Children's Experience and Learning Opportunities in PERPADUAN (Unity) Pre-school Settings in Malaysia

摘要

This paper focuses on children's experience and learning opportunities in ethnically diverse pre-school settings. The study involved 60 children and three teachers from three PERPADUAN (Unity) Pre-school settings. A qualitative methodology was applied to explore children's experience and learning opportunities. Direct observation of children's free play and in-depth interviews were conducted with the children and teachers within 16 weeks. Observation based on instruments from the ECCE Research Project which included two main standards, an element of children's learning and meaningful learning. An indicator of standards started with working towards, meeting the standard and exceeding the standard. The primary findings of this case study emergent from the exceeding standard that children's learning experience and opportunities are divided into three: Children need the challenge to be competent, Active learning and learning comes from social interactions. Given an opportunity, the children are skillful in the initiated learning experience. Finally, the PERPADUAN Pre-school ethos toward children's social development is to promote a feeling of unity and acceptance among the ethnically diverse society of Malaysia.