Understanding the experience of early childhood education teachers in teaching and training student independence at school

Abstract

Training and instilling independence in early childhood is not easy. It requires cooperation with various parties. One of them is the teacher at a school. Aside from being a second parent, a teacher is a role model for children. Teachers' experience in teaching and training children's independence is needed by parents as reference material. Unfortunately, related research is still very limited. By using a explorative qualitative method, this research aimed to explore the experiences of early childhood education teachers in teaching and training children's independence at school. Data collection was carried out by in-depth and open interviews involving 15 early childhood education teachers. From this research, we found four main points of teacher experience in the form of: (1) identification: characteristics of early childhood independence; (2) methods: the way the teacher teaches and trains early childhood independence; and (3) barriers: barriers experienced by teachers in teaching and training early childhood independence. Identification of independence include: children dare to be left by their parents at school, are able to do the task independently, and able to do daily habituation. The methods of teaching and practicing independence were done by the teacher through habituation, example, and storytelling. As for the obstacles experienced by the teacher were parents still spoil children, children are very quiet, lack of media, and the absence of cooperation between schools and parents.