The purpose of this study was to provide the basic data and grope for the direction of edu-care team teaching through researching the ongoing situation in the classroom and teacher's perception.
Three main questions were set to obtain the goal of th...
The purpose of this study was to provide the basic data and grope for the direction of edu-care team teaching through researching the ongoing situation in the classroom and teacher's perception.
Three main questions were set to obtain the goal of this research.
1. How does edu-care team teaching work in the classroom?
2. What do edu-care teachers think of team teaching method?
3. What is the difficulty of team teaching and how to improve it?
The subjects of this research were 265 edu-care teachers of public kindergarten in Seoul city. The questionnaire was adopted and revised based on the reference and other relative research. SPSS 18.0 statistical analysis program calculated the percentage and the frequency of the collected data. A comparative analysis has been done with mean value and the standard deviation. Free response questions were categorized and provided examples.
The summary of the thesis is, first of all, most of public edu-care kindergarten consist of mixed-age group. 98.8% of edu-care kindergarten had two teachers in the classroom. Rather than occupying the separate classrooms, edu-care classrooms were shared with other class.
Secondly, the goal of edu-care team teaching was found to bridge the experience gap among teachers and to provide individualized lessons considering the appropriate development level of children. The need of team teaching was fairly high in several fields of classroom management such as lesson planning, implementing daily classroom schedule and childcare. However, the need of team teaching on guiding parenting skills for parents was very low. While planning the curriculum of the classroom, team teaching was frequently observed as long as it concerns long-term plans in curriculum. As the curriculum narrows down to short-term plans, such as monthly, weekly, daily, teachers appeared to divide the portion of plan and work individually. Separate preparation of the class was common in the overall cases. While teaching, two teachers had their own role and took the part only what they were assigned to do in the plan, which is Co-Worker pattern. Individual evaluation on team teaching after class was the most common evaluation type while percentage of peer evaluation and group evaluation of team teaching were very low or even none in some classes. Team teaching teachers conducted the classroom observation together and share their opinion, which helps them to remain consistent attitude on general issues in childcare, treating misbehaviour of children and guiding parents. Discussion for team teaching appeared to be randomly organized whenever it is needed rather than regular form. Intimacy and sharing curriculum through open conversation among teachers were acknowledged to be the most crucial factors in the relationship of co-teacher.
Thirdly, the appraisal of team teaching among edu-care teachers was fairly positive. Teachers counted the effective work process by cooperative teaching system as the biggest advantage. Shared responsibility on teaching and improved quality of teaching were also following reasons that support team teaching. However, the effect of team teaching on children's emotional state, parents' satisfaction and the limits of environmental drawbacks in the classroom were comparatively low.
Fourthly, the difficulties of team teaching were divided into three categories; environmental cause, personnel cause, administrative cause. Absence of independent classroom, shortage of teaching material and lack of time for discussion were listed as environmental cause. Considering peronnel cause in team teaching difficulties, there were different priority, value and definition of teaching among teachers that create the gap. Also dissimilarity in character and disparity of teacher's specialty were in the category. Adminitratve and financial cause were overwork, unfair treatment, small opportunities of training and lack of specific classroom guide lines
Fifthly, Enhancement of perception about team teaching, improvement in working condition, treatment and corporate responsibility and changes in classroom environment were suggested for better edu-care team teaching. Furthermore, payment raise of teachers, rights of vacation, wider chance of training, sufficient time for discussion through the provision of homeroom teachers and substitute teacher were other specific solutions.
The research of edu-care team teaching in the public kindergarten should be continued to support and build practical guide for effective team teaching with corporate responsibility in the classroom.