The purpose of this study is to examine influences of gratitude education using picture book on children’s gratitude disposition and their happiness as well proposes an instructional method of children’s Gratitude education which could be applied ...
The purpose of this study is to examine influences of gratitude education using picture book on children’s gratitude disposition and their happiness as well proposes an instructional method of children’s Gratitude education which could be applied to an actual scene of early childhood education.
To achieve this purpose, the following research questions are established.
Research Question 1. How would gratitude education using picture book affect children’s gratitude disposition?
Research Question 2. How would gratitude education using picture book affect children’s happiness?
A total of 40 children (20 for an experimental group and 20 for a control group) at the age of five who attend N childcare center and P childcare center located in Seoul were selected as research subjects. The average ages of children in the experimental and control groups were 75.40 and 75.95 months old which made the two groups homogeneous.
On this study, Following tools were used for the pre and post test: In order to test young children’s gratitude disposition, ‘young children’s gratitude disposition inventory' developed by Lee Si-eun(2015) was used. and In order to test young children’s happiness, ‘the happiness test’, developed by Lee Jeong-hwa(2005) and modified by Kim Do-ran(2008) according to young children’s level, was used.
In terms of how to conduct experiments, in case of the experimental group, the children joined a total of 15 sessions for five weeks from October 12 of 2015 to November 13. As for children in the experimental group, they participated in gratitude education using picture book. In case of control group, they participated in life topic education activity based on Nuri curriculum targeting the five-year-old.
To examine the effects of Gratitude education using picture book on the young children’s gratitude disposition and happiness, identical tests were conducted before and after the activity to test young children’s gratitude disposition and happiness. The results were statistically interpreted using an independent sample t-test via SPSS 23.0.
Findings of the research are summarized as follows.
First, Gratitude education using picture book has a positive influence on young children’s gratitude disposition.
Second, Gratitude education using picture book has a positive influence on young children’s happiness.
In conclusion, the results indicate that Gratitude education using picture book is a suitable instructional method for enhancing young children’s gratitude disposition and happiness.