The objective of the research is two-fold: (1) to identify and understand the specific unique learning challenges experienced by returnee Korean native elementary school students of Korean social studies; and (2) apply the findings from the research t...
The objective of the research is two-fold: (1) to identify and understand the specific unique learning challenges experienced by returnee Korean native elementary school students of Korean social studies; and (2) apply the findings from the research to make specific educational plan recommendations on alternate teaching methodologies and approaches for these students that facilitates their most effective learning experiences. This research is important because majority of the past research on learning challenges experienced by returnee Korean native students were focused primarily on middle school aged students and limited to narrowly defined topics such as student’s (1) social adaption to their new school in South Korea, (2) educational process of learning the Korean language, and (3) the development of Korean language textbooks. The findings from this research are focused on elementary school aged returnee Korean native students that may yield a more promising educational plan more suitable to help these students succeed in their educational endeavor.
The elementary school in which the research was conducted was located in province of Gyeong-gi-do and is one of three elementary schools in the area that offer special curriculum and classes for returnee Korean-native students. The program has seven elementary aged returnee Korean native students, two Korean native primary class teachers specializing in teaching returnee Korean native students, and three teacher assistants chosen from the ABC Elementary School(Alias) in the City of Anyang. The method of research employed for data collection was a series of in-depth interviews conducted with the aforementioned groups. In order to preserve the integrity of the response data obtained from the interview process and free from any potential bias of the interviewer, the responses provided by the interviewees were collected and documented verbatim.
Based on the series of in-depth interviews conducted with the above focus group of returnee Korean native students, we noted the following five common conditions that contributes to their difficulty of learning and achieving better results in their study of social studies of Korea: (1) the general lack of Korea’s societal and cultural historical knowledge and understanding makes it difficult to appropriately contextualize their learning; (2) the lack of familiarity and understanding of traditional Chinese character terms often found in Korean social studies; (3) inability to identify and understand non-colloquial (formal) Korean words and phrases often used in the Korean social study curriculum; (4) requirement to learn and become familiar with an overwhelming number of curriculum related terminologies; and (5) lack of adequate proficiency in reading and writing skills in Korean often become obstacles to appropriately convey their level of knowledge on the content.
Amongst the five contributing conditions discussed above, the research data points to one condition in particular as the single most likely influential reason for the learning difficulty overall - the inability of returnee Korean native students to identify and understand non-colloquial (formal) Korean words and phrases often used in Korean social studies. The teachers of returnee Korean native elementary students also identified and expressed this condition as the likely primary causal factor to diminish the opportunity for a better learning experience and performances for by these students on Korean social studies.
Based on these findings, three views of teaching methodologies has been suggested that may enhance the learning effectiveness and experience of these students.
First, as part of the primary social studies class time for returnee Korean elementary students, these students must be given more time and opportunities to learn the social and cultural history of Korea. This emphasis to provide the necessary social and cultural context to their learning experience needs to be coupled with an improved method to teach these students to become more proficient in understanding Chinese characters.
Second, supportive secondary classes need to be designed and taught with less emphasis on simple memory-based knowledge but rather with deeper knowledge based on understanding of concepts and contexts. Moreover, the individual strengths that may be more specific and common to the returnee Korean native elementary students need to be better identified and leveraged by the school to elevate their learning effectiveness such that the returnee Korean native elementary students and the regular Korean students may learn better collectively and be a positive influence to each other.
Thirdly, there are other various general support that needs to be provided to the returnee Korean native elementary students. These include (1) establishing a Korean language educational program for these students that provides a solid foundational base to build their proficiency, (2) classes for returnee Korean native elementary students needs to be segregated into three levels(Novice, Intermediate, and Advance) based on the difficulty level of the subject matter that better matches the proficiency level of each student; (3) the curriculum for returnee Korean native elementary students needs to designed to facilitate a more progressive learning path by these students so they may more quickly integrate and participate in classes with regular Korean students; and (4) if an assistant teacher may be assigned to each returnee Korean native elementary student for a certain period of time, this may provide a significant acceleration to their learning accomplishments and the time line to achieve their learning goals.
Thus, based on the overall findings of this research and the resulting suggested views of improved teaching methodologies for returnee Korean native elementary students discussed above, the following are the specific recommended applic
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