• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.209-225
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study is to research the actual condition of environment and management of outdoor play at child care centers in Seoul, and to present a planning guideline for outdoor play environment. For this purpose, data were collected by a structured questionnaire and subjects were 164 directors of child care centers located in Seoul. The contents of the questionnaire were composed of general facts about the respondent and facility, environmental condition, managerial condition, and director's understanding about outdoor play. The data were then analyzed using the frequency, percentage, mean and crosstab. The major results have shown the following: 1) Most child care centers in Seoul had some space for outdoor play. 62% of them used front yard and 11 % a rooftop. 2) The space usually included fixed play instruments such as slide and complex unit structures, sand play area, and open area. It also had many natural elements as shrubs and earth. 3) 78% of the centers had a schedule for outdoor play. The schedule operates flexibly according to each center's own day schedule. Generally, a time for outdoor play was 21 to 30 minutes. 4) The directors of child care centers thought highly of outdoor play for it contributes to the balanced development of children. They answered that equipments and spaces, program devices, and teacher's understanding are some of the important factors for active outdoor play. 5) Most of them wanted wood-working area (construction activity area), water play area, and cages.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.9-16
• /
• 2020

The trend emphasizes children-oriented, play-oriented ecological education programs for children's ecological education. And most of these nature -friendly and eco-friendly education takes place outdoors. Therefore, outdoor space planning is important in childcare facilities. This case study aims to analyze the actual conditions of outdoor spaces in daycare centers and to provide standard data for outdoor space planning. In order to provide basic data on the improvement direction and planning standards of outdoor spaces, this present study conducted the composition, utilization status and related problems of outdoor spaces for nature -friendly ecological education in childcare facilities. Accordingly, outdoor space planning for ecological education should consider outdoor space characteristics such as free and easy accessibility between indoor and outdoor spaces, openness of space, flexibility, dynamic/static space, and nature affinity. Therefore, for an ecological education environment, children should be able to freely approach nature and play in the natural environment without any restrictions and artificial controls. Also, in urban areas, natural environment such as parks and open spaces should be considered as outdoor play spaces for children.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.855-875
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to suggest a guideline for outdoor play settings in child care centers. From March to July, 2005, data were collected from 223 directors at child care centers through a structured questionnaire, field measurement survey and non-participatory observation in seventeen child care centers in Seoul and Daejeon. The statistical methods for analysing data were frequency, percentage, mean, $X^2$ and F-test. The results showed as follows: 1)the existing outdoor playground area in child care centers should be expanded more than $4\;m^2$ per child. 2) Outdoor play facilities should be equipped with two structured play sets, a play facility for unstructured play and an adventure facility to make child's various activities possible and to promote child development. 3)flooring materials for outdoor playground should be required to use more than three kinds such as solid coverings (cf. asphalt, standard concrete), wood, lawn, soil or sands. 4)to let children enjoy various activities, outdoor playground area should be composed of various play facilities like indoor play gyms and should be independent but have good connections between play facilities depending on characteristics of play activities. 5)Play spaces of outdoor playground should be composed of physical play space, unstructured and dramatized play space, rest space, space for nature and adventure space. In addition, appropriate play equipments should be provided in respective play space.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.661-677
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to develop the playground environment model for child care center by analyzing user needs of playground environment. To systemize the playground environment design factors and guidelines, we reviewed the previous research, actual measurement and observation were used as the research methodology. And to recognize the needs of users, the survey and picture survey was conducted to the staffs and children. The scope of survey included child care centers in Seoul and Daejeon, ultimately selecting 12 places in Seoul and 13 places in Daejeon. In terms of the survey period, actual measurement was conducted from June of 2006 to February of 2007, survey and picture survey was conducted from August to September of 2006. For analysis, we used SPSS 10.0 to check the frequency and percentage, as well as to perform cluster analysis. The findings of research can be summarized as below: 1. In playground environment, we observed the area of play ground and ground cover, the independence of play area, play equipment, and the composition of play area. The result of observation showed that while playground area varied widely, ground cover, play equipment, and the composition of play area turned out to be identical, regardless of the playground's area. Therefore, in order to classify various playground environments, we categorized them into 5 types, using the number of children and the area of play ground as a category. Type A had large facilities and small playground area. Type B had small sized facilities and large playground area. Type C had medium sized facilities and small playground area. Type D had medium sized facilities but large playground area. Type E had large sized facilities and large playground area. 2. On the other hand, staffs wanted a tunnel, playhouse, comprehensive play equipment, and a maze to be installed as play facilities, and there were requests for adventure play area and carpenter play area. The picture survey to children showed that they wanted equipments that can provide more thrill, adventure and challenge to them than the ones they see now. Therefore, existing child care center play environments must change from the monotonous and identical environments to the ones that can provide diversities, challenges, and adventures. In the contexts of 5 playground types suggested by this research, type B and D, E where the area of playground were larger than the legally required, should include various play areas and install appropriate play equipments and facilities. Type A and C where the area were small, should provide multipurpose play area to attract the various play behaviors of children.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.21-30
• /
• 2020

