the story time discussion activities through the multicultural picture books take on prosocial behavior and the reduction of bias and to offer a preliminary study program on teaching and learning methods related with early childhood education.
The subject matters of the study are as follows:
1. What effects do the through the story time discussion activities have on young children's prosocial behavior?
2. What effects do through the story time discussion activities have on young children's bias reduction?
For this study, 50 children under the age of 5 years and half in the two kindergartens in Gwangju city have been selected. 25 0f them are a experiment-group; other 25 a control-group. The experiment-group young children have been read the multicultural picture books and got them to have story time discussion activities; the control-group have been read general and common picture books and guide them to story time discussion activities. The experimental treatments had been made twice a week for 6 weeks.
To measure prosocial behaviors of the young children ⌜Prosocial Behavior Scale for Young Children: PBSYC⌟ developed by Kim, Young-ok has been used as a measuring tool. To measure the bias, ⌜Child Prejudice Measurement⌟ into which I, the researcher, revised ⌜Child Prejudice Measurement(2003)⌟ into which Seo, Hyeon revised ⌜Child Prejudice Measurement by Yang, Mi-hyeon(2000)⌟ has been used.
The result of pre-test shows that the two groups are considered to be the same groups in respect of prosocial behavior and bias. All the data are analysed by T-inspection of SPSS.
The result of the study is as follows: To begin with, the result of the study shows that there is a significant difference in respect of the prosocial behaviors. The experiment-group shows more prosocial behaviors than the control-group. The experiment-group have become better accustomed to such behaviors as leadership, helping others, communication, thoughtful consideration, empathy, controlling emotion and so on than the other.
And also, there is a considerable difference with regard to bias between the two groups. The experiment-group children have less bias than the control-group. The one has reduced the bias about appearance, gender, family composition, ability, class than the other.
In conclusion, it goes to show that the story time discussion activities through the multicultural picture books is very effective in that it offers young children opportunities to have positive attitude toward the different culture from the culture of their own, and also, it helps them to increase the prosocial behaviors and to decrease various bias. It means that it could be applied to a good teaching and learning method related with early childhood education.