• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.53-74
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• 2013

This study examined the meaning of creativity of children and teachers from two novice early childhood teachers' perspectives. Each novice early childhood teacher implemented a creative education program in her classroom for 16 weeks after getting a teacher training about children's creativity. At the end of each session of creative education program, each teacher had an evaluation time and wrote their reflective journals. Date sources were reflective journals, in-depth interviews, and several artifacts. The findings were as follows; 1) The meaning of children's creativity related to children's personal characteristics, such as thinking and acting differently as well as engaging fully in their current play. 2) The meaning of teachers' creativity related to teacher's personal characteristics, such as escaping from task-oriented tendencies as well as implementing with inventive flexibility.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.147-164
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• 2014

This study aims at analyzing 6 OECD countries' (Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, England, South Korea) national early childhood care and education curriculum (framework) based on the perspectives of its implementation. Its design and development always focus on how the national early childhood education and care curriculum will be applied in the early childhood settings in a correct and faithful way. As a result, teachers are considered the user or deliverer of the national curriculum rather than the one who interprets it and construct their own curriculum in accordance with their students. Five OECD countries which have achieved an integrated system between early education and care systems, take the constructive view of designing and applying the national curriculum. Accordingly, a national early childhood education and care curriculum within an integrated system should be developed in Korea, in order to accept the constructive view of curriculum development and application.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.97-109
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• 2008

Atopic dermatitis is the fastest growing skin disorder among children from infancy to adolescence in Korea. The side-effects of atopic dermatitis not only include physical discomfort, but also psychological trauma which ultimately affects the developmental growth of children. This study was conducted in order to investigate the behavioral characteristics of an atopic dermatitis sufferer. As part of this research, the relative influence of behavioral problems and, self-perceived competence were analyzed in relation to the social competence of an atopic child. In total, 301 atopic and non-atopic children, between 2 and 6 years of age, and their mothers and teachers participated in the study. From this number, 109 children had atopic dermatitis, while 192 children did not. Mothers were asked to complete a parent-report questionnaire that required information on parental stress, according to the scale parenting methodology of Abbdin(1990) and Cho(1999). Teachers were subjected to teacher-report questionnaires which included topics on social competence, socia-emotional assessment and behavioral problems of an atopic child. Furthermore, children also completed questionnaires on self-perceived competence. According to analysis on K-CBCL, ITSEA, social competence, self-perceived competence and parental stress, children with atopic dermatitis showed higher scores in depression/anxiety and depression/withdrawal, compared to children in the normal control group. In relation to parental stress, daily stress, parental role stress, and stress related disease, mothers with atopic dermatitis children exhibited higher scores. In establishing relationships among the related variables, atopic children who demonstrated more social competence were more likely to suffer less from withdrawal, attention problems, and depression/anxiety. Stress related disease in mothers with atopic children was positively related to attention problems of the child. In terms of relative influences, behavioral problems was the most significant variable, accounting for 23% of variance. Lower behavioral problems was positively related to more social competence. In summation, this study investigated the general characteristics of atopic children. In conclusion, atopic children and their mothers had difficulty in dealing with this disease. It is our belief that an atopic child would not only require physical treatment, but also need appropriate psychological care.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.309-337
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to validate Preschool Child Observation Record-II developed by High/Scope for Korean preschool children. The subjects of the study were 255 children aged three to six attending child care centers and their head teachers. They were observed for at least two months and completed the Korean version of Child Observation Record-II(K-COR-II). K-COR-II consisted of six categories and 32 items which had five-level-rubrics. The results from an exploratory factor analysis identified one dimension of the scale, there was no evidence of discriminant validity even after face validity was examined. The concurrent validity and internal consistency of the revised scale were relatively high. Also, the mean between the upper and lower groups with regard to item discrimination showed significant difference. It was concluded that K-COR-II can be used as a valid and reliable instrument to various aspects of preschool children's development.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.239-262
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the types of image that early childhood teachers have about nursery teachers in detail in an effort to provide some information on how to build an ideal image of a nursery teacher. Another goal was to determine the right directions for teacher education based on the subjective opinions of early childhood teachers, which has not been covered in earlier studies. The Q-methodology was utilized to determine the awareness of early childhood teachers about the types of the images of nursery teachers and each type's characteristics. A Q-population was constituted by 310 types of images based on the results of earlier studies about the images of nursery teachers, and 48 Q-samples were selected according to frequency. And then 20 nursery teachers and 20 kindergarten teachers were asked to classify the images of nursery teachers in nine stages by using the Q-sort, and the data were analyzed by the statistical package PASW 18.0. As a result, four different types of images appeared that the early childhood teachers had about nursery teachers, and the images were respectively named 'a practical-teaching-oriented type of teacher', 'a negative-system critical type of teacher', 'a positive-humanistic type of teacher' and 'a neutral-emotionally type of teacher'.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.159-184
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the social efficacy of children shown in reflective journal writing of early childhood education teachers focusing on picture book activities. The subjects were 47 3, 4 and 5 year old children in G Child Care Center in the Capital Area. Teachers were asked to do 20 picture book activities and to write a journal according to reflective thinking after each picture book activity. Through the reflective journals collected, this study attempted to interpret and analyze them qualitatively by classifying the journals and yielding text contents according to factors for children's social efficacy such as emotionality, emotion control, interpersonal relationship technique, and social knowledge understanding. From the results of this study, first, it was found that children expressed their emotion naturally and that they learned their unique emotionality while they lived together with their friends. Second, it was found that children perceived and controlled their own emotions by using their sympathy and empathy. Third, it was found that children recognized and accepted that they are different rather than the counterparts are wrong through their differences in each other's thoughts to compose the capability of interpersonal relationship. Fourth, it was found that children improved themselves by their understanding, respecting and accommodating their friends as members of society.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.299-320
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• 2013

