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Abstract

The Story of the Teacher Learning Community of Rainbow Child Care Center for the Implementation of the Play-Centered Curriculum

In this study, a teacher learning community was implemented to introduce a play-centered curriculum at Rainbow child care center, and teachers' experience during the process was explored. The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning of their experience and to present a plan for implementing a play-centered curriculum and for educating teachers through a teacher learning community. According to this purpose, the following research questions were derived.

First, how was the process of running a teacher learning community to introduce a play-centered curriculum at Rainbow child care center? Second, what has changed in the practice of the teachers' play-centered curriculum at Rainbow child care center through the teacher learning community? Third, what dose it mean for the Rainbow child care center teachers to participate in the teacher learning community?

The researcher, the director of a child care center who determines the direction of curriculum implementation, led this study with six teachers who implement the play-centered curriculum. For the study, Rainbow child care center was selected as the research institution through purposive sampling. The members of the institution had shared awareness and emotional bond for the implementation of the play-centered curriculum and the in-house teacher learning community. The teacher learning community was operated in a total of 23 sessions from March 26 to November 6, 2020. Data including the transcripts of recordings of the teacher learning community, teachers' reflection journals, transcripts of individual teachers' interview recordings, research journals, social media posts, and the childcare journals and weekly childcare journals of each class were collected and analyzed according to the qualitative data analysis procedure. The results of the data analysis are as follows. First, the teacher learning community-operated for the implementation of a play-centered curriculum had developed through the process of the building period when fellow teachers met each other for the first time, the period of creating values to find common values, the growth period to practice the common values, and the activation period for collaborative learning and sharing practice. Sharing their individual and implicit practical knowledge within the teacher learning community, the teachers were able to grow by meeting other teachers with different practical principles and reconstructing their own practical knowledge. They were able to achieve such growth by reflecting on their own practice and trying to put their plans into practice. Second, according to the teachers, the play-centered curriculum at Rainbow child care center had changed to children's understanding of a play-centered curriculum, becoming a play-centered curriculum for children, and creating a play-centered curriculum with children. It transformed from questioning a voluntary play to respecting the value of an immersive play and from a play planned by the teacher to a play made by children themselves, to "children's understanding of a play-centered curriculum." It had changed from teacher-induced interest to interest expressed by children, from recording activity results to recording the play process, to "becoming a play-centered curriculum for children." The teachers had changed from play leaders to play facilitators, and the environment from the one created by the teacher to by both the teacher and the children, to "creating a play-centered curriculum with children." Through the teacher learning community, the teachers had improved their ability to restructure and implement the play-centered curriculum at Rainbow child care center. Children's play-centered curriculum restructured and implemented by the teachers means that the teachers and children became co-designers and practitioners of the curriculum. Third, by participating in the teacher learning community, the teachers encouraged and cheered each other while finding the way. They reflected on themselves, communicated, shared, and practiced changes. Their experience of participating in the teacher learning community provided an opportunity to reflect on their own teaching activities and to establish their self-identity as a teacher, increasing their pride in their profession. The teacher learning community-produced positive results of joint learning by having the teachers interact each other in a collaborative manner within the community based on initiative and spontaneity. This study aimed to help understand the process of operating a teacher learning community in a child care center, to give teachers intrinsic motivation to participate in the teacher learning community, and to promote a teacher learning community in a daycare center. By presenting specific examples of teachers' concerns during the process of implementing a play-centered curriculum and resolving these concerns, this study is expected to provide teachers with useful information for understanding and practicing a play-centered curriculum. It is expected that this study will contribute to spreading the culture of community daycare centers where the institutions operate a teacher learning community, implement a meaningful play-centered curriculum, supporting early childhood teachers' professional growth.