An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Multicultural Program Model on Pre-school Teachers' Multiculture-related Abilites: Multicultural Attitudes, Perceptions toward Multicultural Education, and Multicultural Teaching Efficacy

Abstract

This study aims to examine how pre-school teachers can improve their multiculture-related abilities by taking multicultural education courses and to explore how to develop multicultural education courses for pre-school teachers. For this purpose, 64 pre-school teachers were selected among those who took the course “Understanding Multicultural Families” as participants in the study. Participants were all sophomore female students who enrolled in the Early Childhood Education program at a Junior College. The study was conducted from March 2013 to June 2013 for a total of 14 weeks. On the first day of class, a test was taken to examine the participants’multicultural aptitutde including their attitudes and perceptions toward multicultural education, and multicultural teaching efficacy. After taking a total of 14 classes, their multiculture-related abilities were re-examined on the 15th week. findings from this study are as follow: 1) There is a difference in the pre-school teachers" attitudes toward multicultural education after they took the course. 2) There is a difference in the pre-school teachers" perceptions toward multicultural education after they took the course. 3) There is no difference in the pre-school teachers" multicultural teaching efficacy after they took the course.