The purpose of this study was to develop a the character education program for early childhood teachers based on the reading discussion of the Oriental classics? and to test the applied effects of the program. The research questions were as followed....
The purpose of this study was to develop a the character education program for early childhood teachers based on the reading discussion of the Oriental classics? and to test the applied effects of the program. The research questions were as followed.
1. What is the components of the character education program for early childhood teachers based on the reading discussion of the Oriental classics?
1-1. What are the objectives and goals of the program?
1-2. What are the education contents of the program?
1-3. What are the education learning method of the program?
1-4. What is the assessment of the program?
2. What are the effects of character education program for early childhood teachers based on the reading discussion of the Oriental classics?
2-1. What is the effects of the program on the character and reflective thinking of early childhood teachers?
2-2. what is the teacher's reflection on the character in the process
of the program?
2-3. What is the evaluation of participants about the character education program for early childhood teachers based on the
reading discussion of the Oriental classics?
[Research question 1] This study developed the character education program for early childhood teachers based on : 1) literature review of character education program for early childhood teacher and reading discussion of the Oriental classics, 2) an analysis of existing character education program for early childhood teacher, 3) a survey on demand for developing this program, 4) verification on the validity of the contents by the 5 experts on the early childhood education.
[Research question 2] Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted simultaneously. The teachers working at 2 kindergartens located in N-gu, Seoul were recruited as the subjects of this study, and they were assigned 6 individuals each to the experimental and the control groups. In the study procedure, a preliminary study was first conducted, followed by teacher education, pre-test, experimental treatment, and post-test. The program was applied from April 9 to June 22, 2020, a total of 9 program sessions were conducted for the experimental group at the interval of about once a week. For the quantitative effect analysis when applying the program, this study compared the scores of both character and reflective thinking of each group and verified the score differences between groups using the ‘character assessment tool for early childhood teacher (Kim, Kim, Lee, 2015) and reflective thinking scale (Kim, 2017)’. In addition, in order to examine the score changes of character and reflective thinking by each group, the score difference between pre-test and post-test of the experimental group, and the score difference between pre-inspection and post-inspection of the control group were analyzed through the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. In the qualitative analysis, the following data including the recorded data on discussion details that were collected by the author participated as a host of the program, participatory observations, group interviews, and activity logs, were utilized. In addition, the actual analysis was conducted on the reflection of character education by reading the data repeatedly and categorizing them through open coding.
This study results are as follows.
[Research question 1] The character education program for early childhood teachers based on the reading discussion of the Oriental classics were as followed
First, the objectives of the program is for the infant teachers to stay with a healthy mind by themselves through a reflection of one’s character, and to grow through reflective practices while having a relationship of empathy and consideration. To this end, the goals were categorized into 3 domains as follows. The first includes to understand, accept and love oneself more through the Oriental classics, the second is to perceive the importance of consideration and empathy through the Oriental classics, and the last includes to introspect one’s view of teaching job and to feel a sense of vocation.
Second, the contents of this program were composed of 3 categories such as growing a healthy mind, establishing a relationship of empathy and consideration, and growing through reflective practices. The ‘growing a healthy mind’ was coposed of understanding oneself, loving oneself, controlling one’s emotion. The ‘establishing a relationship of empathy and consideration was composed of ’accepting a difference, eliminating a prejudice and respecting others. The ‘growing through reflective practices’ was composed of caring and loving, studying and learning, and feeling a sense of vocation.
Third, the methods of learning in the program were composed of reading, writing, and discussion, which are main domains of reading discussion.
[Research question 2] In order to examine the effect of this program on the character and reflective thinking, tests for the character and reflective thinking were conducted before and after applying the program, and the differences inner group score, inter group score were compared. The results are as follows.
First, a statistically significant result was shown in comparison between pre-test and post-test on the character and reflective thinking of the experimental group. In terms of sub-domains of the character, all of the empathy·justice, calling and the sensitivity·acceptability exhibited significant results in the character as a teacher, and the total score in sum of character score and the character factor score of the respect for others·consideration, which are sub-domains of the character showed significant results. The scores for reflective thinking exhibited statistically significant results in all of daily life, teaching and learning.
On the other hand, in comparison of the character scores of the control group between pre-test and post-test, no statistically significant level was observed.
Second, the comparison result in post-test score of character between control and experimental groups didn’t exhibit a statistically significant level.
The followings are the analysis results on the introspection of character education appeared in the course of applying this program as the qualitative study results. For the ‘growing a healthy mind’, it was introspected that the character should be educated ‘from a mind to be loved to that of to love oneself’, and ‘from a fluctuating mind to that of introspecting’. In addition, for the ‘establishing a relationship of empathy and consideration’, it was introspected that the character should be educated ‘from a claiming heart to an attentive heart’, ‘from a mind to distinguish t a mind to embrace’, and ‘from an insensitive mind to a delicate mind’. For ‘growing through reflective practices’, it was introspected that the character should be educated ‘from a mind of urging to that of patience’, ‘from a mind of rest to that of being sincere’, and ‘from a mind to lead to that to commune’.