2012 Volume 21 Pages 94-104
This paper aims to clarify the features of the teacher training school program and teachers' competency of progressive education kindergarten in Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Association of the Hawaii Islands (FKCAA) from the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century. FKCAA had the close relationship with American Progressive Education. Harriet Castle who established FKCAA, learned from J. Dewey and G.H. Mead. They were the most famous persons that contributed to Progressive Education and Chicago Pragmatism at that time.
The teacher training school of FKCAA had strong features until it had a relationship with State Teacher's College of Hawaii in 1922. The competency of progressive education kindergarten teachers had been changing for 25 years. In the teacher training program, the primary concern of a teacher in 1900 was the care of indigent children. And around 1910, the training program criticized Froebel's educational methods, and specialized teachers had to create a program for children. Around 1917-1918, kindergarten teachers learned psychology and child study in order to understand children's development scientifically. And the training program adopted Dewey's book reading, and teachers had to learn how to understand children in multiple ways. In addition, kindergarten teachers had to learn about many educational contents. And in 1920, specialized teachers' competency involved understanding children's play. Children's important activity was integrated to play. Understanding this required a thorough grounding in the children's interests and the given subject matter. In other words, a teacher must combine understanding children with the subject matter. Understanding children was realized through observing and describing them directly.
