The purposes of this study were to discover the analytic meanings of creative training, which is one of the learner-centric educational methods to maximize educational effects, and investigate its impacts on the competency of the youth. For those purp...
The purposes of this study were to discover the analytic meanings of creative training, which is one of the learner-centric educational methods to maximize educational effects, and investigate its impacts on the competency of the youth. For those purposes, the investigator, who was a teacher and researcher teaching college students that belong to the youth age group(9~24 years old) defined by the Basic Youth Act of Korea, conducted an action research in a cyclic spiral structure of "planning-implementation-observation-reflection." As an instrument to evaluate the increase of youth competency, the "Questionnaire on the Activity Competency of the Youth" was administered for self-diagnosis and pre- and post-survey about the eight categories of the activity competency of the youth. Gathered data were treated with the SPSS 17.0 Version statistical program for analysis. Frequency analysis was carried out along with paired t-test for comparing mean scores of the same groups after education and nonparametric Wilcoxon test.
The investigator set up specific plans to apply to the action research by collecting and analyzing data about creative training techniques in the planning stage and carried out the plans, did observations to discover the analytic meanings of creative training techniques in the implementation stage, in which observation, interview, and reflective writing were employed to gather data, and analyzed the gathered data, did reflective evaluations through reflection, reorganized creative training techniques based on the results, and reflected them to the second round of implementation in the reflection stage.
The implementations followed the following specific procedures: the first action research was conducted on "the analytic meanings of creative training techniques" in the first semester of 2009 from March to June. After learning that creative training techniques could influence the whole-person growth of learners based on the analysis results, the investigator decided to examine the increase of youth competency through their activity competency and conducted the second action research from March to June, 2010. Those procedures led to the following analysis results: First, the first action research shed light on the analytic meanings of creative training techniques and reported that creative training techniques could help the teachers and students discover and open potential in each other through the meetings between the teachers and students and among the students, which make the very essence of education in the analytic sense, allowing them to apply learning to actual life and continue on taking challenges about the future. The "implementation of creative training techniques" is the "implementation of creative ways to return to the essence of education" and a process containing analytic meanings.
Second, creative training techniques, which convey the educational essence in the analytic sense, contributed to the increase of youth competency. The results from the second action research show that the students improved in the eight categories of activity competency of the youth and identified the elements of creative training techniques that contributed to the improvement.
According to the analysis results of the questionnaire answers, there were significant differences in ego, body, problem solving, and citizenship competency, in which the respondents improved their competency through creative training techniques. According to the results of the self-evaluative inventory about the eight categories, creative training techniques caused an increase in all the eight competency categories with some difference among them and offered chances for each of them to improve. Creative training techniques also helped the students improve in learning motive, learning ability and efficiency, creativity, and thinking ability, which do not belong to the eight categories of youth competency, and further be aware of effective teaching methods, community, and sharing.
The causes behind the contribution that creative training techniques made to the competency improvement can be found in the analytic sense, which means experiences with diverse approaches beyond the conventional educational methods and "openness" that is the foundation in the meetings and interactions between the teachers and students and among students.
The meanings of the implementation of creative training techniques in relation to the increase of youth competency can be summarized as follows: first, creative training techniques are effective as instructional methods to promote the whole-person growth and development of the youth; secondly, creative training techniques can be applied as part of activity instructions for the youth and instructional methods for the youth, which shed new light onto the meanings of the importance of meetings and interactions at the scene of teaching and learning and require the implementation of creative and diverse instructional methods, and secure access to implementation in the field of education; and finally, the implementation of creative training techniques enables the teachers as well as the students to experience true meetings and interactions and grow through reflective thinking.