Child Science Skill Improvement through Hands-On Learning Activities in Kindergarten with Limited Human Resources and Facilities

Rukiyah¹, Marlina¹ and Mohammad Kanedi^2,

¹Early Childhood Education Programs, Department of Education Science, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Science, Sriwijaya University, Palembang, Indonesia

²Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, University of Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Cite this paper:
Rukiyah, Marlina and Mohammad Kanedi. Child Science Skill Improvement through Hands-On Learning Activities in Kindergarten with Limited Human Resources and Facilities. American Journal of Educational Research. 2017; 5(5):540-545. doi: 10.12691/education-5-5-10

Abstract

The early childhood education (ECE) curriculum in Indonesia, either explicitly or implicitly, includes science skills as one of the basic competencies that children must achieve. However, under the pretext of lack availability of facilities, majority of educators have not carry out science learning appropriately. This study aimed to demonstrate and convince early childhood education practitioners that an interesting and effective learning to develop science process skills of children can be implemented even in a kindergarten with limited facilities. By using one-shot case study design, 17children of Group B (aged 5-6 years) at Srijaya Kindergarten of Palembang were exposed to hands-on activities including exploring materials that float or sink, dissolved or unsoluble, color mixing; making letters using play dough; and observing insects with magnifying glass. The child science skills were observed and assessed using observational forms and child worksheets. The results showed 9 (52.95%) subjects obtained scores range 80-100; 4 (23.5%) achieved score range of 66-79, 3 (17.6%) reached score range of 56-65, and 1 (5.9%) obtained score of 52. Thus, it can be concluded that science learning with a process skill approach proved to be effective for developing children's science skills, even in kindergartens with limited facilities such as in Srijaya Kindergarten of Palembang.

Keywords:
early childhood education kindergarten curriculum science process skill science product skill science skill process skill approach

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