Analysis of Horticultural Activities in the Teacher’s Guidebooks of Nuri Curriculum for 5-Year-Olds

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency and contents of horticultural activities in 696 individual activities listed in 11 teacher's guidebooks of Nuri Curriculum for 5-year-olds, and to find out the perceptions of horticultural activities in the formal curriculum. The target horticultural activities that were selected were those using natural objects like potted plants, water, wind, soil, stones, etc. as the topic or subject of activities, and those with different topics but are mentioning plants or natural objects as an example at least twice. The 150 selected horticultural activities were classified by life-based theme, activity type, activity domain, and medium. As a result of examining horticultural activities by life-based theme, there were 150 horticultural activities (21.55%): 40 in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (5.75%), 34 in Animals, Plants, and Nature (4.89%), 22 in Environment and Life (3.16%), 19 in Our Country (2.73%), and nine in Our Neighborhood (1.29%), nine in Various Countries of the World (1.29%), four in Health and Safety (0.57%), four in Living tools (0.57%), four in Transportation (0.57%), three in Kindergarten and Friends (0.43%), two in Me and My Family (0.29%; χ 2 =130.427, p < .001). As a result of examining horticultural activities by activity type, there were 61 free choice activities (40.67%), 80 large and small group activities (53.33%), and nine outdoor play activities (6.00%), indicating that outdoor play was the fewest activity type (χ 2 =54.040, p < .001). The results of analyzing horticultural activities by activity domain showed that there were 25 in conversation (16.67%), 19 in science (12.50%), 14 in art (9.33%), 14 in cooking (9.33%), 10 in fairy tales (6.00%), nine in music (6.00%), eight in language (5.33%), eight in number operation (5.33%), eight in others (5.33%), six in children's plays (4.0%), six in games (4.0%), four in body and movement (2.67%), three in stacking (2.00%), three in roles (2.00%), three in rhythm (2.00%), two in children's poems (1.33%), two in field experience (1.33%) and one in outside play (0.67%; χ 2 =87.600, p < .001). As a result of examining the mediums used in the horticultural activities, 46 activities (30.67%) directly used plants as the mediums, 11 activities (7.33%) used soil such as stones, gravel, and earth as the mediums instead of plants, four activities (2.67%) used dry plants such as branches and dry leaves as the mediums, and 89 activities (59.33%) used videos, photos of plants, and pictures of plants as the mediums (χ 2 =121.307, p < .001).

An Analysis on the Preference of Early Childhood Teachers in Horticultural Activities Based on Conjoint Analysis

“…Meanwhile, as a result of analyzing the frequency and content of horticultural activities using 696 activities in 11 teacher's guidebooks for the 5-year-old Nuri Curriculum, it was found that the activities were concentrated on certain life topics mediated by video clips and photos and images of plants rather than real ones based on science, or merely talking indoors in big and small groups, which shows the lack of horticultural activities in the regular curriculum for early childhood (Choi et al, 2020). As suggested by the report that preservice early childhood teachers could overcome the difficulties as a teacher and gain confidence by developing and teaching the 'Forest Character Program' in association with a daycare center that is an institution of industry-education cooperation (Kang, 2016), horticultural activities perceived and experienced by early childhood teachers are important, but there is insufficient research on activities preferred by early childhood teachers.…”