Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual conditions, satisfaction towards, and effects of children's cooking activity programs held at children's cooking schools, which have recently been gaining interest as an effective integrated educational method. Also, based on the results, the study provides information on good teaching-learning methods, which can be applied to kindergarten and elementary schools. The results of the evaluation showed that 84.1% of the respondents were satisfied with the educational aspects of the programs. People were most satisfied with the teachers' "teaching ability", and were least satisfied with "the educational fees". The satisfaction scores for the children's cooking programs were higher when they were performed in a school class environment as compared to a cultural center environment, and children who had participated for more than 12 months were more satisfied than those who had only participated 1 to 3 months. Quantitatively, of the 24 measured evaluation categories grouped into 6 fields that measured the effects of participation in the cooking programs, the greatest effects were found on the children's self-confidence and sense of achievement in the social emotion field, and the lowest effect was found on their writing ability in the language field. In addition, scores were higher when the cooking activities were performed in a private cooking school environment as compared to a cultural center environment. Scores were also higher when the educational program lasted 7 to 9 months as compared to only 1 to 3 months.
