청각장애학교의 제7차 교육과정 운영실태 및 개선방안

The Qualitative Study on the Condition and Developmental Plans of the Seventh Curriculum for the Deaf Schools

특수학교에 있어서 모든 장애영역별 교육과정이 독자적으로 운영된 것은 특수학교 제4차 교육과정의 개정부터 시작되었다. 1989년의 제5차 특수학교 교육과정 기준을 개정, 공포함으로써 우리나라 특수교육 내용은 국가 수준에서 상당히 정착되어 온 것으로 볼 수 있다. 그러나 제7차 특수학교 교육과정의 중요한 특징은 시각장애·청각장애·지체부자유 학교에 초등부 1학년부터 고등부 1학년까지 10년제의 국민공통 기본교육과정을 도입한 것이다. 통합교육의 시대적 상황에 부합한다는 의도에서 일반교육과정의 국민공통 기본교육과정을 특수학교에 적용하였을 것이다. 그러나 청각장애학교에서 국민공통 기본교육과정을 적용함에 따른 많은 문제점도 도출될 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 청각장애학교의 특수학교 교사를 대상으로 제7차 교육과정의 운영실태를 질적 연구법으로 알아보고, 합리적인 교육과정 운영을 위한 개선방안을 알아보고자 하였다.

The purpose of this study is to examine the realities and improvements particularly for the deaf schools relating to the operation of the Seventh Curriculum. And this study is limited only to the curriculum of elementary schools for the deaf in the Seventh Curriculum revised by notification No. 1998-11 of Education, and its results are limited to the teachers interviews who participated in this study. According to the teachers' thoughts operating the Seventh Curriculum at deaf schools are as follows: First, the foremost difficulty is the content of subjects, especially Korean. That the language ability of deaf children is comparable to a pre-requisite level was not considered in the Korean of the present curriculum. Second, the curriculum at deaf schools focuses on the importance of treatment education, but is not properly functioning due to the lack of communication between treatment education teachers and general teachers, as well as specialists for the deaf needed for the diagnosis of the condition of special students. Third, The activities of each subject for the deaf schools are conducted through computer education suitable to the information era, and creative activities are conducted through experiences and readings. Fourth, special activities can help the children to develop their body and mind in various, extensive and harmonious ways besides their special abilities or aptitudes, in reality there is no self-governing activity of exchanging opinions and discussion due to multi-disabilities of the children, so other area activities are conducted at the teacher's discretion. This study examined the realities and problems in operating the Seventh Curriculum at deaf schools through interviews with teachers. Improvements to these problems based on various ideas from the teachers are as follows: First, textbooks suitable to characteristics of deaf schools should be developed. Under the Seventh Curriculum, the same textbooks used in general schools are also used for the hearing-impaired, which results in difficulties to apply the content. Among the other subjects for the deaf school, especially the korean as a pre-requisite level have to be developed for the deaf schools. Second, supplementary materials and instruments should be produced. If the government would develop and disseminate instruction texts for teachers and supplementary materials suitable to the deaf schools, it will make the operation of a curriculum needed for the deaf children possible and it will also be helpful for the improvement of the knowledge of those children. Third, there is great individual difference among the deaf schools since intellectually retarded as well as multi-impaired children are in attendance due to the unification with general schools. Therefore, the adjustment of the number of students per class is urgently needed to provide proper educational service to each student. Fourth, for customized teaching of the multi-disabled deaf children, a good quality of educational service should be provided including supplementary activities by public workers as well as volunteers and the placement of specialized teachers for each subject in school. With the reality that the curriculum of schools for the deaf should be different from the curriculum of general schools, the application of the uniform curriculum in the name of equality causes problems. Therefore, education should be performed with an equality of education recognizing differences, not discrimination.