The purpose of this study was to make an action research on community building among preschoolers who were at the Western age of four and enrolled in a sky class. It's specifically meant to look into their changes in the circulatory process of plannin...
The purpose of this study was to make an action research on community building among preschoolers who were at the Western age of four and enrolled in a sky class. It's specifically meant to look into their changes in the circulatory process of planning, acting and reflecting and into the reflection and growth of their teacher in an attempt to determine what roles a teacher should perform to back up preschoolers as community members. The major findings of the study were as follows:
The first action was to know about the meaning of a community and the meaning of 'we.' As a result of exploring what the preschoolers thought of a community, it's found that they didn't consider it a difficult term but understood that it's closely linked to them. When they were asked to compliment and help each other to experience the meaning of 'we,' they just concentrated their attention to the given reinforcer, and it stemmed from the improper attitude of this researcher who was just product-oriented. So this researcher reflected on this improper behavior and decided to consider the opinions of the preschoolers in asking them to compliment each other and to look at them by focusing on how they felt about helping others and about being helped. I assisted them to find the meaning of 'we,' and planned on the next action to facilitate their community building through cooperative activities.
The second action was to provide cooperative activities for them to build a community. The preschoolers were frequently in conflicts with each other while they engaged in the cooperative activities, and the reason was that the childcare curriculum didn't give them enough chances to perform cooperative activities. Another reason was that this researcher intervened between the preschoolers when they were in conflicts instead of letting them get rid of the conflicts on their own. Therefore I also reflected on this behavior and decided to assist them to resolve their problems for themselves. I felt that it would be necessary to regulate the class size to ensure the success of cooperative activities, and planned to perform cooperative activities again with the preschoolers who came to kindergarten in summer vacation.
The third action was to experience the pleasure of a community. During summer holidays, I provided an opportunity for the preschoolers who came to kindergarten to respect the emotion and rights of their own and of others, to resolve conflicts with peers in a prosocial way and to read each other's mind. And I found that the preschoolers underwent changes by taking care of their peers who were unnoticed. I was disappointed at the preschooler who ceaselessly gave rise to problems, bur realized that it's needed to focus on his efforts to grow into eligible community members rather than on his change. So I tried to change my way of looking at him to broaden my horizon. I observed what changes they underwent little by little in the course of cooperating with each other as community members, and planned on the next action to offer them more careful support.
The fourth action was to build a community to ensure mutual happiness. I tried to have a better understanding of the preschooler who was viewed negatively by the others and to assist them to grow into eligible community members while they underwent a change little by little. My effort to understand the trouble-making preschooler and his position was conducive to changing the prejudice of the other preschoolers about him, and the preschooler got to pull his weight as community members when he was helped to acquire prosocial skills. The preschoolers in the sky class got to look after sick friends, helped each other with their studies and tried to lead a happy life together as community members. Thus, they changed little by little, and their change was not yet great but noteworthy.