Digital Play Support Competency and Digital Play Implementation Based on the 2019 Revised Nuri Curriculum by the Characteristics of Early Childhood Teachers, and Their Relation

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the difference between digital play support competency according to the early childhood teachers’ characteristics, and the effects of teachers' digital play support competency on the implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum. Methods For data collection, 378 early childhood teachers in Seoul, Incheon, Sejong, Daegu, and Gyeongnam, were surveyed by questionnaires about teachers’ digital play support competency and implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum from 27 January 2023 to 7 March. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, simple regression analysis, and stepwise regression analysis were used by SPSS 27.0. Results First, early childhood teachers' digital play support competency was higher than in the middle, and significant differences were found according to the teachers’ age, career, institutional type, number of digital play, and number of digital related training. Early childhood teachers' implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum was higher than in the middle, and significant differences were found according to the teachers’ age, career, institutional type, number of digital play, and number of digital related training. Second, there was a significant positive correlation between teachers’ digital play support competency and implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum. Third, early childhood teachers’ digital play support competency had significant effect on the implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum. Conclusions In order to promote early childhood teachers' implementation of digital play based on the 2019 revised Nuri curriculum, it is important to strengthen the level of digital play support competency, and teacher training and education should be supported for this.