Relationship between Preschool Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitude with their Practice towards Active Learning Approach

Abstract

Active learning compatible with the 21st-century learning approach is an essential teaching and learning strategy to create a world-class educational system. The successful implementation of an active learning approach can establish a paradigm aimed at transitioning Malaysia's preschool education from a teacher-centered to a child-centered approach. As an effort to incorporate an active learning approach in the classroom, the readiness of the preschool teachers is the key to success. Based on the prior study, the research on the relationship between teachers' readiness level “active learning approach” in the early childhood education (ECE) field is still a gap. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify preschool teachers’ readiness levels in the aspects of knowledge, attitude, and practice. The main aim of this study is to examine the relationship between preschool teachers’ knowledge and attitude with their practice towards an active learning approach in private preschools. A quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the research objective of this study. In total, this study consists of 362 private preschool teachers in the state of Johor, Malaysia, who were selected through the simple random sampling technique. In this study, a questionnaire was used as the data collection method. After completing data collection, SPSS was used to analyze the data in descriptive and inferential ways. The finding of this result indicates that preschool teachers’ knowledge (mean = 3.24), attitude (mean = 3.19), and practice (mean = 3.17) level are only at a moderate-high level. Besides, multiple linear regression tests showed a strong and significant relationship between preschool teachers’ knowledge and attitude with their practice towards an active learning approach (R² = 0.519). In addition, it is suggested that further research could involve determining the preschool teachers’ readiness level based on their demographic characteristics to provide a clearer picture of whether the teachers’ knowledge, attitude and practice level influenced by their academic qualifications and teaching experience or not. In short, the stakeholders in the ECE field play an important role in providing preschool teachers adequate support towards the application of active learning activities which in turn help the children in holistic development.