ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The purpose of this study is to examine the commercialized science education programs for early children and the implementation process of them, and to seek the improvement of such programs through early childhood teachers’ experiences and awareness. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight early childhood teachers. The results of the study are as follows. First, the teachers perceived accessibility and children's curiosity about science activities were viewed as positive aspects of commercialized science programs. Second, the teachers indicated that there were limitations in applying and implementing the commercialized science programs in that many of them were simply manipulative and contained inappropriate activities, poor safety levels, defective materials, allowed insufficient preparation for lessons, individual activities had insufficient interactions, and many lessons seemed superficial. Third, the teachers pointed out that their own efforts, the new framework for teaching methods, quality inspection on activity materials, and support for developing teachers' competencies in science lessons were necessary to improve commercialized science programs. This study would be significant in that the implementation process of commercialized science education programs has been examined through the perspectives of early childhood teachers, and the suggestions for improving the programs in practice as well as the limitations of the programs have been discussed.

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