Current Status and Parents’ Perception on Horticultural Activity Programs for Preschoolers in Korea

Abstract

This study conducted a survey on 163 parents in Korea to investigate their interest in plants, experience in growing plants, and perception on horticultural activity programs (HAP) for their children. Most children (80.4%) of the respondents had experience participating in HAPs, and most of their experience occurred during school hours in preschool educational institutions more than once a month (60.3%). The more interest in plants and experience in growing plants the parents had, the more experience the preschoolers had in participating in HAPs, which implies that the experience of the parents with plants affected their children's participation in HAPs. Parents' most preferred location of HAPs was preschool educational institutions, and most preferred time was school hours with a frequency of more than once a week (57.1%), which is more frequent than the current status of HAPs in preschool educational institutions. Parents also responded that the most preferred instructors of HAP has are those with a professional background in horticulture. Among the activities in HAP for preschoolers, parents most preferred cooking (M = 4.05) activity, and they did not dislike any of the activities. They responded that the facilities for HAP needed to be improved to make HAP more active in preschool educational institutions. Overall, based on the current results, developing suitable HAPs and facilities for preschoolers, fostering professional HAP instructors, and educating parents about horticulture would enhance HAPs in preschool educational institutions, thus providing preschoolers with many benefits of HAPs.