• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.254-263
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• 2001

The Purpose of this study was to find out the effects of education for prevention of sexual abuse (rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment etc.) of children in kindergarten teachers. Incidences of sexual abuse in Korea is ranked 3rd in the world. Sexual abuse of children, particularly, is one of the most serious crimes that affect both the victimized children and their family. The issue related to sexual abuse of children has been ignored, and there is a lack of systematic education to prevent sexual abuse of children either for children or their parents in Korea. Furthermore, lack of knowledge and poor attitude of teachers limit their capability to provide education for sexual abuse prevention to the children. The education for kindergarten teachers may change their knowledge of the sexual abuse and their attitude toward it and improve their capability in helping children. 114 Korean kindergarten teachers participated in this study. Research design was one group pretest-posttest design. The education given to the subjects included 2 hours of lecture. The education program was developed based on a survey. Preschool-aged-children, parents, and teachers were interviewed to reveal their educational needs based on their experiences related to sexual abuse. This program includes such as safety education, crisis management, resource person(s), and phone numbers of available hospital. Data was collected before and after the education was given to the subjects, to assess their knowledge and attitude toward child sexual abuse. Two instruments were used in this study. Using Cronbach's ALPHA validity and reliability of 2 instruments were tested. The analysis of the data was done with Window SPSS 10.0 for descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. The results of this analysis were as follows : 1. After education, the score of kindergarten teachers knowledge was higher than before (t=-4.409, p=0.002). 2. After education, the score of kindergarten teachers attitude was higher than before (t=3.065, p=0.003). The findings from this study will provide an intervention strategy for prevention of sexual abuse in children.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.109-132
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• 2002

