Young Children’s Home Learning Activities During the Pandemic in South Korea

• In Event: Young Children’s Home Learning Environment During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction
The Korean government provides kindergarten education for children aged 3 to 5 and childcare for children aged 0 to 5 for free. Therefore, the rate of enrollment in kindergartens and childcare centers for 3-5 years old reaches 90%. In particular, children aged 3 to 5 who are enrolled in kindergartens and childcare centers are educated according to the national-level common curriculum called “Nuri Curriculum.” In 2019, Korea revised and promulgated a new curriculum for kindergartens and childcare centers, it was scheduled to be applied from 2020 school year. However, before the new curriculum was applied in March 2020, openings of kindergartens and childcare centers were delayed, and only half or a third of the class attended due to COVID-19. Some classes were replaced with online classes. This study was initiated to understand how children who were unable to attend kindergartens and childcare centers continue to learn at home and experience difficulties in doing so.

Methods
Total 767 parents (340 fathers and 427 mothers) with children aged 0 to 6 (someone who do not attend elementary school yet) participated in a Preschool Learning Activities Survey. The survey has been conducted through an online survey panel from June 18 to 19. Parents were asked to answer questions based on one child whose birth date is earliest among his/her siblings.

Results
Read picture books to the child: Some interesting results have been found in the activity of parents reading to their children at home. First, it was found that mothers (7.07 times/week) read more books to their children than fathers (5.89 times/week). And it was found that each parent read books more often to younger children (0-3 years old: 8.77 times/week) than to older children (3-6 years old: 5.89 times/week).

Taught letters, words, or numbers to the child: Parents who have two or more children (at least one time/week: 86.7%) tended to teach children letters, words, or numbers more than parents who have only child (at least one time/week: 74.3%).

Popular home learning activities: Reading picture books was the most popular home learning activity (at least one time/week: 96.0%) during the pandemic in S. Korea. Parents also reported that they played more outdoors (at least one time/week: 94.3%) and indoors without screen (at least one time/week: 92.0%) than other activities. Even though outdoor play was one of the most popular home learning activities, other researchers reported that parents were experiencing decreased opportunities to play outdoors during the pandemic (Guan et. al., 2020). Hence, post parents’ report that they played outdoor at least one time does not mean that children played outdoors enough. Video game play, however, was the least popular home learning activity (at least one time/week: 37.8%) among the parents. In addition to that, using ICT devices were not popular for the parents whether it was educational or not.

Sleeping time: Researchers also asked the parents how much time did their child sleep. The average sleeping time was 9.92 hours/day.

Authors

• Wonsoon Park, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education
  Presenting Author

• Eunyoung Kim, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eunyoung Park, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education
  Non-Presenting Author