MyNEPs: IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNING THROUGH NATURE, STRENGTHENING STEM AMONG PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN 1 Farah
Shafawati Mohd-Taib*, 3 Abdul Halim Masnan, 4 Haryanti Mohd Affandi, 5 Ehwan Ngadi, 1 Nik Norhazrina, 2 Wan Syaidatul Aqma, 5 Faszly Rahim 1 Centre
of Ecosystem Management and Natural Resources,
2 Centre
for Biotechnology and Functional Food,
Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 3 Department
of Teaching and Learning Innovation, Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
4 Department
of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Human Development, Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris, 35900, Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia.
5 Permata
Insan College, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
[email protected]
ABSTRACT The advantages of environmental education can be carried out more efficiently through STEM, where it is an integrated learning method among students for long-term learning success. This in turn provides the basis for future science and technology education. The education system in Malaysia has implemented environmental education syllabus, especially in science subjects over the past three decades, but it has less emphasis on nature approach, especially for pre-school children. MyNEPs (Malaysian Nature Education in Pre-School) is an initiative, developed to incorporate elements of nature education specifically for preschool children. The initial stage of implementation involves pre-assessment of the level of understanding of children about nature. The next stage, the child will be brought to explore nature via the implementatio n of the MyNEPs intervention module which involves five major elements of climate, plants, animals, insects and microbes. This intervention program approach is tailored to the early stage of childhood education through exploration and play methods. The final stage involves post-assessment of the level of understanding of nature among children following the MyNEPs program. This module is intended to be introduced to Pre-schools nationwide as part of the Pre-school National syllabus, to further enhanced the learning experience among pre-school children before they enter the higher level of education. Keywords: Nature-education, pre-school, modules, STEM, assessment, ourdoor-learning
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INTRODUCTION ‘Nature-deficit disorder’, a phenomenon proposed by Louv (2005) occurs to many children worldwide nowadays. It refers to detrimental effects on human especially children due to separation or alienation to nature as a result of over exposed to e.g. technological gadgets such as television, computers and tabs. Modern families life has changed dramatically in the last two decades, with limited outdoor activities and less blended with nature. These has led to adverse impacts in social, psychomotor, nutrients intake and intellectual wellbeing. Many research findings have documented the benefit of nature education in children by supporting every developmental domains, enhance creativity and problem solving other than their cognitive abilities and improving academic performance. The advantage of nature education is best portrayed in STEM education, where it became an important tool to be integrated in the learning approach among students, for long-term academic success. Today’s youth are living in a digital culture, making extensive use of advanced technological devices such as laptops and cell-phones in daily life. These technologies are all based on scientific, technological and mathematical knowledge. However, science and technology instruction in school is still mainly supported by laboratory experiments and the passive transfer of information from teacher to student. A viable and necessary change is that education should be connected directly to the real world outside the school (Roberson, 2011). For science and technology education to be successful, elements of the culture affecting students must be carefully considered and integrated into the curriculum. Outdoor activities or field trips are an important vehicle through which classrooms of students and teachers are able to engage with and learn about the natural world through integrated processes of immersion and direct observation (Bell et. al. 2009; Davidson et. al. 2010). In addition, learning outside the classroom is believed to value-add science education as it will be an opportunity for interaction with the environment (Emmon 1997). Teaching and learning science through environment will not only develop communication skills, understanding and knowledge, but students will have the opportunity to self–reflect on their concern about environment literacy as a whole (Palmer 1998). Childhood experiences are the major influential factor that form preferences and perceptions later in life (Measham, 2006; Bixler, 2002). Children’s perceptions of animals and the natural environment can be diverse, although their ideas are based around isolated facts and misconceptions (Snaddon and Turner, 2007; Strommen, 1995). Forest habitats and definitions of the environment are usually characterized as wild places and a habitat for animals (Strommen, 1995; Greaves et. al. 1993). Children also express awareness that humans are part of the environment and that human activities can be detrimental to the natural world (Measham, 2006). The environment in which children live can influence their perceptions. Children living in more rural landscapes have a better understanding of the environment and knowledge of animals and plants (Barraza, 1999). In Malaysia, environmental education is implemented across curriculum, through the integration of content and additional skills to give more focus, but without any negative effect on the integrity of the original curriculum of a specific subject (Hungerford et al. 1994). Nillson (2008) argue that this approach has advantages among teacher to decide whether the learning of the environment can be carried out independently and integrated at the end of the teaching and learning session. This is due to the packed curriculum and the time constraint thus, feared to be the obstacle for the implementation. This in turn will be the source of the problem on the level of knowledge, attitude and reaction of the student towards environment which will be at a low or moderate level (Norlila 2007). As a result, the objective of obtaining 33% human resource in Science and technology in Malaysia is still far to achieve. Among the problems identified for the lack of interest among the students are the teaching and learning of science are not active, lack of enquiry involvement and the irrelevance of Science in daily life. Thus, various efforts should be made in the aspect of improvement in curriculum and the approach to teaching and learning Science. In this study, the learning of nature and science outside the classroom is anticipated to encourage interest in the children to learn science. In the context of learning, the environment is made the laboratory for the children to investigate the nature environment as well as science simultaneously. This approach is believed to inspire children to enjoy learning through active hands-on and minds-on exploration of knowledge in a learning environment. