기독예비 유아교사 교육을 위한 제언

Abstract

Major developed countries, including Korea, have traditionally operated early childhood education and child care in dualistic system, but now the reinforcement of a teacher’s qualification in pursuit of cooperation and the integration of early childhood education and the child care system is becoming important. This is due to changes in social structure and lifestyle, a decrease in birth rate, an increase of women’s economic activity, lifelong education, children’s education and care etc. What is needed for this? With an awareness of this problem, this study looks into the history of early childhood education, examines the validity of existing viewpoints of childhood education, establishes a desirable viewpoint of early childhood teacher education in Christian schools by comparative analysis of status and the present condition of early childhood teacher education in the United States and Korea, and aims to present the foundation for the improvement of the training system of early childhood teachers. The conclusions from this study are as follows. First, in order to enhance the qualification of pre-service teachers, the combining of theories and practice is needed so that these theories can be put into practice in the field. For this purpose, high-quality education programs for teachers should be established, in addition to self-understanding through self-training of pre-service teachers. Furthermore, the system of pre-internship and student teaching for pre-service teachers’ education, that utilizes the connection of theories and life, should be reinforced. Second, the pre-service teacher’s ability to connect theories and life can be taught through alternative practical education in various dimensions; this is not standardized but can be achieved through diverse and flexible strategies. In order to do this, motivation for pre-service teachers to become teacher-researchers through pre-education is needed, as well as a change of awareness about students in the course of training education for Christian pre-service teachers.