• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.357-379
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to have a more perfect understanding of forest kindergartens, to examine educational values important for the actualization of forest kindergarten education and to suggest some of the right directions for forest kindergartens. To serve the purpose, it was necessary to conduct qualitative research to closely observe the experiences of preschoolers in a forest kindergarten and grasp the meaning of their experiences. As a result, it has been found that the world of experiences among the preschoolers in the forest kindergarten consisted of the following three fields: The first was the field of real nature. The preschoolers found their own nature in the forest kindergarten. The second was the field of aesthetics. The preschoolers acquired aesthetic experiences in the forest kindergarten. And the last was the field of genuine play. The findings of the study had the following implications for education: First, it's important to provide enough time to preschoolers. Second, it's important to reconsider the meaning of preschooler's activity spaces. Third, it's important to see the meaning of genuine play and things to play with in a new light. The findings of the study show that a forest kindergarten could serve as a meaningful space to provide happiness for preschoolers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.40-55
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• 2015

This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of the forest experience center for children led by the local community as experiential management for forest kindergarten education. For this, an importance and performance analysis was conducted on the forest experience center for children in Geumcheon-gu, which, of the 12 forest experience center for kids in Seoul, is the only one led by the local community. The questionnaire sheet for the analysis consisted of a total of 36 questions, 20 about place facility areas and 16 about management program areas(including 6 questions about the management led by the local community). The questionnaire survey was done during the period between January 12th and January 19th, 2015. The participants in the survey consisted of 15 forest education specialists and 50 teachers from 19 kindergartens who participated in the forest experience program. The number of questionnaire sheets collected and used for analysis was 13 copies and 43 copies, respectively. The mean values of importance and performance on the place facility areas were 4.07 and 3.78 for forest education specialists, and 4.16 and 3.84 for kindergarten teachers, respectively. The mean values of importance and performance regarding the management program area were 4.38 and 4.16 for forest education specialists, and 4.40 and 4.00 for kindergarten teachers, respectively. Both groups evaluated the place facility areas lower than the management program areas. They also evaluated performance lower than importance. In place facility area, 'accessibility', 'safety' and 'connectivity to forest trail', 'loose parts' and 'safety facilities' were required to 'keep up the good work', because they showed higher importance and performance in place facility areas. Even though most items of management as led by the local community including 'forest experience activity support' were evaluated as 'important', some, including 'effort for local revitalization', were evaluated as low in performance. However, as they were evaluated as higher in importance, if they pursue 'concentrate here', it is expected that they will be evaluated as higher in performance. In addition, considering that program areas including 'forest education specialist's role' are labeled under the management led by the local community, it reflected a positive evaluation. As a result, management led by the local community is efficient as a management system for the forest experience center for children in an experiential forest kindergarten education. Going forward, if this management system is durable in 'keep up the good work' and 'concentrate here', the forest experience center for children led by the local community will be an alternative for an effective experiential forest kindergarten education.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.541-552
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• 2018

This study investigated for perception about particulate matter in daily lives of mothers who have children aged from three to five years old and the difference of perception after participating in forest experience programs. The data were compiled from 122 mothers of preschoolers composed by 61 mothers who participated in the forest experience and those who did not. 82.8 percent of 122 mothers were concerned with particulate matters, and 84.4 percent frequently checked information on particulate matters. However, they lacked knowledge, countermeasures, and active practice to reduce it. Awareness of forest and fine particulate matter was high among mothers who had participated in the forest experience, with a high positive perception of forest role and forest environment. Therefore, expanding the opportunity for mothers to actively experience forest will contribute not only the forest experience in infants being activated but also to improve harmful environment such as fine particulate matter.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.5189-5197
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• 2015

