• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.25-44
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• 2015

The aim of this research is to provide more proper teaching practicum chances through getting practical implications by pre-service early childhood teachers' perception of teaching practicum through investigating pre-service early childhood teacher's perception of teaching practicum using metaphors. Participants were 121 pre-service early childhood teachers'. They were early childhood education freshmen and sophomores who did not experience teaching practicum. The opened survey expressing metaphors about teaching practicum was conducted. The results showed that participants suggested 114 metaphors and those were coded and divided. The results were categorized into 11 types including 'It is hard but also fruitful.', 'It is a new experience.', 'It is hard and difficult.', 'It is meaningful and important.', 'I am afraid and worried.', 'I learn a lot.', 'I have to go though it.', 'I have to make an effort.', 'It is pleasant.', 'I am evaluated.' and 'others'. We expect that this research will give a chance to review what the teaching practicum means to pre-service early childhood teachers and make plans for pre-service early childhood teachers to prepare the teaching practicum with proper perception.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.182-189
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• 2024

Many South Korean universities highly value and place much investment on the development of students' characteristics as their core competency, offering corresponding educational initiatives and programs. The present study specifically evaluated the level of characteristic competency among freshmen at C University, in which characteristic development is at the central to the institution's core competency. The researchers conducted the study to utilize the findings to inform the design of liberal arts courses and extracurricular programs. The study recruited 210 freshmen at C University in Changwon, South Korea. To ensure anonymity of the respondents, an online questionnaire was administered during the data collection period (i.e., between December 5th and 7th, 2022) with a total of 201 faithful responses finally analyzed. The results showed an average characteristic competency level of 4.21 out of 5 among the freshman participants. Notably, the highest score was ranked in the 'righteous domain' (4.27±0.66), whereas the 'behavioral domain' scored the lowest (4.08±0.77). These findings provide valuable insights for the development of educational programs that aim to promote characteristic competency among university students. The implications of the findings are further discussed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.219-239
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to analyze pre-service teachers' perceptions and change on the images about young children. The subjects of this study were 31 students in the early childhood department at a university. It was a longitudinal study conducted for four years. The data regarding the images that students had about young children were collected by having them answer a question. The question was "Young children are... Because of..." Subjects were asked to answer that question when they were freshmen and then, to answer the same question when they were seniors in order to see the change. A content analysis and frequency were conducted. The study of the results could be summarized as follows. Firstly, from their first year to senior year, the images that pre-service teachers perceived such as, vibrant active beings and beings with various characteristics" did not change. However, the images such as "being who was capable of interacting with environments" had changed. And the new image which viewed a child as a being who should be respected emerged. Secondly, the factors that influenced the image changes were based on the experience of working as assistant teachers at an early childhood setting, and practicum. Therefore, a systematic work on assistant teachers should be done and a concept about child-center education should be built.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate a correlation of factors that have an influence on the happiness of college students, and to investigate the effect of factors on happiness of college students by analyzing the structure of influencing factors of happiness. To this end, 430 freshmen in college were selected and tested on character, self-esteem, self-leadership, and happiness. The measurement tools used in this study were the 30 questions of Character Scale that Choi Min-Soo and Im Eun-Young(2013) developed and modified by Im Eun-Young(2015), a Self-Leadership Scale of Manz(1998) classified into behavioral strategy and cognitive strategy that Wang Ji-Seon(2011) translated and modified. a Self-Esteem Scale(SES) of Rosenberg(1986) that the researcher modified and used, and The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire of Hills and Argyle(2002) that Choi Yo-Won(2002) translated and the researcher modified. According to the research result, for correlation with happiness, self-esteem was .86, self-leadership was .74, and character was .66, and for correlation with self-leadership, character was .70, self-esteem was .66, and correlation between character and self-esteem was .57. Secondly, for direct effect on happiness, self-esteem was .62, character as .20, self-leadership was .19, and for direct effect on self-leadership, character was .49 and self-esteem was .38. Thirdly, indirect effect of character on happiness through self-leadership was .94 and indirect effect of self-esteem on happiness through self-leadership was .73. Through these research results, it was identified that character, self-esteem, and self-leadership of college students are the influencing factors on happiness, and that self-esteem is the biggest influencing factor on happiness of college students among the three variables. The results of this study suggested that university students' personality had a positive relationship with self-esteem and that university students' personality, self-esteem, and self-leadership altogether had a direct influence on happiness. Moreover, both personality and self-esteem of university students had an indirect influence on happiness through their self-leadership.