The purpose of the current study is to compare perception of kindergarten teachers with that of elementary school teachers on elementary school readiness. The study is based upon questionnaire responses by 181 early childhood teachers sampled from 50 ...
The purpose of the current study is to compare perception of kindergarten teachers with that of elementary school teachers on elementary school readiness. The study is based upon questionnaire responses by 181 early childhood teachers sampled from 50 private kindergartens and 12 public kindergartens and 180 elementary-level teachers from 15 elementary schools in Daegu. The questionnaire was developed based on the questionnaires used by Kim(2003) and Ji(2006). Using SPSS 17.0 program, the frequency, percentage, average and standard deviation were calculated, and x² test and t test were conducted for the examination of the group differences.
The results of this study are as follows: firstly, the two groups of teachers answered that elementary school readiness is necessary and the students' parents should take the major responsibility for it and guide their child ready for elementary school. Secondly, there was a statistically significant difference in terms of knowledge, among sub-factors of school readiness, and kindergarten teachers valued higher children's knowledge than elementary school teachers in helping them ready for school. Both groups rated basic habit as most important among 13 sub-factors. Thirdly, the language was perceived as the most difficult subject area to teach under the 7th national early childhood curriculum, leading to the necessity of either increasing the difficulty level of early childhood curriculum or lowering that of elementary school curriculum, while anticipating several accompanying issues in increasing the early childhood curriculum level. Finally, both groups recognized that they need to increase continuity by means of studying the other party's curriculum, attending workshop together and opening their classes to each other in order to address current limitations in having children ready for elementary school. It is concluded that the concept of school readiness focusing on individual child's ability should be reconceptualized to embrace school's readiness for children.