Development of Science Teaching BooksBased on Fun Experiments for Early Childhood (5-6 year-olds) in the Kindergarten of Kutalimbaru Subdistrict, Deli Serdang Regency
Hestika Dewi Sitepu (a*), Rosmala Dewi(b), Wildansyah Lubis(b)
Program Pascasarjana Pendidikan Dasar Universitas Negeri Medan
Abstract
This research is motivated by the availability of textbooks which are not in accordance with the needs and circumstances of the childs living environment. Therefore, the introduction of science learning for early learners has not been applied optimally. The objectives of this study are: 1) to find out the level of decency in using a developing fun experiment based science textbooks for early learners (5-6 years old), 2) to find out the effectiveness of developing textbooks in improving cognitive abilities for children aged 5-6 years old. The subject in this study were group B students (amount of 36) in TK Islam Terpadu MTTQ School Kutalimbaru, academic year 2018-2019. The type of this research is Research and Development (R & D). The development of textbooks is based on a research on the development of 4-D (Four D Models) in accordance to Thiagarajan which includes 4 stages which are, defining stage, designing, developing, and disseminating. The results of the study showed that (1) the level of decency of the fun experiment-based science textbooks based on: a) the results of validation on the contents of the developing textbooks based on the material expert has been listed as Very Good. B) practical results from the teachers stating that all the teachers need a fun experiment based textbooks in the learning process because the book provided is not only for students but it also offers guides in form of teacher books. (2) the effectiveness of the developing textbooks showed that childrens cognitive skills after using the fun experiment based textbooks are higher than using only magazines and posters as learning material.The inital average score of the children were 50 and the final test result increases to 75.50. This proves that there has been an improvement in childrens score for cognitive development by 25.50.
Keywords: Textbooks; Experiment-based; Cognitive Ability
Topic: Curriculum, Research and Development