Keimyung Preschool and Kindergarten - Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

Program Image

Program

  • Type of Program: Half-day private preschool & kindergarten
  • Age Served: 3 to 5 years
  • Funding Sources: University funding and enrollment fee
  • Presenter: Moonja Oh (Adjunct Professor at Keimyung University)
  • Address: Seoil building 5th floor, 48-12 Okeum-dong, Songpa-gu
    Seoul, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of 138-857
  • Telephone: 82-2-431-2585
  • Fax: 82-2-402-3728
  • Email: [email protected]

Program Purpose

To provide the setting for training preservice teachers as well as a model for the quality early education in the community.

Program Description

The Keimyung preschool and kindergarten is located in Taegu, one of the major cities in Korea. It was first established in 1959 by an American missionary to provide early childhood education service for the children of faculty members of Keimyung University, even though most of its children come from the community. Since its opening, the program has been based on the philosophy of Dewey and worked toward the child-centered practice. Starting in 1998, the school has begun to adopt some of the socio-constructivistic principles based on the theories of Vygotsky and Piaget, due to the introduction of the Reggio Emilia approach. There are 6 classrooms housed in a two-story brick building: one for 3 year olds, two for 4 year olds and 3 for five year olds. For each class, children come to school in two different groups: one from 9:00 am to 12:00 and the other from 10:00 to 1:00 pm. This type of schedule was adopted in order to provide children more opportunities for small group interaction and work, within the constraints of having just one teacher with 30 children in the class. This way, all the children can stay together for the majority of time between 10 and 12, and at the beginning and the end of school day, they can engage themselves in rather in-depth group works like projects for a good hour. In response to the needs of working parents, the school now runs an after-school program and some special classes for music and art in two afternoons per week based on voluntary participation. These classes encourage children to experience a variety of expressive languages for learning and making sense of the world around them. The school also functions as a teacher training site in conjunction with the departments of child studies and early childhood education at Keimyung University.

Most Unique Program Feature

The program is in the process of adapting the socio-constructivistic principles of the Reggio approach. Having a long tradition of following Dewey's educational philosophy, the program naturally finds commonalities and affinity with the Reggio Approach. The program emphasizes the active participation on the part of the child in the formation of its curriculum. It uses long- and short-term projects with rich problem solving opportunities as contexts for children's learning. Teachers are working hard on capitalizing on children's interests and thoughts by letting the curriculum emerge with the subtle and sensitive guidance by the teachers. Other features of the program includes the provision of communication context for children's collaboration, the use of a variety of representational media for learning and the use of documentation for children themselves, teachers as well as parents. Recently the teachers in this program put the greatest emphasis on using graphic representations as languages for learning while following children's interests and negotiating with them for the occurrence of in-depth learning.

Edited by Michael Kalinowski