Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to provide an opportunity for pre-service early childhood teachers to engage in a collage activity as one of their major classes to visualize their images of instruction to check their own educational beliefs. And it was also meant to examine the meaning of this experience as a way to develop the view of the teaching profession. The collage activity here refers to tearing a magazine, photo or printed painting with hands or choosing what one likes from among clipped photographs or pictures and pasting the pieces or the chosen ones on the paper. Students are able to explore and express what's on their mind or how they feel while they engage in this activity in various ways using different kinds of materials, and then they can experience visualizing their own inner worlds. Participants in this study were 79 early childhood education students who were in their second year in U college located in South Korea. They were given enough time to represent using the collage technique what "good instruction" would be like. After they completed the activity, they shared in group how they felt about it and what educational beliefs they represented in their works. And then they were interviewed in group to determine the meaning of the experience of visualizing their inner beliefs in instruction through the collage activity. The interviews were all recorded, and the recordings were transcribed. The transcribed data were categorized by taxonomic analysis. The findings of the study were as follows: First, the collage activity provided a chance for the pre-service teachers to concretize, understand and introspect their own beliefs by visualizing their understanding of instruction. Second, the collage works completed by the pre-service teachers served as a sort of guideline while they shared their beliefs in good instruction, and their works consequently became effective ways to facilitate their mutual communication. Third, the collage activity served to improve their self-understanding and expedite their growth by helping them to experience communicating with their own inner worlds as well as others. The findings of the study confirmed that creative art activities such as the collage activity could be one of effective teacher education methods to critically reflect on one's own inner educational belief that exerts a direct influence on teaching behaviors.

Keywords:

Pre-service early childhood teacher, collage activity, educational beliefs.