흙을 활용한 자유선택활동이 유아의 자연친화적 태도와 정서지능에 미치는 효과

Abstract

Abstract

The Effects of Free Choice Activity Using Soil on the Child's Nature-friendly Attitude and Emotional Intelligence

Shin Sun Advisor: Prof. Seo, Hyun, Ed. D Major in Early Childhood Education Graduate School of Education, Chosun University

The purpose of this study is to determine how free-choice activities using soil affect nature-friendly attitudes and emotional intelligence of young children. For this purpose, the following questions were set:

1. How do free-choice activities using soil affect nature-friendly attitudes of young children?

2. How do free-choice activities using soil affect emotional intelligence of young children?

A total of 40 four-year-olds at S Childcare Center in G Metropolitan City participated in this study: 20 children in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. Teacher training and pretest were performed on August 25, 2014 and the test was carried out in 12 sessions, 2 sessions per week, for a total of 6 weeks from September 1 to October 10. Children in the experimental group participated in free-choice activities using soil and those in the control group participated in general free-choice activities during the same period of time. 11 items concerning nature-friendly attitudes among 18 items in Heo's (2001) translated and revised version of the Children’s Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version (CATES-PV) manufactured by Musser and Diamond (1999) were used to measure nature-friendly attitude of young children. Of the sub-factors of emotional intelligence suggested by Mayer and Salovey (1990), those not including thinking of emotions, which were translated and revised by Lee (1997), were used to measure emotional intelligence. Pretest and posttest were performed with young children, followed by t-test using an SPSS/WIN program 18.0, in order to determine if free-choice activities using soil affected nature-friendly attitudes and emotional intelligence of young children and Cronbach′s α was used for reliability test. This study obtained the following results: First, free-choice activities using soil improved nature-friendly attitudes of young children. Second, free-choice activities using soil improved emotional intelligence of young children. These results confirmed that free-choice activities using soil positively affected nature-friendly attitudes and emotional intelligence of young children. The following suggestions were made to help conduct further research on free-choice activities using soil. First, since this study was conducted in a relatively small population of 40 five-year-olds in two classes, it was difficult to generalize the results. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted in a larger population of young children. Second, this study provided free-choice activities using soil for a limited period of six weeks. So follow-up research needs to involve a longer period of systematic experiment to determine if they have constant effects on nature-friendly attitudes and emotional intelligence of young children. Third, while this study was conducted with five-year-olds, further research needs to be conducted with young children in more diverse age groups. Fourth, this study determined the effects of free-choice activities using soil on nature-friendly attitudes and emotional intelligence of young children. So multilateral research needs to be conducted on other developmental areas of young children in addition to these areas.