|
It is regarded that prevention and reduction of child safety hazards depend largely on the supervising adult’s knowledge and experience about safety measures. Thus, it is crucial for the safety of children to examine the pre-service teacher’s knowledge of the subject. In this study, we examined child safety knowledge and training of pre-service teachers in early childhood education. The following research questions were established for the purpose: 1) In terms of knowledge about safety, what is the current level of pre-service teachers in early childhood education? 2) What is the current state of child-safety training of pre-service teachers in early childhood education? 3) How different is the child safety knowledge of pre-service teachers according to child safety training in early childhood education? To investigate pre-service teachers’ safety knowledge and training, we used a questionnaire. The questionnaire contains’ Yes/No’ questions about their knowledge of safety regarding ’kindergarten facility and structure’, ’medical emergency’ and ’other safety knowledge’. 256 early childhood pre-service teachers participating in on-job training were selected to answer the questions. Collected data were analyzed through M, SD, percentage. and t-test. The result of the study is as follows. 1) Safety knowledge of pre-service teachers was found to be average. The result showed they had most knowledge on kindergarten facility and structure, followed by medical emergency and other safety measures. 2) Pre-service teachers without experience in safety training outnumbered those with training. Of the teachers with training, most training experience were obtained not as a regular school course but rather extracurricular activities. 3) The level of safety knowledge in pre-service teachers with experience in safety training was higher than those without training. The highest level of discrepancy was found in ’other safety knowledge’.
|