유아영재교육에 대한 예비 유아교사 및 현직 유아교사의 인식 연구

Abstract

The current paper reports a survey study on the perceptions of pre-service and in-service preschool teachers (N=738) about gifted education for early childhood. The participants were students in the departments of Early Childhood Education and Child Care, as well as in-service teachers of kindergartens and nursery schools located in the Seoul metropolitan area. The survey instrument included questions about the necessity and problems of gifted education for early childhood, periods of the education, selection processes, domains of the education, teaching methods, and areas of considerations. Four major findings were derived. First, pre-service and in-service preschool teachers had high recognitions on the necessity of gifted education for early childhood and the problems regarding the absence of gifted education for early childhood. Second, they perceived that the gifted education should integrate the interests of individual children and play-based activities, and setting specific time periods of the education is not helpful. Third, they perceived that the gifted education for early childhood should integrate various content areas, rather than focusing on Math or Science domains. Fourth, children’s developmental traits, parent education programs offered along with the children’s, and the professional development of teachers for gifted education for early childhood were perceived to be the most important aspects of considerations. The results may imply the limited practices of early childhood gifted education in the current public education system, despite the agreement between early childhood education practitioners and experts on the issues about the necessity of gifted education for early childhood and the problem of its absence.