Children's Play Behavior During Board Game Play in Korea and America Kindergarten Classrooms

This study explored Korean and American children's play behaviors during board games in a kindergarten classroom using an ethnographic approach. The Korean participants were 20 children and one teacher of one classroom at attached kindergarten of public elementary school. The American participants were 11 kindergarten children and one teacher from a kindergarten class at a public elementary school. Observations were recorded as children played board games in the natural classroom setting over the duration of 8 months (5 months in Korea, 3 month in America). Field notes and videotapes obtained throughout the observation period were analyzed via three steps. The extracted characteristics of children's play behaviors of two countries were compared. The results of this study were as follows; First, board games functioned as play-oriented activities in Korea. But in America board games functioned as learning-oriented activities rather than as play-oriented ones in that classroom. Second, there were some differences in children's board game commencement behavior, observation behavior of board game rules, winning strategies, and behavior at game termination, and board game behavior by demographic characteristics but there were common features also found between two countries.