This study, which targeted the teachers working in the public kindergarten schools, is intended to make Disability Awareness Education more adaptable at schools by finding out teachers'' perception about Disability Awareness Education, demands for that, and possible ways of its improvement. The subjects in this study are Jeollabuk-do kindergarten teachers from Iksan, Jeonju, Gunsan, Kimje, Namwon, Muju, and Sunchang. This study was researched by the questionnaire distributed to 120 selected people, and 120 parts were recovered, of which one part turned out to be inappropriate. The number of 119 parts were analyzed by SPSS20 statistics and frequency analysis to produce frequency and percentage and find out general characteristics of the subjects. To learn about the realities of Disability Awareness Education at shcools and teachers'' demands for that, frequency analysis was performed on an individual basis. To tell the differences of perceptions about Disability Awareness Education according to the characteristics of the subjects and depending whether they are trained of Disability Awareness Program or not, chi-square analysis was conducted through cross-validation.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows.
First, kindergarten teachers need to have an open-minded attitude toward Disability Awareness Education and more professional knowledge about that. When children are educated in relation to Disability Understanding, teachers should also have positive minds and make a class environment more relaxed and comfortable. In addition, regardless of presence or absence of the children with disability, educational opportunities and support for Disability Awareness should be provided, which will give the opportunity to strengthen accountability for the more extended integrated education in quantity.
Second, at the beginning of the year when educational curriculum is organized, Disability Awareness Education should be planned and managed systematically. Before teachers conduct Disability Understanding Program, it is difficult for them to get advice or assistance from experts, they gain information mainly from books or internet, which makes it difficult to plan systematic educational program and to operate effective Disability Understanding Program. Thus, every educational center should provide guidelines for Disability Awareness Education, send experts who excels in professional information about it, and supervise strictly if every local school practice it systematically.
Third, close relationship with home is required to make Disability Awareness Training successful. Kindergartens, homes, communities, and educational institutions must work together to make the training effective. In particular, under the risk of being disabled at any time, unless every home does not cooperate with this training in a positive attitude toward disability, the chances are slim that Disability Understanding Training will take effect. So it is required that a variety of Disability Understanding Program which can have support from every home should be developed.
Fourth, it is necessary to develop materials for various types of disability and disseminate them to every school so that they can be used by teachers and prevent prejudices against other kinds of disability which teachers don''t deal with or don''t know. It was found out that the most frequently used teaching media or materials were videos, pictures, and photographic materials. Other than these, more types of materials including playthings that can be used easily for small groups and also for fun in preschool educational activities should be developed.
It can be concluded that preschool teachers who conduct Disability Understanding Program don''t have enough professional knowledge and materials to use even though they have positive attitudes toward necessity and effectiveness of Disability Understanding Program. So Disability Awareness Education to be more effective, educational centers should develop systematic programs about Disability Understanding and give constant support and supervision.