It is a trend to pursue the reinforcement of child-centered, play-oriented ecological education programs that support children's development. Most of these nature friendly and eco education is done in the outdoor space. So outdoor activities in child care facilities are essential. The purpose of this study was to analyze the actual condition of the outdoor space for ecological child education in the child care center. Therefore, in order to provide the basic data for the direction of the improvement and to grasp the current situation and problems, the survey and analysis of the external space composition and utilization status in the child care facilities for nature-friendly ecological child care education has been done. As a result, the half of the cases did not reserve even the minimum size of outdoor space and fall short of the standards of outdoor space quality as accessibility, complexity, articulation and nature friendliness for ecological education. Therefore, in order to establish an ecological education environment, it is necessary to build facilities in natural green or suburban areas. In addition, they need to use the natural environment such as parks, open spaces, and forests.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.41-57
• /
• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderate effect of the physical environmental-level between infant teachers' positive play beliefs and teacher-infant interaction. Methods: The subjects of this study were 483 teachers in charge of one-year-old and two-year-old infants in child care centers located in metropolitan areas. The data were collected by asking the teachers to respond to a questionnaire and the data collected were analyzed through correlation and hierarchical multi- regression analysis. Results: First, the positive play beliefs of the infant teacher, the physical environment level, and the teacher-infant interaction showed significant proportional correlations. Second, the physical environment level moderated the influence of the teacher's positive play beliefs on teacher-infant interaction. In particular, results showed that functional interior space configuration, outdoor playground composition and facilities among the sub-variables of the physical environment level had a moderating effect. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study show that teachers with positive play beliefs have positive teacher-infant interaction when there is sufficient space available for infants and teachers. This indicates that the human and physical environments of child care centers can promote teacher-child interaction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.49-63
• /
• 2021

The Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children who means preschoolers is an educational facility that achieves holistic growth by experiencing forests, and it should not be completed by installing specific facilities in the forest environment, but should be a space where preschoolers can play freely in the forest environment themselves. This study comprehensively evaluated the current status of Seoul Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to enhance the effectiveness of forest experience. Through the theoretical review, seven spatial elements that enhance the effect of forest experience and six areas composing outdoor play areas were derived to prepare an analysis table for current status evaluation, and field survey studies were conducted on 24 centers in Seoul. Through expert interviews, the physical status was examined from the perspective of childhood education and the experiences of the users were summarized. As a result of the study, the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children is classified into six types according to the location characteristics and spatial structure, and has the characteristics of each type. The effectiveness of forest experience can be enhanced by identifying and revealing the environmental strengths of individual centers. In the case of outdoor experience learning zones, the proportion of exercise play areas was very large. By evenly organizing the forest experience space for each area, it will be possible to provide more diverse experiences to preschoolers. However, the status of uniform facility-oriented cannot be viewed as a fragmentary factor that lowers the effect of forest experience. The key to increasing the effect of forest experience by inducing creative activities is the spatial composition that considers the surrounding natural environment. Facilities should be a medium to help preschoolers' interest move into the forest. This study prepared data to understand the average physical status of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to increase the effectiveness of forest experience. This can be used as basic data for research to improve the quality level of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children about 10 years after the project was implemented.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.37 no.1 s.106
• /
• pp.130-136
• /
• 2004

In the present study, prey preference of juvenile fishes was examined using an experimental approach. Zooplankton composition, as a prey of the fish, was evaluated by taking into account the species as well as body size of juveniles in the aquarium. The predation of juvenile fishes is known to be an important factor in changes of zooplankton communities. In some previous studies at the regulated Nakdong River, the collapse of large cladcoerans and an increase in the rotifer population by selective predation during spring and summer were observed. This study focused on the predation of juvenile fishes such as Hyporhamphus sajori, Rhinogobius brunneus, and Opsariichtys uncirostris amurensis on zooplankton community structure in mesocosm scale experiments. These fishes selected the cladoceran Moina micrura with highest individual preference value (Manly/Chesson index)among zooplankton prey in the experimental aquarium. When the size-selective prey preferences of the juvenile fish were compared, both small (body size <2 cm) and large (body size >2cm) juveniles of O. uncirostris positively selected M. micrura. In the outdoor experimental tanks, juvenile fishes consumed the cladoceran M. micrura, resulting in an high abundance of the rotifer, Polyarthra spp. The results suggest that juvenile fish predation may play an important role in regulating the zooplankton community structure by reducing the cladoceran density and increase of rotifers in the Nakdong River during spring and summer.