Abstract
The study aimed to ascertain the impact of the childcare course at on high school level students' childcare competencies and the patterns observed among those who pursued childcare education. The choice and descriptive questionnaires and the Nurturing Trait Inventory (developed by Fujimura, 2010) were administered to students, and semi-structured interviews with teachers were conducted at the high school in Okinawa Prefecture. The students were separated into two groups, one consisting of those who were taking childcare courses and the other consisting of those who were taking other courses. The Mann-Whitney U test was then performed on the two groups.
As a result, it was demonstrated that the childcare-related course exhibited significantly higher scores than the other courses on the "power of action" and "nurturing" subscales of the Nurturing Trait Inventory (p < 0.05 and p < 0.1, respectively). And it was also suggested that the preparation, production, review and practice of practical training within the course may have exerted an influence on the "power of action" variable. Furthermore, it was suggested that learning to assist preschool children while obtaining certification in childcare may have influenced the nurturing trait. The choice and descriptive questionnaires revealed that many students who took the curriculum in childcare and were motivated to learn about childcare and to become a nursery teachers changed their attitudes towards childcare and desired to progress to a designated nursery teacher training facility or to seek employment in the childcare field.
https://ror.org/01fyk0v41 
