Preschool Education Programs In Ulsan Metropolitan City and the Actual Condition of Playroom Spaces

The purpose of this study is to help create environments for early childhood education according to the principles of Constructivism. Generally, preschools in Ulsan Metropolitan City were used as samples for this study More particularly, 116 kindergartens were surveyed by telephone to evaluate their education programs. Four kindergartens that completely or partially used Constructivism in their programs were chosen as primary subjects for this study The results of this study were as follows: First, it was discovered that preschool education in Ulsan uses an integrated education model based on activities and Montessorie. Constructivist programs were also present using Project Approach, Reggio Emilia and Piaget. Second, the number of infants per class averaged 29.3. The average infants per playroom was 2.38$m^2$. It seems, therefore, that there is a lack of sufficient space for activities. Playroom furniture is primarily used for storage and it lacks variety and flexibility of use. The interior of preschools in related to materials, color and images also showed little difference among schools. Third, it was found that virtually every play space did not have adequate water playing and sand playing sections. Instead, the space for the large-muscle activities of big groups was used for this purpose. Fourth, kindergartens that use the principles of Constructivism plan to specialize their activities. Those only partially using Constructivism showed conventional tendencies and small play spaces that would be defined as inadequate according to Constructivism. This study, therefore, demonstrates that preschool education based on Constructivism are not being well-implemented in concert with other programs.

울산시 유치원의 교육 프로그램과 학습놀이공간의 실태 - 구성주의 교육을 중심으로 -