KJC Korea
Journal Central

Rapid social changes demand innovation in public education in preparation for future society, which will be different from existing education; in Korea, IB education has recently emerged as an effective way to reform public education. This study aims to evaluate the effect of introducing IB in public education by understanding the perception of IB learning community members on the operation of IB-PYP in public schools. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with the learning community members of three IB-PYP candidate schools and authorized schools as research cases to determine their perception of the operation of IB-PYP; based on this, implications for applying IB-PYP in the national curriculum were presented. The analysis of the learning community members' perceptions of the IB-PYP operation was divided into eight categories: vision and values of IB-PYP, collaboration between peers, learning attitudes, teacher's teaching expertise, change of principal's leadership, difficulties in implementing IB-PYP, parents' understanding of and participation in IB-PYP, and achievements and challenges of IB-PYP. Based on this analysis, some implications were suggested for the successful settlement of IB-PYP in public schools, such as ensuring autonomy in curriculum management, changing to class-oriented system, strengthening school-based professional learning communities, connecting with parents and the community, and securing the continuity of IB programs. This study is expected to contribute to strengthening the implementation of the school curriculum through the application of PYP based on the national curriculum.

This study explores the possibility of using English musicals for global citizenship education for the elementary school pre-service teachers. Their beliefs on the effects of musical-based global citizenship education for elementary school students and their willingness to use the teaching method were also examined. To this end, an open-ended survey along with class observation was conducted on ten junior students who took the English Education Theater course for one semester. The results of end-of-semester lecture evaluation were also analyzed. The major findings are as follows. First, the students' level of satisfaction with the course was high. Especially, effective global citizenship education was found to be related to the issues of the instructor's views on global citizenship, creative script writing and readers’ theater activities. Second, the core competencies of global citizenship improved through the English musical course were “empathy”, “open attitude toward different perspectives”, “active participation” and “cooperation.” Third, all the participants responded that elementary English musicals can play a positive role in global citizenship education in elementary schools and they are willing to use the teaching method. The results of this study suggest that English musical-based lessons can be used as a way to educate global citizenship as well as to improve communicative competence.

Digital media literacy is drawing attention as one of the main competencies that students should have to live in the digital age. Although students who have grown up with smart devices are expected to handle digital media proficiently, many students can simply handle devices and apps, but are not familiar with finding the information that they need or judging whether the information is reliable. Therefore, to enhance elementary school students’ digital media literacy, this study developed a digital media literacy education program by selecting educational content and methods according to students’ levels, and applied the program to students to analyze its effects. An elementary digital media literacy education program consisting of 14 lessons was developed by analyzing the instructional environment and curriculum related to digital media literacy, and the educational program was applied to a class of fourth-grade students. The education program was designed and developed to help students learn the overall content of digital media literacy by reflecting various components of digital media literacy (i.e., understanding media characteristics, critical understanding, self-regulation, self-expression, social communication, and ethical norms) and learn with fun by adopting a convergence of subjects and activity-centered methods. As a result, the developed education program was confirmed to have positive effects on the improvement of elementary school students’ media literacy and creative thinking.

In the blended learning environment triggered by COVID-19, the educational community experienced a great deal of confusion and fatigue. This caused the class to focus on simply submitting assignments and delivering fragmentary knowledge, which created a disconnection between communication and interaction with students, who should be considered important. Parents and students are demanding strengthened pre and postclass care through communication and interaction. In response to this need, an EduCare model has been developed that combines online care elements with blended learning. As can be seen in the existing blended learning class cases and models, various techniques are applied to teaching and learning during class, but pre and postclass interactions are not considered in class design. There is a previous study applying the EduCare model to college students, but it was necessary to verify whether it was effective for elementary school students. As a result of developing and applying the class plan to elementary school students of the EduCare model’s digital-group interaction model and the metaverse-based interaction model, it was found to have a positive effect on the improvement of students’ agency, learning presence, and psychological well-being. The design of the EduCare model, which overcomes the blind spot of the existing blended learning, is presented as the cornerstone of the existing blended class model.

In this study, we explored the perceptions of elementary school students in the rural areas who have experienced a self-directed scientific study using online content and methods to increase the effectiveness of online classes or self-directed study guidance at elementary school settings. The results of this study are as follows: First, before conducting a self-directed scientific study, the study subjects often mentioned difficulties in understanding content and a lack of concentration and interest, but after conducting a self-directed scientific study, they mentioned difficulties with the helper’s help or the execution period. Second, the advantages of self-directed scientific study, which many students recognize, were that they gained confidence in searching for data and solving tasks by themselves and that they could autonomously control the time to do tasks. Third, satisfaction was high in that they felt they had grown on their own or learned something new, but satisfaction with the self-directed study method they carried out by themselves was low. Elementary school students said they wanted to perform with their friends with the help of teachers. In addition, the higher the self-directed learning ability, the higher the satisfaction with individual inquiry using online contents. In elementary school, to cultivate self-management or self-directed scientific study skills, it seems necessary to present scientific topics that elementary school students will be interested in and systematically and repeatedly learn over a short period.

The core of the learning principle in social constructivism is to identify the learners’ zone of proximal development through interaction and to promote cognitive thinking by providing scaffolding. From this point of view, interactions required for learning usually mean teacher–learner interaction but similar interactions can occur between learners in collaborative activities. Considering these points, this study focused on the interaction between learners and language learning and examined the effect of elementary school students’ English level on interaction and learning key expressions in cooperative activities. To this end, a collaborative activity was devised and applied to elementary school students. The amount and quality of interaction and the degree of improvement in learning were also analyzed. The results of this study are summarized as follows: First, even in the case of elementary school students, the interaction between learners actively occurred, and it took place in a way that was helpful for language learning. However, the amount and quality of interaction required for language learning were different depending on the students’ levels, that is, the difference in their prior knowledge. Second, the degree of learning was improved by the interaction between learners, and the more active the interaction, the greater was the degree of learning. In addition, the students’ levels had an important influence on the degree of improvement in learning. In this way, interaction plays an important role in promoting learning, and the amount and quality of interaction may vary depending on learner variables such as the students’ levels.