This study is intended to look into early childhood teachers' perceptions and needs for forest experience activities. To achieve this, a survey was carried out to 170 early childhood teachers in kindergartens and child care centers in Daejeon city. The SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science) v. 18.0 was used for data analysis through the process of data coding and data cleaning. The frequency analysis was conducted for the general state of those surveyed. The frequency analysis, ANOVA and factor analysis were conducted for the perceptions and needs for forest experience activities. The findings showed that early childhood teachers had positive perceptions for the educational effects of forest experience activities. Especially, they perceived that the educational programs of forest experience activities need to be highly recommended to early children as forest experience education is important for forest experience activities. Consequently, forest experience education is just as important and useful for early children to learn the importance of coexistence with human and nature, and develop a sense of community by interacting with nature.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.4855-4864
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• 2013

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of infants' free play in forests on the development of their sociality. The 24 infants of a kindergarten in Jeju city, who is four years old, participated in the research. Participants freely played in forests for two hours at each time according to their own interests and demands, and this play performed twice every week for total 12 weeks. The results are as followed. Firstly, the free play activities in forests improved the infants' sociality. Secondly, the activities improved every sub-factors of the sociality such as cooperativeness, the acceptance of view, the free will, and the interaction. The results indicate that forests provide rich natural objects for infants to create various and new play by themselves. In addition, the free play activities in forests could build good inter-personal relationship through active interaction among the infants and lead positive impact on the development of their sociality.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.29-49
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• 2014

This study focused on how early childhood in-service teachers and pre-service teachers understood the concept of Forest Education. By applying the analysis of conceptual maps, introduced by Novak and Gowin's (1983, 1984), this study examined the number of upper category and subcategories, characteristics, hierarchy, and density of teachers' knowledge of Forest Education. 39 early childhood teachers and 60 pre-service teachers participated in this study. First, in-service teachers put 'nature(forest)' and 'living creatures' in the highest level of knowledge of Forest Education. On the other hands, pre-service teachers put 'the effect of Forest Education' and 'program' as well as 'nature(forest)' in the highest level of knowledge. In-service teachers seemed to construct their knowledge by understanding Forest Education as curriculum or activities such as math, language, music or multicultural education. Therefore they had a tendency to talk more about specific concepts including four seasons, insects, air, or climate change. However, pre-service teachers described 'the interconnectedness between human and nature', 'deep relationship with nature' and 'provision of nature.' This tendency might relate to their prior educational experiences of Eco-centered Early Childhood Education. With regards to the density and hierarchy of knowledge on Forest Education, both groups revealed the relatively low degree of density with average of around 2.00. This result can be interpreted that both groups of teachers might not have strong hierarchical and organizational knowledge of Forest Education. For the teacher education, philosophical background and practical knowledge of Forest Education should be included more.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.3616-3624
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to inquire into the perceptions and the needs of parents on their forest experience activity. To achieve this, a survey was carried out on 250 parents of children in a Gyeonggi-based private kindergarten from December 26 to December 31, 2013. The results are as follows. For the perceptions of parents on the forest experience activity, the 'perception on overall effectiveness' was the highest, followed in order by 'perception on educational effectiveness' and 'general perception'. For the needs of parents on their forest experience activity, 58.2% of them recognized the importance of regular forest experience activity. For the necessity of an annual program, 60.7% of them recognized the necessity of a planned annual program. For the recommendation of forest experience activity, 61.1% of them gave a strong recommendation for forest experience activity. As stated above, most parents positively viewed children's forest experience activity in the environment as it is difficult to approach nature in downtown areas, and children also highly viewed the educational effectiveness of it.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.494-501
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• 2020

This study is aimed at exploring the effects of forest experience activities on promoting children's community spirit. To achieve this, a pre-post survey was empirically carried out with 40 children at Kindergarten A in the city of Chungnam. The comprehensive findings showed a significant difference between the experimental group, which had forest experience activities, and the control group, which had outdoor activities based on the existing Nuri curriculum. Based on a pre-test for intimacy, emotion, mutual public awareness, and participation consciousness as sub-factors of community spirit, which adopted all the research hypotheses, the results suggest that the forest kindergarten will become an educational place for children. Consequently, personality education using nature in forest kindergartens can become an excellent goal, helping to boost the development of children's sensitivity and emotional stability through awakening the five senses; building up self-awareness, self-reliance, and trust; learning consideration and respect for others; and developing positive attitudes, sociality, potential, imagination, and creativity through forest activities with their peers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.69-81
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• 2018

