The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of discussion activities upon reading a picture book on young children’s self-efficacy for their elementary school adjustment. In order to accomplish the purpose of this study, the following res...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of discussion activities upon reading a picture book on young children’s self-efficacy for their elementary school adjustment. In order to accomplish the purpose of this study, the following research questions were developed:
Research Question 1. How do discussion activities after reading a picture-book affect young children's self-efficacy for elementary school adjustment?
1-1. How do discussion activities after reading a picture-book affect young children's cognitive self-efficacy for elementary school adjustment?
1-2. How do discussion activities after reading a picture-book affect young children's social and emotional self-efficacy for elementary school adjustment?
1-3. How do discussion activities after reading a picture-book affect young children's physical self-efficacy for elementary school adjustment?
The participants of this study were a total of 46 five-year-old children (23 children from D Child-care Center and 23 children from K Child-care Center) in G city, Gyeonggi province. Children from D Child-care Center were assigned to an experimental group and the children from K Child-care Center were assigned to a comparison group. The experiment treatment was conducted for 16 sessions from August 30, 2016 to October 25, 2016 for 9 weeks. For the experimental group, for discussion activities after reading a picture book had been implemented. To the comparison group, reading a picture book without any follow-up activity was implemented. To statistically test the effect of discussion activities, pre-post tests were conducted.
The tool used in this study was developed by Rho(2014) which was adapted from Jeonk(1996)'s self-efficacy test tool in order to measure elementary school students' efficacy related to elementary school adjustment. This tool consists of three sub-domains including cognitive self-efficacy, social and emotional self-efficacy, and physical self-efficacy. The SPSS(PASW) 18.0 program was used to examine the effectiveness of the experiment. The differences of within-group pre-post test results were examined by Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. The differences of between -group homogeneity test and post-test results were examined using Mann-Whitney U-test.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, comparing the pre-post test score of self-efficacy related to children's elementary school adjustment, there was a significant difference between the experiment group and the comparison group. The experimental group's self-efficacy score was significantly increased in comparison to that of the comparison group.
Second, the post-test results of the groups' self-efficacy for children's elementary school adjustment showed that the experimental group resulted in a significant increase than the comparison group.
Third, comparing the pre-post test results of cognitive self-efficacy related to children's elementary school adjustment, the experimental group showed a significant increase than the comparison group.
Fourth, the post-test results of the groups' cognitive self-efficacy for children's elementary school adjustment showed that the experimental group had a significant increase than the comparison group.
Fifth, comparing the pre-post test results of social and emotional self-efficacy related to children's elementary school adjustment, the experimental group showed a significant increase but the comparison group did not showed a significant increase.
Sixth, the post-test results of the groups' social and emotional self-efficacy for children's elementary school adjustment showed that the experimental group had a significant increase than the comparison group.
Seventh, comparing the pre-post test results of physical self-efficacy related to children's elementary school adjustment, there was a significant difference between the experiment group and the comparison group
Eighth, the post-test results of the groups' physical self-efficacy for children's elementary school adjustment there was not a significant difference between the experiment group and the comparison group
As a result of the above study, it can be seen that discussion activities following reading a picture book are effective for 5-year-old young children's self-efficacy affecting their elementary school adjustment, including its sub-domains, such as cognitive self-efficacy, and social and emotional self-efficacy. Therefore, in the field, it is necessary to devise a program that can positively affect children's self-efficacy for their elementary school adjustment. In order to do this, it is suggested to actively use picture books related to elementary school adjustment and conduct discussion activities.
Key-words : elementary school adjustment, discussion activities, picture-book reading activities, self-efficacy.
* A thesis submitted to the committee of the Graduate School of Seoul National University of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of education in August 2017.