만 5세반 유치원 교사의 놀이 환경 지원을 통한 놀이 중심 교육과정 운영에 관한 실행연구

Abstract

This action research examined the process of kindergarten teacher’s implementation of a play-oriented curriculum and its meaning that focused her practice on provision of play environment to support children’s play. For data collection a kindergarten teacher in C city, Korea worked with 17 five-year-old children, applying four-stage circulation process to her teaching which includes ‘plan-execution-observation-reflection’ process model developed by Kemmis and McTaggart(2005). Through this repetitive process, data from children’s play observation notes, play activity recordings and its transcribed materials, photos, teachers’ reflective journals, and teacher’s daily plans were collected and analyzed. The study’s findings included three steps of the teacher’s practice. They were supporting a play environment led by children(first step), supporting a play environment that sustains children’s play(second step), and supporting a play that children can deviate from conventional play(third step). The analysis of data categorized the meanings of teacher’s practice into teacher’s support that the teacher and children both lead the play, teacher’s support that the teacher enjoy the play, and teacher’s support as a boundary between standards and autonomy. These findings were discussed based on teacher’s reflection and learning through her performance of teaching. This study is expected to provide a meaningful opportunity for teachers of 5-year-old children to reflect on their practice and rethink of the direction of their implementation under the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum.