The Effect of Kindergarten Teachers’Educational Beliefs, Playability and Perception of the Revised Nuri Course on Play Support Competency

This study investigated the effects of kindergarten teachers' perception of educational beliefs, playability, and the revised Nuri course on play support competency. To this end, the researcher surveyed 200 teachers working in public and private kindergartens for about two weeks. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were conducted for data analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that kindergarten teachers' general tendency toward playability, perception of the revised Nuri course, and play support competency were generally high. Second, most of the relationships between kindergarten teachers' educational beliefs, playability, perception of the revised Nuri course, and play support competency had a significant positive correlation. Third, it was found that interactiveism and maturationism educational beliefs and perception of the revised Nuri course significantly affected the play support competency. Among, the sub-factors of playability, the fun-seeking motivation had a positive effect on the play-support competency, but improvisation had a negative effect on the play-support competency. This result that teachers should be "experts in the play-oriented curriculum" rather than "play experts" in the 2019 revised Nuri course and that to strengthen the play support capabilities of kindergarten teachers, it is necessary to improve their understanding of the curriculum along with the opportunity to examine and reflect on educational beliefs on their own.