Malaysian Nature Education in Pre-school (MyNEPS) Intervention: Pre And Post Assessment

Farah Shafawati binti Mohd Taib

Abstract


Malaysian Nature Education in Pre-school (MyNEPs) is an initiative to incorporate nature education in pre-school syllabus. It involves learning and hands-on practice in natural environment setting, on five nature elements (climate, flora, fauna, insects and microbes). The aim of this research is to assess the efficacy of MyNEPs module towards the pre-school children, through pre-, intervention and post-assessment. This research adopted an experimental research design using quantitative approaches for the pre- and post-assessment following an intervention program. A total of 29 pre-school children from four pre-schools in Bangi, Selangor were involved in this study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistic involving normality test and paired sample t-test. The overall t-test result shows there were significant different between pre- and post-achievement (p=0.006) after the intervention program, with total mean of post-test was higher with 35.90, compared to pre-test achievement with 33.59. This result indicated that this module significantly contribute to children’s understanding and awareness on nature following the intervention program. In addition, the nature education program proposed, has improved the pre-school children knowledge towards natural environment. Nature education is essential to enhance creativity, problem solving, and cognitive abilities, thus improving the academic performance and could set a strong foundation for science and technology in the future. Therefore, it is suggested that MyNEPs module to be adopted in all pre-schools premises in Malaysia.

Keywords


Nature education; pre-schools; MyNEPs; intervention; assessment

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