PLAY BASED TEACHING STRATEGY IN KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ATTITUDE (KSA) DEVELOPMENT OF KINDERGARTEN PUPILS

Title :                PLAY BASED TEACHING STRATEGY IN KNOWLEDGE, 
                         SKILLS, AND ATTITUDE (KSA) DEVELOPMENT OF 
                         KINDERGARTEN PUPILS

Researcher :   MARIA SALVACION TUNOG SECRETARIO

Degree :           Master of Arts in Teaching Early Grades                        

School :           University of Caloocan City

Year :               March, 2018

ABSTRACT

Play fills up a child's world, until they go to school. Teachers often try to catch their attention through the use of colorful and creative materials, yet pupils are still wont to prefer their toys over their books. If everything around the pupils is already suggestive of fun and play, then why not play in the classroom? This unconventional method of learning is actually already being practiced in many primary institutions around the world. But here in the Philippines, there is not much published studies about the effectiveness of play-based instruction on early learners.

This study, therefore, aims to develop a prototype play-based teaching strategy which will focus on the knowledge, skills, and attitude (KSA) development of kindergarten pupils. The respondents are 9 Kindergarten teachers, 1 master teacher, and 1 school head of Silanganan Elementary School in Caloocan City North. Evaluation, descriptive, and quasi-experiment methods of research are employed to explore its effects. The researcher then used t-Test and weighted mean to check whether KSA play-based teaching strategy really enhanced the overall development of kindergarten pupils.

Based on the findings, the most common play activities for kindergarten pupils can be categorized into three sets: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude.  For knowledge, the activities could be matching games, sorting objects based on size, color, and shape, assembling simple puzzles, matching upper and lower case letters, letter relays, stating which pictures or words are similar or different, memory games, letter and word hunt, count and match relay, complete and solving problems (addition and subtraction), completing patterns, and more or less games. In the Skills set, the activities were building blocks, play dough, letter design, counting steps, and draw objects using geometric forms. And finally, the Attitudes group consists of role play (comforting playmates in distress), waiting for his/her turn, and playing organized group games fairly. Pre-test scores of the pupils are reflective of delay in overall development. But after the post-test, scores of the pupils in gross motor, fine motor, self-help, receptive and expressive language, cognition and socio-emotional performance showed average overall development. Significant difference is also established between the scores. But the large size of the pupils and lack of space, insufficient teaching and learning materials, inability of pupils to fully grasp the intent of the activities, and insufficient facilities challenged the implementation of KSA play-based teaching for kindergarten pupils.

Given these findings, the researcher recommends the use of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude or KSA as a strategy for play-based teaching in the kindergarten level. Further studies for a teaching strategy for the next level, possibly also play-based, that will boost post-test results to above-average level is also recommended. It would also be advantageous if implementation of KSA play-based teaching for kindergarten pupils is continued in Silanganan Elementary School, as well as in other public primary schools. The researcher also calls on the Department of Education to address the problems encountered during the pilot testing for KSA play-based teaching, since these are actually already common and long-standing problems in public schools. The researcher believes that the proposed teaching strategy will be able to further improve the test scores of the pupils if only the large class sizes are brought down to acceptable levels for beginner learners, if spaces are enough for both indoor and outdoor activities, and if provision of facilities and teaching and learning materials is well-supported.