The study surveyed 1,127 mothers whose children aged 3 to 5 went to 25 randomly selected kindergartens, which were located in Busan Metropolitan City and the adjacent Gimhae City, and analyzed the preventive health behaviors on their children and the condition of home health education on their children. As the compulsory kindergarten education will e to be implemented within 4 years, this study aimed to draw up the rudimentary material for health education at kindergartens. The study results are summed up as follows: 1. Mothers' awareness of health-related attitude and behavioral level for their children at kindergarten: 1) The general health condition of the children, which mothers are aware of, was that they were healthy on the whole. As their children becomes older, the income level of the parents is lower, and mothers have lower level of educational standard, the health condition of the children was found a little lower. 2) In terms of mothers' recognition of the practice level of preventive health behaviors, the items such as going to bed regularly, washing hands and feet well, and having meals regularly were high in the practice level, while exercise and tooth-brushing were not practiced well. 2. The condition of mothers' health education of their children: 1) It was found that washing hands and feet, restriction of overeating and preference for specific kinds of food, guidance on regular sleep and regular meal were practiced well among items of home health education targeting kindergarten children. 2) Mothers have obtained information on family health from printed matter such as newspaper or magazine rather than the visual media. 3) From the cross analysis of mothers' health education on children and children's health behaviors, as the standard of education of mothers was higher, so was the level of preventive health behaviors of children. 3. From the result of multi regression analysis of the factors influencing the preventive hygiene of kindergarten children, it was found that as the home health education level was higher, so was the health behavior of children. On the other hand, as the mothers were older, the health behavior of children became lower.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.115-134
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to understand children's negative attitudes exhibited towards peers with special needs in an inclusive kindergarten, utilizing ethnographic research methodology. The subjects consisted of 54 children undergoing typical development and three children with special needs in a public kindergarten in Busan metropolitan city. Data collection was conducted by means of participant observations and interviews took place from April until November, 2009. Our results revealed that the responses of 'not acknowledging presence', 'differentiating', 'adapting them to us', 'excluding at play' were major themes in children's negative attitudes exhibited towards peers with disabilities in an otherwise ostensibly inclusive kindergarten. The response of 'not acknowledging presence' was categorized as a way of ignoring their existence, whereas 'differentiating' was categorized as stressing difference, and assuring difference. There were two characteristics related to 'adapting them to us' : adapting them to our ways, adapting them to our knowledge. Concerning 'excluding from play', four characteristics were found : excluding indirectly, excluding directly, excluding illogically, and excluding by seeking majority accord. The implications of the findings for inclusive early childhood education were discussed.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to provide basic information need to promote early childhood's growth with balanced diet and preferable dietary attitude by observing the provision of food service management in kindergarten in Daejeon. We researched the dietary life of full- and half-day program children and their mothers. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 392 children attending kindergarten and their mothers. The questionnaire items examined general characteristics, dietary life, dietary behavior, frequency food intake etc. The results of the survey were as follows. The frequency of breakfast intake of the half-day program children and their mothers was higher than that of the full-day program children and their mothers. Most of the children had an unbalanced diet about soybean, kimchi, and vegetables, whereas their mothers had an unbalanced diet about processed food In general, the half-day program children showed higher scores than full-day children for the items of the dietary behavior of kindergarten. The dietary attitude and nutrition attitude scores of the half-day program children and their mothers were higher than those of the full-day program children and their mothers.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.175-191
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to acquire in-depth understanding regarding teachers' experiences with North Korean defectors' young children during their initial settlement period at Pyeonghwa Kindergarten. The participants of this study included 2 kindergarten teachers and 15 North Korean defectors' young children along with 3 local classmates. Qualitative data was collected via interviews and in-class observations. The study results show that (1) teachers witnessed that North Korean defectors' young children came from diverse backgrounds and struggled with emotional insecurity while local classmates were being excluded by them, (2) teachers had difficulties to communicate and make a consensus with their parents while teachers' efforts to communicate were being paid off gradually, and (3) teachers felt that kindergarten education was de-prioritized administratively to elementary education, and many programs were cancelled due to lack of understanding of in-charge staff.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.571-586
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine educational meanings of snack and lunch time of 4-year-old children and their teachers in a kindergarten class. The study was done in the Class of 4-year-old children in S Kindergarten located in Songpa-gu, Seoul. And 30 children of this class, Teacher A who is the teacher in charge of the Class, and Teacher B who is the researcher and teacher in charge of it participated in it. The study was carried out by the ethnography method and data collection was done through participation observation, interviews, video and voice recording, and data collection of photography shooting. The results are as follow: First, the children had private conversations, shared their cultures, deepened and expanded their existing concepts, expressed their emotions and relieved their tension, and strengthened relations with friends during the snack and lunch time. Second, the teachers promoted conversation and communication, gave the opportunity that the children can set the lunch table by themselves and tried to make the snack and lunch time with the children by discussing what they are how they are operated with them together. In conclusion, the snack and lunch time can be more meaningful time for children when there are proper educational plans and support of teachers which are considered children's viewpoints.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.407-415
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of kindergarten's factors on athletic movement ability in early childhood. The factors included teacher's perception of athletic movement, length of time for physical activity, and number of athletic facilities in the kindergarten. The subjects consisted of 551 children aged from four to five years in 8 private kindergartens. The instruments used for this study were the obstacle course of Project Spectrum for measuring athletic movement ability, and the questionnaire to investigate the teacher's perception, length of time for physical activity, and number of athletic facilities in the kindergarten. The data from all the tests were analyzed by correlation and regression analyses. The results of this study exhibited that the length of time for physical activity was the most important factor among three factors, and the teachers' perception of athletic movement and the number of athletic facilities in the kindergarten were also deciding factors for the children's athletic movement ability.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1009-1020
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to present a developmental direction of the early childhood social education in kindergarten by investigating the mother's perceptions using the focus group interview. Mothers who have 4~5 year old children were selected for 3 focus group interviews. The following results were obtained: 1) The mothers recognized early childhood social education as an essential step before entering elementary school. 2) The mothers were found to have recognized that the cultivation of the various social situations of the children in kindergarten would be a very important task of the kindergarten, because kindergarten is a place for children to be introduced to social experiences for the first time in their lives. 3) Most of the mothers have the perception that early childhood social education showed positive effects on the development of their children. This perception was based on the evaluation of the social educational effect of kindergarten compared to that of elementary school.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2007

Kindergarten children are engaged in the age of physical immaturity as well as the rapid growth. The indoor air contaminants that are proved to affect even the full grown adults are obvious to have no little influence to immature small children in a growth period. In May 2004, for the multi purpose facilities and newly constructed apartments, the Ministry of Environment announced "Indoor Air Quality Control Law for the Multi Purpose Facility," which made the interests to be focused in the urgent understanding of current condition and preparation of measures about the indoor air pollution. In Dec 2005, the law was revised to obligatorily notify the amount of Formaldehyde and Volatile Organic Compounds in the case of newly constructed apartments with more than 100 houses. However, since the kindergarten takes none of the classifications, even the current condition is not grasped although it is directly connected to the health of growing children. Therefore, the study aims to analyze indoor air pollution of one selected kindergarten in Incheon city.