This research aims to develop and evaulate the effectiveness a group theraplay program for teachers than can boost full-day kindergarteners' ego resilence, peer competence and teacher-child relationships. A total of 14 children attending a full-day kindergarten located in Seoul were the subjects of this study. The experimental group consisted of 7 children exposed to 10 sessions of group theraplay for 50 minutes per session, held twice a week. The control group consisted of 7 children who did not receive any treatment. The teacher evaluated ego resilience, children's peer competence and student-teacher relationships to investigate two group's behavioral changes. Data analysis was done by performing the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon test after classifying and evaluating pre- and post-examinations of each group. The results of this research are as follows : The group theraplay program was found to be effective based on the study results of improving ego resilience and peer competence among full-day kindergartners and strengthening teacher-child relationships.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2015

This study examined the effect of infant teacher's sensitivity, efficacy and interaction on the social and emotional development of infants. The participants of this study were 169 infants and their teachers in daycare centers located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. The instruments were collected through teachers' responses. Data were analyzed through the variance analysis using PASW 18.0 to verify the infant teachers' susceptibility, efficacy, and infant-teacher interaction based on infant teachers' background variables; to find out the relationship between the variables, Pearson correlation analysis was performed, and to find out the relative influence of variables on the infants' social and emotional development, stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed. Results were as follows. Firstly, Among the background variables of the teachers, their career as infant teachers displayed differences in the infants' social and emotional development, and the susceptibility, efficacy, and infant-teacher interactions displayed partial differences based on the teaching career, career as infant teachers, age, daycare center type, and the academic background of the teachers. Secondly, there were positive relationships between infant teacher's sensitivity, efficacy and interaction and infants' social and emotional development. Thirdly, infant teachers' sensitivity, efficacy and infant-teacher interaction had an influence on infants' social and emotional development at the same time. Especially, sensitivity and interaction were powerful and influential variables and their explained variance was 53%. These results suggested that teachers' efforts must be made to interact positively with infants and to increase their sensitivity level to respond to infants in order to increase infants' social and emotional development.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.55-74
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• 2013

This study examined the influence of ego-resilience and psychological well-being on job stress in childcare teachers. The participants were 192 childcare teachers in Seoul and Daejeon Metropolitan City. The research instruments were Ego-Resilience by Park(1996), Psychological well-being by Kim(2008), and Job Stress by Hong(2009). Collected data were analysed by descriptive statistics(frequency analysis, mean, & standard deviation) and multiple regression, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ for reliability by SPSS PC program. The results were as follows: First, Childcare teachers' perceived ego-resilience was higher than average. Childcare teachers' perceived psychological well-being was higher than average. Childcare teachers' perceived job stress was lower than average. Second, Childcare teachers' perceived ego-resilience and psychological well-being was having significant influences on childcare teachers' perceived job stress. Optimistic thinking and anger control among sub-factors of childcare teachers' perceived ego-resilience and environmental mastery among sub-factors of childcare teachers' perceived psychological well-being explained 46% of variance in childcare teachers' perceived job stress. These results provide informations for reducing job stress in childcare teacher and suggest the basis of an education program for childcare teacher.