The purpose of this study was to confirm whether the forest experience activity is effective for enhancing young children's emotional competence. This study was progressed in consideration of a point of being likely able to be utilized as a very impor...
The purpose of this study was to confirm whether the forest experience activity is effective for enhancing young children's emotional competence. This study was progressed in consideration of a point of being likely able to be utilized as a very important teaching-learning program for young children's emotion if the forest experience activity is clarified to be effective for improving emotional competence(self-conscious affect, another emotional awareness, empathy, emotional vocabulary, emotional expression, emotional regulation).
This study confirmed this by establishing research problem as saying what about 'the influence of forest experience activity upon young children's emotional competence(self-conscious affect, another emotional awareness, empathy, emotional vocabulary, emotional expression, emotional regulation)'?
This study allowed children to be available for the activity of the five-sense experience and the sensation experience by making them meet with forest experience amidst the context of ecological education with escaping from playing and learning in a classroom. Through this, the aim was to confirm whether this forest experience has effect on improving emotional competence, which is the ability that children express, understand, regulate, and respond to own emotion.
Accordingly, this study divided it into the experimental group with forest experience at a mountain and the comparative group with forest experience in a classroom, and comparatively analyzed difference between two groups before and after experience activity.
The test results, which were carried out before and after experiment, were statistically processed data by utilizing SPSS WIN 20.0 program. The statistical method was t-test. There was difference in emotional competence between experimental group and comparative group before carrying out experiment. Thus, the post-test score after carrying out experiment was performed ANCOVA.
The results of this study are as follows.
The score of self-conscious affect, which has influence upon emotional regulation for children's emotional competence, was shown to be higher in experimental group when comparing it with comparative group. Accordingly, under the ground of the above outcome, which was known that the forest experience activity is effective for promoting self-conscious affect and emotional regulation, the following are the suggestions on survey activity and forest experience activity in the future.
Through the forest experience activity that children of participating in this study establish, express, and creatively control oneself with having natural object without a playing tool, the education has been developed that stimulates five senses in order to sensibly respond to natural environment like sound, tree, stone, fruit, and soil around as a teaching method in the middle of the standardized indoor space. The method was what cannot be either seen or listened during the common class hour.
This class course allow children to have interest in natural phenomenon like blossoming in the sown seed, to possibly nurture sensitivity through it and to obtain sense naturally.
Also, the process of asking a teacher questions, which were found in natural phenomenon, is known to naturally show a result of learning.
There is opinion as saying of being difficult to attract children's interest in the beginning of forest experience activity when comparing it with activity within classroom.
However, a more effective experience activity class is considered to be possible when being fully formed a program that children respond to natural phenomenon sensibly by exciting curiosity, which is children's characteristic.