The development of education for preschool-age children has been recognized as one of the major objectives in Korea. As compring with many other countries, the percentage of Korean children in kindergarten is very low (7.2%). One reason for the low ki...
The development of education for preschool-age children has been recognized as one of the major objectives in Korea. As compring with many other countries, the percentage of Korean children in kindergarten is very low (7.2%). One reason for the low kindergarten enrollment rate may be due to the fact that Korean parents do not recognize that pre-school education is an essential part of the personality and intellectual development of early childhood. Accordingly, a research data of the effects of kindergarten education on the low grade children of primary school will be a useful information for any pre-school education policymaking.
To attain the objective of this study, a 30-item questionaires were made by the researcher which was administerated to 316 teachers sampled 16 primary schools located in Busan area.
The result of the study can be summarized as follow:
1. In general, the kindergarten education had high positive effects on the developmental characteristics of the low class primary children. Mere specifically, the kindergarten education had higher effects on the intellectual activities and the personality characteristics such asespirit, sociability, independency, learning activities, artistic-physical activities than those on the life attitude which included respect for law, cooperation, responsibility, diligence etc.
2. Concerning to the grade difference, there was no significant difference of the effects between the 1st grade children and the 2nd grade children in terms of the total effects. It is noticeable, however, that the cognitive effect on the 1st grade children was much larger than that on the 2nd grade children.
3. Concerning the school location difference, there was no significance difference of the effects between the urban-centered school and the surburban school.
4. The teachers of the primary schools of this study had very positive opinion toward the importance and necessity of kindergarten education ; but they felt that the educational content and practice should be improved.