Abstract
In the past in the Korean educational system, every student should follow the 6-3-3 educational system; therefore, enrichment types of programs can be provided for the children under these circumstances. However, from 1996, 5-year-old children can be admitted to the first grade on the basis of the birth date. The 5-year-old youngsters have been admitted to the first grade and they were observed by their teacher for two months to decide whether they will remain in the first grade or go back to the kindergarten. In screening youngsters, there was no solid and careful procedure for the early admission, consequently there were quite a few drop outs who were not well adjusted in the first grade. If the children have not been carefully screened, there might be a maladjustment problem.
For these reasons, many educators, parents, and teachers fear that early entrance to the first grade system is too stressful for preschoolers and deleterious to their healthy social, emotional, and academic adjustment. In fact, some of the early entrants went back to their kindergarten due to the maladjustment. However, there is no in-depth research on the drop-outs and their parents who suffered from psychological stress.
Some research had been conducted to study these maladjustments (Jeon, 1998; Lee et al, 1998). However, these studies were basically done by using questionnaires and did not dig out the nature of the maladjustment problems. Therefore, the purpose of the research discussed in this article is to describe and investigate the social, emotional, and academic maladjustment for those early entrants to the first grade educational system in Korea who drop-out early.
Exploratory and in-depth interviews were conducted to ascertain the maladjustment experiences for three 5-year-old children drop-outs.
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