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop a specific nature education module to be implemented in pre-schools.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS Target group The program is targeted to pre-school children at the age of 6 years old. Taman Bimbingan Kanak-kanak (TABIKA) under Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat (KEMAS) has been chosen as pilot study for the MyNEPs program. TABIKA adopts the National Pre-School Standard Curriculum (KSPK) 2017 has been selected as a study group. Based on this curriculum, there was no specific syllabus or program on nature-education included. Module implementation We focused on establishing a holistic module to be incorporated in the program to be used in the preschools. The modules covered five nature elements including climate, flora, fauna, insects and microbes. This module involves three phases of assessment: pre-assessment, intervention, post-assessment. RESULT AND DISCUSSION MyNEPs has initiated five nature elements to be implemented in the module. Each elements have specific intervention activities to suit each nature element, which include the experiential learning outside the classroom as well as hands-on activities related to nature. Prior to that, MyNEPs assessments will be conducted to the children before and after the intervention activities to determine the effectiveness of the modules in enhancing nature awareness. In this section, each nature elements from the module are described. Climate element There are three activities involved in this element namely rain, river and rainbow. The aim of this activities is to develop observation, investigation and recording skill based on the climatic phenomenon. The first activity is rain, where, children would be handed an umbrella and the demonstrator would spray tap water on the umbrella. The children would stay under the umbrella and experience the rain pour. At the same time, they would hear the sound of the rain and see the rain water drop to the ground. This activity would enhance their hearing and sight senses. Then, the water that drop on the ground will flow from higher ground to the lower ground and form small streams. This phenomenon can be explained and related to the formation of river. During this stage, children are able to observe and investigate the formation of the river. After that, the tap water would be sprayed in the air with the presence of sun light. Rainbow would be formed and the and children would witness the presence of rainbow, learn on how the rainbow are formed and learn the color of rainbow. This activities, could stimulate the children’s senses from observation, investigation and recording the activities. Flora element Four activities were developed in flora element which are plant identification, seed growth, plant basic needs and plant morphology. The aim of these activities are to expose the children about plant through experiential and outside-classroom learning. First activity, children would be exposed to identifying different kinds of plant. Children need to observe and collect plant part according to the color, size, shape and texture. At the end of this activities they could learn plant names and plant types, from the surrounding plants that they found. In second activity, children would observe and record the plant growth from seed. Children would be given seeds and plant in a pot. They need to observe the growth of the plant and recorded it by drawing. Third activity is to allow children to know the basic needs of plant. Demonstrator will explain to the children about the basic needs of plant including water, sun light and oxygen. In this phase, the imagination skill need to be developed in order to help children to understand the concept of basic need of the plant. The last activity is plant morphology. In this activity, the children psychomotor skill is needed in which they would use sight and touch senses. This activity would require children to trace the plant
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morphology such as leaves, fruits, roots or flowers by using paper and pencil. This activity would refine the children psychomotor, apart from stimulating their awareness on the importance of trees. Fauna element Three activities were developed in the fauna element namely, introduction to animal kingdom, animal habitat and animal diet. This activity expose children to observe, investigate, recognize and classify the fauna groups. From first activity, children would be able to recognize and identify different type of fauna and its physical characteristics. Children would be given different groups of fauna and demonstrator will ask the type of fauna and its physical characteristics. In second activity, children should differentiate habitat of various type of fauna and recognize habitat character of the fauna. Children would be exposed to the various habitat of fauna, and thus expected to imagine and explain the character of the habitat that the fauna inhabit. In the last activity, children would be exposed to classification of fauna according to their diet and learn on how the fauna seek food. Children would be taken to the surrounding area to list as many animals available and their diet type. In this element, children are expected to develop their knowledge and appreciation on animals. Insect element Three element were included which are introduction to insect, insect habitat and insect life cycle. The main aim of this element is to introduce the insect kingdom and its uniqueness. In the introduction to insect activity, children would develop their observation and investigation skill by understanding the knowledge about insect. At the end of the process, children should be able differentiate between insect and non-insect and to determine the characteristics of insect. The demonstrator would require the children to find insects from the surrounding area. Then, the collected insect will be examined, and demonstrator would explain briefly about the insect and its characteristic. In second activity, children would able to recognize the habitat