Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between early childhood education institution''s organizational creativity and early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency, and explores the related factors that affect early childhood education institution''s play-centered execution competency. The purpose of this study was to obtain basic data for enhancing the execution competency of a play-centered curriculum.

To achieve this research purpose, the research questions are as follows.

1. What is the relationship between organizational creativity of early childhood education institutions and early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency?
2. How does the organizational creativity of early childhood education institutions affect early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency?

This study collected data from 283 early childhood teachers at kindergartens and daycare centers located in B city. The period of the survey was conducted for about two weeks from October 14, 2022 to October 28, 2022, and a total of 280 questionnaires with sincere answers were used for the study.
As a research tool, the ''Organizational Creativity of Early Childhood Education Institutions'' scale developed by Lee Sae-byeol (2021) was used, and the ''play-centered'' among the early childhood teachers'' play expertise scales developed by Lim Ji-hyeon (2022) was used as the scale of early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency. ''Curriculum execution competency'' factor was used.
The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS 27.0 program, and reliability was verified by calculating Cronbach''s α. Frequency analysis and descriptive statistics were calculated to find out the general characteristics and trends of early childhood teachers. Descriptive statistics were calculated to find out the general trend of the organizational creativity of early childhood education institutions and the execution competency of play-centered curriculum by early childhood teachers. Correlation analysis was performed. In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted and verified to examine the influence of organizational creativity on the execution competency of the play-centered curriculum. The results of this study are as follows.
First, early childhood teachers positively perceive the organizational creativity of early childhood educational institutions and the ability to implement a play-centered curriculum. Second, there is a significant positive correlation between organizational creativity of early childhood education institutions and early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency. Third, the organizational creativity of early childhood education institutions and the early childhood teachers'' play-centered curriculum execution competency have significant explanatory power. Fourth, specifically, the variable that has the most significant effect on play environment support, interaction support, play observation and recording, cooperation with the educational community, and play support competency development of the play-centered curriculum implementation competency is the professional competency of organizational creativity.