Title |
Methodological Development of Physical Environment Rating Scale for Interior Space of Child Care Facility |
Keywords |
rating scale ; child care facility ; |
Abstract |
The quality of preschool education is related to the quality of the physical environment, This research is aiming to develop and validate the set of scales for the measurement of physical quality of the interior spaces in child care facilities. The research has been in three major phases: (1)the development of indicative sub-scales for the description, measurement and evaluation of the physical designed quality of early childhood environments (2)two rounds of iterative phases of reliability and validity testing of the scales through expert panels and observational field-testing and (3)implications for future research to be done. 13 sub-scales were developed, which are based on Moore's 15 design principal for child care environments. And each sub-scale includes several evaluation items based upon developmental theory, existing empirical literature, and Korean, Australian and American child care standards. This set of scales will (1)aid research on the effects of environmental variables on quality of child care facilities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers; (2)permit evaluation of such environments to identify areas of needed improvement; and (3)provide information for policy makers, parents, administrators, and designers/architects |