Early childhood teachers' perspectives and actual conditions of earthquakes and tsunami safety education

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to analyse early childhood teachers' perspectives and actual conditions of earthquakes and tsunami safety education. Methods : A total of 119 teachers were recruited from kindergarten and child-care center located in J city, all of whom gave consent to take part in these research. The data have been collected for 45 days from May to July in 2011. The data was analyzed by SPSS (version 17.0) and chi-square test. Results : The results of this study are summarized as follow. 1. 97.5% of the subjects considered earthquakes and tsunami safety education necessary, however, only 34.6% of them were given the education related to earthquakes and tsunami. 2. 63.9% of the early childhood teachers provided children in the kindergarten or childhood center with earthquakes and tsunami safety education, however, 30.3% of them were found to be without any experiences of earthquakes and tsunami safety education. 3. 68.5% of the teachers were informed earthquakes and tsunami safety knowledge. 4. 35.0% of respondents answered that the single session of earthquake and tsunami education was not efficient, thus expecting to receive continuing education. Conclusions : The study suggested that more teachers necessarily provide earthquake and tsunami safety education to reduce children's mortality rate in earthquakes and tsunami. The education program should be developed and systematized to improve teacher's knowledge. Moreover, the program should be continuously provided to teachers and children in the kindergarten or childhood center.

지진 및 해일 대비 안전교육에 대한 보육교사들의 인식 및 실태조사 연구