유치원 특수학급과 특수학교 유치부의 교육환경 비교연구

Abstract

This study is to provide basic information on improvement of management, aiming at designing optimal environment of child special education institutes through comparing physical (composition of activities, facilities, equipment, space composition, teaching materials and tools) and personal environments of special class in kindergarten and kindergarten department in special schools. For the purpose, this study prepares questionnaire for which the ‘Child Education Program Evaluation Tools produced by Lee Gi-sook and Lee Eun-hye in 1996 was revised and supplemented, targeting nine teachers from 4 special classes in kindergarten and kindergarten departments in five special schools. Frequency of response is considered from the data collected and the results are statistically analysed. The analytical results are presented as follows: In respect to physical environments, first, for composition of activities, special classes in kindergarten provide teacher-oriented instruction while kindergarten department in special schools provide small groups activities. The former ones provide teacher-leading activities while the latter ones provide balanced management of teacher-leading and child-leading activities. It indicates that kindergarten departments in special schools provide more balanced activity plans. In respect to management of kindergarten(kindergarten department), special classes in kindergarten operate full-time systems while kindergarten departments in special schools operate part-time systems. Second, in respect to facilities·equipment, most of the special classes in kindergarten are arranged on the 1st and 2nd floor while one class in special schools is not arranged on the 1st or 2nd floor. For fundamental facilities and equipment for educational activities (information room, rockers and shoe shelf), special classes in kindergarten provide better ones. However, for learning materials shelves, bulletin boards, and the hight of personal rockers, kindergarten departments in special schools have properly managed in consideration of children's eye level. Third, for space composition, the special classes have poor space arrangement in respect to wood crafts, modeling, meals, lounge, and cooking areas while kindergarten departments have poor space arrangement in respect to role-playing, science, meals, lounge, computer, cooking, and wood crafts. For outdoor play areas, the special classes do not have gardens for plant cultivation while the kindergarten departments do not provide water pool, sand play and lounge. The outdoor area should be 2.5㎡ per child(the Child Education Promotion Code). However, it is found that no teacher knows the area of outdoor space and they misunderstand playground for an outdoor space. Fourth, for teaching materials and tools, it is found that special classes replace them according to seasons, themes and demand of children, and keep the ones unused properly. In respect to personal environment, the following results are presented: First, kindergarten departments have more children than special classes. The ratio of teacher to child is 1:2.5 for special classes and 1:5.2 for kindergarten department. Second, special classes provide more active incorporated education than kindergarten departments. Third, the two subjects show similar results in voluntary service, and kindergarten departments have more participation of parents than special classes. For the preparation of proper educational environment, we need effective design and development of the environment. Therefore, it is expected that this study will contribute to identification of urgent problems of the educational environment and preparation of practical plans for child special education environment that suits for the current status of our country.