Stories of Private Kindergarten Teachers
on Anecdotal Records

Seon Hee Park

Graduate School of Education
Pukyong National University

Abstract

This study is to collect focus group interview and individual interviews on the experiences of anecdotal records from 7 kindergarten teachers at private kindergartens, based on the importance of anecdotal records on childhood assessment. Through actual experiences of anecdotal record, this study is to consider what the teachers at private kindergartens are recording, how they utilize them, why recording and utilizing are difficult, and find out what the challenging tasks of such anecdotal record are.
The object of this study were teachers working in private kindergarten, and 7 teachers, who are either writing anecdotal records now or have experiences writing them, were intentionally gathered based on the length of their education career. To obtain the participating teachers'' perception and thoughts on anecdotal record, focus group interviews in discussion-form and individual interviews were performed for 10 weeks, and data was collected in the forms of voice recording of conversations with participants, transcription of voice recording, researcher journal, research log written by the researcher of this study, and sample of anecdotal record.
In order to analyze the data, the entire process of focus group interviews and individual interviews were recorded; and the recorded data was transcribed and categorized during qualitative analysis, through open coding and selective coding. The practical implications of the teachers'' anecdotal records in terms of comprehension resource of early childhood development, rotational application, reinforcement of teachers'' evaluation capability, and improvement of work environment can be suggested as follows.
First, the anecdotal records at private kindergartens should be written as comprehension resource. To achieve this, the existing anecdotal records that focus on problematic behaviors, or where the record is concentrated at certain time, or are only superficial documents for external evaluation should be introspected. Regarding this, participants insist that, for children''s comprehensive development, teachers should equally observe all developmental areas, and record the growth, development, or achievements in everyday activities in natural context. Also, they suggest that the anecdotal records are regularly examined as a record of practical data. This implies planned writing of anecdotal record.
Second, anecdotal records at private kindergartens should be used rotationally. To achieve this, the reality such as not summarizing and analyzing the anecdotal record based on certain standard and time, leading to incomprehension of early childhood development, not communicating smoothly with the parents based on anecdotal record, or not properly reconstructing the curriculum should be introspected. Regarding this, participants insist that teachers should understand the children''s interest and level of development, support accordingly, and communicate with the parents on the children''s development and progress in details. Also, they expected to continuously monitor the learning and development of children, and creatively applying and reconstructing the curriculum according to the environment and actual state.
Third, for smooth recording and utilization of anecdotal record in private kindergartens, the teacher''s evaluation capacity should be reinforced and an institutional support for work environment improvement should take place. To achieve this, the phenomenon of not fully understanding anecdotal record, evaluating passively according to the educational institution''s atmosphere, and poor working environment of private kindergartens should be introspected. Regarding this, participants requested information about the method of enforcement on anecdotal records and distribution of professional books like manual from Office of Education; and they expected decreased workload per teacher, and reduced ratio of teacher to children. This implies that the roles of the directors at early childhood educational institutions are significant in improving the customary system.