Given the situation where effective guidance of preschoolers with problem behaviors is urgently needed, the present study aimed to
investigate kindergarten teachers' current status of guiding children with problem behaviors, and their awareness of necessity of and
needs for in-service education to better guide children with problem behaviors. Through this investigation, the study tried to help
better designing of a future in-service education for teachers in this matter. Two-Hundred-and-seventy-five kindergarten teachers in
Seoul metropolitan area completed questionnaires measuring teachers' current status of guiding children with problem behaviors, past
experience with in-service education to better guide children with problem behaviors and awareness of necessity of and needs for
in-service education in this regard. The study found that kindergarten teachers have more children with externalizing than internalizing
problems in their class, and are more aware of the nature and negative influence of externalizing problems than of internalizing
problems. With regard to dealing with child problems behaviors, teachers were found to experience high levels of difficulties but
moderate levels of satisfaction and self-confidence. Teachers reported to rely mostly on consultation from colleagues when encountered
with difficulties guiding problematic children and utilize workshop/education opportunities provided by government to develop their
skills. More than half of the teachers denied having attended an in-service education to better guide child with problem behaviors.
However, almost all teachers endorsed the necessity of in-service education in this regard and their willingness to attend those. Lastly,
teachers needed future in-service educations to focus on topics such as behavior modification and effective teacher-child/ teacher-parents
communication, to rely on the methods including case studies, practices, roleplays, and coaching, to be taught by professionals in the
field of child psychotherapy, and to be arranged in a way that it lasts for a certain amount of time and at the same time it does not
give a lot of burdens to teachers' time and work. Implications of the results to designing future in-service educations were discussed
and recommendations for future studies were made.