of insect. Demonstrator would describe about insect and its habitat, as well as engaging the children in the activity through questions and story-telling. In third activity, the children would use their observation and investigation skill in order to recognize the life cycle process of insect. In this activity, the demonstrator will show the replica or picture of butterfly or its cocoon. Then, the demonstrator and student will sing the folksong of butterfly (eg.) life cycle. In this element, children not only able to identify and differentiate insects and its habitat, but also distinguish the life cycle of butterfly according to the folksong. Microbes element There are three activities from the microbe element, which are introduction of microbe’s kingdom, habitat and the role of microbe. The aim of this element is to introduce to the children about microbes and its biology. In the end of this activities, children should develop their skill in observation and investigation. In the first activity, they would learn about microbes, as living organisms that present in nature. Besides, children should recognize the types of microbes and their characteristics. The demonstrator would ask some basic question on tiny living things and show the diagram on living organism according to the size (larger to the tiniest) organisms. Then, the demonstrator would explain about the different types of microbes, and show the figures, including fungi, bacteria and virus, by highlighting the different characteristics. Second activity involves introduction of habitat of microbes to the children by demonstrator. The last activity is role of microbes. At the end of the activity, children should recognize the function of microbes in nature and their function in different habitats. Children would be able to introduce about the good and harmfu l microbes and explain in brief the role of each. This element will help children to have better understanding on microbes and its function. The nature of children who easily absorbs everything that happens around them becomes an important phase in learning and forming their attitudes. The early education that is applied during childhood phase can be an exciting and shape a good attitude. According to Plevyak and Myafield (2010), the excitement and curiosity of children need to be sown and nurtured by teachers since our current society nowadays had assigned and put the education burden to the teacher in shaping children noble character. An introduction to the environment in early childhood such as bringing to nearby natural areas is very important in the children learning process. According to Kaplan et al. (1998) and Luov (2005), that such
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learning methods are a vital process for creating interest and generating good imagination for children on environment since children nowadays are more exposed to the virtual games and electronics. An early exposure to the children on environmental elements can stimulate and sharpen the exploration, observation and investigation skills, to produce highly intelligent children and at the same time appreciate the environment. Exposure in early age allows children to recognize the environment and its importance. Relationships between climate, flora, fauna and insect elements are vital to the development of children's skills to understand the nature. Finally, exploration in nature is further enhanced, through awareness of sanitation, such that children should clean their hands to prevent germs after engaging in outdoor activities, as hygiene is the key for personal health. Conclusion An early exposure to environmental education is essential to inculcate environmental awareness among the younger generation. They are the heirs who will inherit the nature that we live in. With the development of the MyNEPs environmental module, it can strengthen education and environmental awareness efforts. This program needs to be further conducted through the nation and become one of the national level programs to foster younger generation, especially children. References Barraza L. 1999. Children’s drawings about the environment. Environmental Education Research 5: 49– 66. Bell, P., Lewenstein B., Shouse. A.W., and Feder M. A. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits, National Academies Press, Washington, DC, USA. Bixler R.D., Floyd M.F., Hammitt W.E. 2002. Environmental socialization - Quantitative tests of the childhood play hypothesis. Environment and Behaviour, 34: 795–818. Emmons, K. M. 1997. Perceptions of the Environment while Exploring the Outdoors; a case study in Belize. Environmental Education Research, 3(3): 327-344. Greaves E., Stanisstreet M., Boyes E., Williams T. 1993. Children’s Ideas About Rain-Forests. Journal of Biological Education, 27: 189–194. Hungerford, H. R., Volk, T. L. & Ramsey, J. M. 1994. A Prototype Environmental Education Curriculum for The Middle School. USA: UNESCO. Louvs R. 2005. Last Child in the Woods. Atlantic Books, London. Measham T.G. 2006. Learning about environments: The significance of primal landscapes. Environmental Management, 38: 426–434. Nilsson, P. 2008. Teaching for Understanding: The complex nature of pedagogical content knowledge in pre-service education. International Journal of Science Education, 30 (10): 1281–1299. NorlilaTalib. 2007. Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Alam Sekitar di sekolah-sekolah menengah daerah Seremban. Disertasi Sarjana. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Palmer, J. A. 1998. Environmental Education in the 21st Century: Theory, Practice, Progress and Promise. Routledge: New York. Roberson, S. 2011. Defying the Default Culture and Creating a Culture of Possibility. Education Indianapolis Then Chula Vista, 131: 885-904. Snaddon J.L., Turner E.C. 2007. A child’s eye view of the insect world: perceptions of insect diversity. Environmental Conservation, 34: 33–35. Strommen E. 1995. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My - Children’s Conceptions of Forests and Their Inhabitants. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 32: 683–698. Plevyak L. & Mayfield A. 2010. Environmental Education Within Early Childhood. In: Bodzin A., Shiner Klein B., Weaver S. (eds) The Inclusion of Environmental Education in Science Teacher Education. Springer, Dordrecht Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Kaplan, R., Kaplan, S. & Ryan, R. L. 1998. With people in mind: design and management of everyday nature. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. McConochie, R.M. 2010. A framework system to connect children with nearby nature. Master Thesis, Morgan State University.
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