The purposes of this research are to examine if teachers conduct activities suitable for Nuri Curriculum in Forest Kindergarten, encourage necessities to apply Nuri Curriculum and possibilities to apply it in Forest Kindergarten by analyzing differenc...
The purposes of this research are to examine if teachers conduct activities suitable for Nuri Curriculum in Forest Kindergarten, encourage necessities to apply Nuri Curriculum and possibilities to apply it in Forest Kindergarten by analyzing differences by teacher's variable and find which support is necessary to teachers for Nuri Curriculum of Forest Kindergarten. Therefore, following research problems were set for kindergartens and nurseries so as to examine Nuri Curriculum application in real situation.
Question 1. Do teachers fulfill Nuri Curriculum properly in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
Question 2. Do teachers fulfill Nuri Curriculum by content in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
2-1. Do teachers have teaching-learning method suitable for Nuri Curriculum in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
2-2. Do teachers conduct education plan and evaluation suitable for Nuri Curriculum in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
2-3. Do teachers have understanding of learners suitable for Nuri Curriculum in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
2-4. Do teachers conduct environment configuration suitable for Nuri Curriculum in educational activities of Forest Kindergarten?
This research organized questionnaires of practical contents for teachers' roles inquired by Nuri Curriculum in 2013 and analyzed for 411 teachers of kindergartens and nurseries. For the survey, total 450 questionnaires were distributed to kindergartens and nurseries in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and Jeju for 3 weeks from Aug. 2013 and the rate of collection was 94.9%. Among the collected 427 questionnaires, 411 questionnaires were used as the data of final analysis except for 16 insincere questionnaires.
The tool used for this research was self-assessment scale of teachers for Nuri Curriculum in Forest, developed by Im Eunjung(2013) recently, and it's suitable for the research intention of researcher. So, it was used as it was with neither revision nor supplementation. The tool of this research is organized by 4 sub-factors such as teaching-learning method, education plan and evaluation, understanding of learners, environment configuration, etc. To verify effects of program, frequency analysis and one way Anova were conducted. And, all of empirical analysis in this research was verified in significant level of p<.05 and for statistical treatment, SPSSWIN 21.0 program was used for the analysis.
The results of this research can be abstracted as follows.
First, if examining response distribution by questionnaire of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment in Forest Kindergarten, education plan and evaluation showed the highest average and the next orders were understanding of learners and teaching-learning method. And, environment configuration showed the lowest average.
Second, if examining questionnaire response distribution of teaching-learning method, children feel pleasure in free play and there was low distribution of answer that they progressed free play instead of planned activity or teachers helped free play without interference.
Third, questionnaire that big․small group activities and free play are balanced for activities showed the lowest average in teachers' education plan and evaluation of Forest Kindergarten's educational activities.
Fourth, teachers' understanding of learners showed lower average than other sectors in Forest Kindergarten's educational activities.
Fifth, teachers' awareness on organization of interest sector in Forest showed low average and they recognized that sectors shouldn't be divided for combined education. If examining questionnaire response distribution of environment configuration, questionnaire which make interest sector in Forest or divide sectors in Forest for activities was very low and questionnaire that sectors must be divided for combined education, literacy environment is provided to children and Forest environment is sufficiently provided for children's play was high.
Sixth, if examining teachers' degree of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment in Forest Kindergarten, the degree of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment by teachers' age in Forest Kindergarten was the highest in the 40s and the next was the 30s and the 20s in order. The degree of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment by working career of children educational institution was the highest in more than 10 years. The degree of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment by teachers' working career in forest kindergarten and teachers' training experience for forest education in Forest Kindergarten didn't show significant any difference. For the degree of Nuri Curriculum fulfillment by institution type in Forest Kindergarten, nurseries showed higher value than kindergartens. The degree of fulfillment by children's age was the highest at the age of 2 and the next was age of 4, age of 3, age of 1, age of 5 and combined ages in order.
As the result of the above analysis, Nuri Curriculum of Forest Kindergarten didn't show many differences between Nuri Curriculum's educational activities of children educational institution and those activities of Forest. Therefore, teachers should make an effort to learn Nuri Curriculum through the education and training of Nuri Curriculum and learn practical method of Nuri Curriculum in Forest through the Forest education and training related to Nuri Curriculum.