Teachers’ Perceptions on The Importance of Outdoor Play Activity for Kindergarten Children

Abstract

To enhance on our children holistic development, teachers could implement outdoor play activities in which much research have proven that outdoor play activities will give impact on the child’s development. This study deeply clarifies and investigate the importance of outdoor play activities for children 4 to 6 years old. This study employs qualitative research methods including the interviews of teachers in different kindergarten and teacher’s observation to determine the perception of each teacher on the importance of outdoor play activity to kindergarten children. Furthermore, the research gets to find out whether the teachers know their roles when it comes to planning outdoor play activities in their school. Anecdotal records been used to collect the data on the observation of the teachers while they are handling the children through outdoor play activities. The interviews were carried out with five teacher using open ended questions. The results and findings showed teachers are aware with their roles to cooperate outdoor play activities in their kindergarten such as observer, facilitator, support system, participants, planner, and model. The research findings and discussion proved that there are some barriers that teachers go through while they want to implement outdoor play activities. Researcher recommended that to educate the teachers on how to apply the outdoor play activities in their kindergarten and to manage all the barriers for future research. It also revealed that outdoor play activities impact on children’s holistic development and skills. Teachers agreed that outdoor play activities give impact to children’s cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills. At the same time, teachers agreed to attend outdoor play activities training which help them to share more on the activities with other teachers with different background.