Recently, user participatory workshops have been applied as a way to plan landscape spaces that reflects the needs and demands of the users. It is also required to improve the quality of the FECC (Forest Experience Center for Children), which is growing rapidly. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to deduct the design elements (forest play activities and space), the basic needs, and the demands of users in making the FECC a preschooler participatory workshop. For this, materials for preschooler participation were selected, and a step-by-step workshop was conducted to satisfy the demands of the preschooler's development. First, in the pre-workshops phase, design elements standards were deducted through the preschooler participatory results (41 children aged 6 and 7, Kindergarten). Second, in the main workshop phase, the design elements to be introduced on the site (Songsan-mulbit FECC) were deducted through the participating preschooler's selection and those results were analyzed. The materials used at the preschooler participatory process were 'drawing a picture' in the pre-workshop phase, and the design elements and the standard types charts were the forest play activity pictogram chart, and the forest play space general images chart in the main workshop. As for results, frst, there are 38 standard types of forest play activities that have been deducted. It consists of 27 cognitive activities (functional 16, constructive 4, symbolic 4, game on rule 3), 9 games (sensory 5, other 4), and two social play activities (solo, group). There are 21 standard types of forest play spaces. They consist of 8 play facility spaces (5 facility, 3 natural), 2 water spaces, and 11 spaces of 5 types. Second, as a result of applying the results to the site, the forest play activities to be introduced on the site were selected, and the functional play was most selected. Additionally, climbing and water play were most selected as the unit activities. Also, functional, constructive, symbolic, games based on rules were selected, even in the preschooler's development play. In the case of the forest play spaces to be introduced in the site, the preschooler's selection results by sex and age tended to be similar to the preschooler's comprehensive selection results, but the boys preferred function and adventure spaces more than the girls, while the girls preferred rest spaces more than the boys. This result is similar to the previous study results, which directly observed the preschooler's forest play behavior, and analysis that the preschooler recognized the site and selected the design elements introduced on the site. Therefore, the participatory workshop process and the materials process in this study are analyzed and applied to the purpose of the study. It is valuable as a case to be applied in design of the FECC from this point forward.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.1-13
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• 2019

This study is to derive a design alternative to the FECC (Forest Experience Center for Children) that meets the preschooler's preferences. For this purpose, preschooler participation is included in each phase of the FECC, the site perception phase, the deriving design elements phase, and the deriving design alternative phase. In this study, the process of the deriving design alternative phase was carried out with kindergarteners and preschoolers (6, 7 years olds; all 41 students) at Songsan-mulbit FECC in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. In order to derive the design alternatives, three detailed design processes (preschooler participation 2 times, researcher analysis 1 time), tool construction, and a preschooler participation workshop were conducted. The results of this study are as follows. First, as a result of the preschooler's design process, 41 designs were drawn, and an average of 7.66 spaces were drawn by each preschooler. The 6-year-old males designed the least (average 6.80 spaces) and the 7-year-old females designed the most (9.0 spaces). The physical and adventure play spaces were most common (38.9% to 48.7%) regardless of gender or age. To analyze the feasibility of the preschooler's design using a base map, the appearance of the physical environmental characteristics (7 items) in the site were analyzed in each of the 41 designs. As a result, the environmental characteristics were apparent a total 72 times overall. Similar environmental characteristics appearing more than once were apparent in 87.8% (26 designs) of designs. Second, three design alternatives were derived: APS- types (intensive planning of active play facility spaces) was presented in 15 designs, NS-types (planning focused on nature spaces) was presented in 14 designs, and SPS-types (planning focused on static play facility spaces) were presented 12 designs. Third, NS-type, which were finally selected through a preference assessment (5-point scale) and a comparative assessment of the three alternatives, has mainly natural spaces (forest space, forest path, shelter, natural exploration space, and ecological pond) and active play facility spaces, water play space and soil (sand) play spaces was appropriately designed. Therefore, the NS-type was analyzed as the design alternative that can fully accomplish all types of cognitive development through developed through play (functional play, constructive play, dramatic(symbolic) play).