초등 원예교육 도입을 위한 미국 Texas 아동원예전문가(Junior Master Gardener)프로그램 특성 분석에 관한 연구

Study for the Development of USA’s Texas Junior Master Gardener Program and Horticultural Activities for Elementary Horticultural Education

It is urgent for South Korea to carry out junior master gardener(JMG) program in order to vitalize the education of gardening, and the program is a representative activity education aiming at having elementary students educated on gardening holistically. This study aimed at putting a new developmental direction of the domestic gardening education by comparing the JMG programs and gardening education courses of South Korea after taking analysis of the contents, concept, and characteristics of the JMG program. In order to achieve this goal, we took analysis of the whole composition and contents by referring to the JMG programs and gardening programs for children of the cooperative extension in the US, and also took analysis of the contents we were interested in of JMG programs and gardening education programs of South Korea with the standards we made for the analysis. Our analysis of the characteristics and contents of JMG programs showed that they used the educational contents of unified curriculum, and had the systematical properties like a process-oriented educational system, an experience-oriented education, a step-by-step educational system, a classification by grades, certification institution, and a leadership education with phases. The analysis about the status of gardening education at school of South Korea revealed that the representative problems of the contents of practice courses, which is in charge of gardening education at school in the education curriculum in South Korea, were the reduction in the educational contents, the skill-oriented educational goals and contents, and the insufficient training opportunities of students and teachers. In this situation, the most practical solution to increase the opportunity of gardening education for children is to link gardening education with the components of a JMG program like pursuing unified curriculum educational contents, classifying by grades, and educating with practices. If this is realized, gardening education will be vitalized. Currently, JMG programs are being provided as the experience education programs for children and youth in the training center of Gwacheon National Science Museum and Hantaek Botanical Garden. The various experience-oriented programs which is the heart of JMG programs are very appropriate as creative activities for the education process of South Korea. In other words, it is easier for learners to have learned theories and knowledge because the learning process goes with the forms of playing with five senses like raising, gardening, and appreciating plants. It is clearly true that gardening industry should aim the advanced and technology-oriented industrialization. However, process-oriented and activity-oriented gardening education programs should be vitalized at least in the course of humanistic gardening education at school.