「5세 누리과정」 운영 현황과 개선 방안

Abstract

Korean In 2012, the Korean government adopted the new ECEC integrated curriculum, "NURI for five-year-olds " whose object is to provide a universal experience of care and education for free for 5 year old children in child care centers and kindergartens, (namely, ECEC institutes). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether "NURI for five-year-olds " is being operated properly in ECEC sites and whether teachers and directors are encountering any obstacles in managing the new curriculum. In addition, we suggested some ideas for improving the curriculum. "NURI for five-year-olds " has been implemented by about 8,400 kindergartens and 11,000 childcare centers. 7,822 teachers and directors in ECEC institutes participated in our survey. According to the results, 75.5% of the institutes offer classes involving only five-year-olds and 37% have mixed-age classes. Data showed that teachers running mixed-age classes seem to need support to help them manage the age-oriented new curriculum appropriately; teachers think the teaching guides and materials are useful: the curriculum is utilized for 3-5 hours a day as part of the daily program; As a result, teachers feel a greater burden in relation to their teaching plans, in comparison to previous years. Based on the results of this study, the following recommendations have been made as regards future tasks: a) to provide teachers in mixed-age classes with concrete teaching guides for each age-group and with assistants for teaching, b) to supply the integrated teaching guide for both kindergartens and childcare centers, c) to make the managers and teachers aware of the importance of evaluation based on the successfulness of the implementation of NURI, and d) to provide special support for teachers in rural regions who have limited access to the available support systems for teaching the new curriculum, etc.