실과교육에 대한 교사의 인식과 농업영역 실습운영

Elementary school teachers’ perception and agricultural practices in Practical arts education

This study was performed to analyze the reasons why practices in practical arts education had been neglected in elementary school and to propose an effective way of teaching practices in order to improve the executive ability of the students. The objectives and contents of practical arts education included in elementary school curriculum (6th revised curriculum) were analyzed through literature review, and the problems and ways of improvement in practical arts education were extracted from a statistical analysis of a survey of elementary school teachers perception. On the necessity of the practical arts education, 92.4% of the teachers recognized the importance of the practical arts education. The respondents thought that practical arts education had positive effect on executive ability, practical technique and habit formation of the students. It was suggested that practical arts courses be taught 2 class hours per week through third to sixth grades. On practices, 77.6% of the respondents thought that 40-50% of the allocated class hours should be used for practices, however, over a half of the teachers were using less than 30% of the allocated time in practices. Cultivating flowers, vegetables were the practices most frequently done in agricultural education in elementary school. Most of the teachers recognized that students were very much interested in practices. The teachers indicated that practices could not be effectively taught because of insufficient materials, preparation and time. Limitation in space, tools and equipments and budget was the major external factors hindering effective practices. Most of the teachers (94.1%) answered that they would focus on practices if possible.