Development and Practice of Computer-Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum

Research Project

Project/Area Number	11680294
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	教科教育
Research Institution	Osaka University of Arts Junior College
Principal Investigator	KURATO Naomi Osaka University of Arts Junior College, Department of Nursery, Professor, 保育学科, 教授 (80077073)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	YAMAMOTO Taizo Osaka University of Arts Junior College, Department of Nursery, Associate Professor, 保育学科, 助教授 (00230558) MURAKAMI Masaru Osaka University of Arts Junior College, Department of Nursery, Associate Professor, 保育学科, 助教授 (50290325) WATANABE Jun Osaka University of Arts Junior College, Department of Nursery, Professor, 保育学科, 教授 (60191764) YAMAMOTO Mayumi Kansai University of International Studies Junior College, Department of Communication, Professor, コミュニケーション学科, 教授 (90280114) KURATO Yoshie Osaka University of Arts Junior College, Course of General Education, Professor, 教養課程, 教授 (70170074)
Project Period (FY)	1999 – 2001
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000)
Keywords	children / kindergarten / curriculum / computer / education / environment / 幼児教育 / カリキュラム開発 / 教育効果 / 心身への影響
Research Abstract	This three-year research project, which started in 1999, examined the effective use of computers in the Japanese kindergarten curriculum. First we advertised publicly for kindergartens to volunteer to participate in the experimental use of computers in education. We chose Ibogawa Choritsu Yochien, Ibo-gun, Hyogo-ken, to participate in this experimental research. Our project team provided a suitable computer system and video recording equipment which could record the whole classroom situation, and from which we could analyze how children used computers in the classroom. We carried out a pre-test of this equipment. In the third year, we revised the curriculum of the previous year, and createdthe new necessary software. The subject of our researchwas broadcast in the news program News Scramble (Yomiuri TV, Japan) on May 2001. It was also reported in Kobe Shinbum in an article entitled 'The effectofoutside-play using computers to stimulate the motivation of children'. Our research project te … More am organized a conference and held a symposium entitled 'Looking for the subjective creative play : effective use of computer (31 October 2001), which also included a public demonstration of the classroom. Through this practical research, we created a curriculum that matched the content of the nursery program in the kindergarten to the developmental stage and character of the area. The research confirmed that kindergarten children overall activity levels increased as a result of the combination of this curriculum with software originally developed from this kindergarten. The most remarkable effect observed was the interaction between virtuality and reality demonstrated by the children. Our research aimed to clarify the influence of using computers in kindergarten education in terms of children's mental and physical development. We explored the characters of 62 children aged 4 to 6 by means of the following : 1) Checking the situation of individual children' development (memory, visual recognition, understanding of the language etc. Classroom kindergarten teachers' assessment of children' mental and physical situation and behavioral assessment in the kindergarten Observation of computer use in free nursery time by video recording (behavioral analysis on the point of time of using computer and frequency of approaching to the computer). Less