유아기 신체 건강 증진을 위한 정책 방안 연구(Ⅱ): 유아기 신체 건강 증진 활성화 방안

Abstract

The problem of obesity in young children is serious. In particular, the problem of obesity is increasingly correlated with lower education and income levels. It is pointed out that a decrease in physical activity is a major cause of obesity. Therefore, this study was planned to be implemented in three years to develop "KICCE early childhood health promotion program" and spread it. This year, we intend to diffuse the program so that the program can be used in elementary school students and science museums. The curriculum of elementary school 1st and 2nd grade is composed of Korean language, Mathematics, Proper Life, Wise Life, Joyful Life, and Safety Life, and it lacks connection with physical exercise and Health Domain of Nuri Curriculum. Therefore, in this study, KICCE health promotion program was reconstructed for lower grades of elementary school. The KICCE health promotion program for elementary school students was developed based on NASA's Mission-X program. Unlike the existing physical activity program, this program is composed of interesting programs through storytelling based on astronaut’s training. It was developed in consideration of the connection between the Nuri Curriculum of kindergarten and childcare center and the curriculum of elementary school. The KICCE Health Promotion Program for elementary school students was designed to enable students to experience the movement, non-movement, and manipulation exercises, which are the basic movements of physical activity. This study also constructed a physical activity program that can be operated by the science museum. This program aims to disseminate the KICCE physical health program as part of a science museum program for young children including lower graders of elementary school children. The characteristics of the physical activity program operated by the science museum are as follows. First, it is a program focusing on short-term experiential activities. Second, it can be classified into three types according to the group size of the children participating in the program; large group activities led by the teacher, small group activities led by the child, and a program to be executed by individual child. Third, we developed a video manual to explain the physical activity program for various applications, so that we can easily watch the videos in kindergarten and elementary school.

The implications of this study are as follows. There are several reasons why physical activity in the lower grades of elementary school is insufficient. First, the elementary school curriculum does not include enough physical activity. Currently, elementary school curricula for 1st and 2nd grade do not have independent physical education subjects. First and second grade elementary school children who are growing physically active have a developmental desire for physical activity. Teachers, however, consider their pupils as objects of control rather than perceiving it as having a lot of energy. Children are thirsty for physical activity, but they are not enjoying enough physical activity due to the curriculum, limited space and constrained insufficient time. Second, teacher training for physical activity is needed. Elementary school teachers have low understanding of physical activity needs and physical development of students, especially younger students. Therefore, elementary school teachers, especially lower grade teachers and kindergarten teachers should be provided with more opportunities for physical activity and athletic training. Third, the kinds and quantity of the physical activity tools that each school has are different. It is necessary to disseminate the basic tools for physical activity to the total number of children. Fourth, space is one of the major reasons of the lack of physical activity in the lower grades of elementary school. First, the size of the playground in elementary school is small. The size of the existing elementary school playground is based on the number of students. However, despite the steady decline in the number of students per classroom, the number of classes has increased. Even though playground is used by classes, the regulation for playground sized is based on the number of students. Considering these problems, it is necessary to change regulation should consider the size of the playground by the number of classes rather than by the number of students. Second, the lack of space for physical activity is caused by the lack of indoor gymnasium. One third of schools in South Korea do not have gyms. Therefore, efforts should be made to create gymnasiums. Third, it is not an ideal place for physical activity, but inevitably it is necessary to perform physical activities in the classroom. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a selection criterion for activities to use the classroom as a space for physical activity.