T1 112012045 Full text
The Implementation of Classroom Management Principles in
Preschool
Introduction
Ferk (2008) stated that classroom management in kindergarten must be the concern of
English teachers who teach young learners because teaching English for young learners is
completely different from teaching English for teens or adults. Qinglan, Junyan, Shongshan
(2009) also said that an effective classroom management can reduce the chaos that might
happen in preschools level.
Those theories are related to the writer’s experiences when observing teaching
learning activity in preschools. There were some problems related to classroom management
that young learners’ teachers found when they were teaching in preschools. The following are
examples of the problems.
When delivering instruction using English, sometimes the students did not do the
instruction immediately because they did not understand the instruction.
Young learners were easily distracted and bored during teaching-learning activities.
Young learners could not engage in one activity or task for the whole class time and their
speed to finish one activity is unpredictable.
Young learners were physically active during teaching learning activities.
Young learners needed a lot of discussions and interaction during teaching learning
process.
Mostly, teachers had difficulty to control young learners’ misbehaviors such as coming
late to school, not submitting homework on time, teasing friends, etc.
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Young learners needed to be appreciated but, overpraises made young learners to be less
motivated to show their good behaviors or efforts to learn the lesson.
By seeing that fact, young learners teachers have to realize that teaching English for young
learners needs the right implementation of classroom management to deal with the problems
above. If the teachers do not implement the right classroom management principles in
teaching young learners, it will be difficult for them to control the class. This is in line with the
result of a previous study which is conducted by Vale and Feunteun (1995), that once a teacher
loses control of their classroom management, it will be more difficult for them to manage the
classroom. This study shows that poor classroom management results in children’s
misbehaviors and lower academic achievement.
Then, to help young learners’ teachers finding the right implementation of classroom
management principles for young learners, the writer was interested in conducting a study
about the implementation of classroom management principles when teaching young learners.
This study was conducted to find out the answer for the following research question;
“how do the teachers implement the principles of classroom management in preschool?”
To answer that research question, the study examined the implementation of the
classroom management principles in one of the bilingual preschools in Salatiga. The
teaching-learning activities in this school were conducted in two languages which are English
and Indonesian.
Hopefully, the results of this study can give suggestions or input for teachers about how
to establish effective classroom management when they are teaching in bilingual preschools
or teaching English for very young learners.
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Theoretical Framework
In this section, the writer provided definition of young learners, classroom
management and some principles that must be applied when managing the classroom for
young learners. Before discussing about the definition of classroom management and some
principles that must be applied to manage the classroom for young learners, we should know
who a young learner is. There are some definitions that can explain about who a young
learner is.
According to Kalendova (2008), a young learner means children from the first school
year of formal schooling to eleven or twelve years of age. However, as it is stated by Slattery
and Willis (2001), young learners can be divided into two groups. The first group is called
very young learners. This group consists of young learners under seven years old. Then, the
second group is young learners at the age of eight years old to twelve years old. Khatib and
Mellati (2012) stated another definition. Based on their definition, the term young learners
mean students who attend pre primary school and primary school. From their definition, we
can conclude that young learners are the students who attend pre primary school or
preschools.
As we know, teaching young learners is completely different from teaching adults.
Therefore,in teaching young learners, teachers need to know the right principles of classroom
management that should be applied. Below are the definition of classroom management
according to some experts and several principles of classroom management that should be
implemented in teaching young learners.
According to Sakui (2007), classroom management is an atmosphere in the class in
which the learners are cooperating in the program of action defined by the activity a teacher
is attempting to use. However, Wong and Rosemary (2001) assumed classroom management
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as what the teachers do to organize students’ space, time and materials. Meanwhile,
according to Scrivener ( 2012), classroom management is the way teachers manage the
students’ learning by organising and controlling what happens in a classroom. As Wright
(2005) stated, managing classroom is something that the teachers should do rather than
analyze. It means that teachers should not only master theories of classroom management, but
the teachers should be able to implement the principles of classroom management in their
teaching. Scrivener (2012) also said that teachers need to learn about classroom management
strategies because they need to create engaging and useful learning environment. Seda (2008)
said that effective classroom management cannot be ignored since effective classroom
management prepares the students to follow the lesson well and to conduct the effective
classroom management, the teachers should implement some principles of classroom
management to teach young learners such as :
1. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instruction
Halliwell (1992) stated that it is still difficult for young learners to follow verbal instructions
and information which are delivered not in their mother tongue. This fact causes teacher’s
problem in giving an oral instruction for young learners. Sometimes, children are not able to
acquire the meaning of instruction, which is given by the teacher. To deal with this problem,
Halliwell suggested that teachers should use several techniques to help the students undestand
the instruction such as using gestures and action. The teachers could use body movement to
model their instruction and the teacher can also give the example to do the instruction.
However, according to Linse (2006), to help the students understand the instruction which is
delivered in English, teachers need to translate the instruction into their mother tongue and
Thomson (2012) said that repetition also helps the students to understand the instruction.
Meanwhile, Linse (2006) said that the teachers do not always have to deliver the instruction
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in English because it might cause young learners feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, the teachers
also need to deliver the instruction using the students’ native language.
Those are several techniques that can be used to help young learners understand the
instruction but Linse (2006) stated that teachers do not need to use those techniques if the
students have already understood the instructions which are delivered in English.
2. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
Brown (2001) in Sukarno (2008) said that most children have concentration span that is
relatively short. Linse (2006) mentioned that children would not be able to enjoy or learn
from the same type of activities. Therefore, it is difficult for them to attend the whole lesson.
To deal with this situation, Linse (2006) stated that teachers need to provide different
activities in each teaching stage in order to make balance activities. Below is the example of
class activities which is given by Linse.
Example of balance activities according to Linse (2006)
Stage
Pre –teaching
Whilst teaching
Exploration
Elaboration
Confirmation
Post teaching
Activities
Warm up with finger plays and songs
Discussion on whether and daily activities
Story telling
Art activities and writing activities
Discussion on the task
Clean up activity
Those activities are balanced because there are different activities in each teaching stage.
In conclusion, the teacher should provide various activities with the suitable duration for
each activity.
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3.
Integrating physical activities into the lesson
Sukarno (2008) stated that young learners need lessons that contain physical activities to
help the students thinking or stimulate the students to learn. The physical activities can be
done by cutting practice, drawing, having games, coloring pictures or any kinds of
activities that involve body or parts of body movement. By looking at this fact, we can
conclude that one of the principles in classroom management for kindergarten students is
creating physical activities in some occasion to stimulate children’s thinking.
4.
Providing seating arrangement that promote learning in a social context
According to Cameron (2001), the children learn in a social context by conducting a
simple discussion or sharing stuffs each other. Therefore, teachers need to provide seating
arrangements that can facilitate young learners to learn in a social context. Weinstein and
Mignano (2007) suggested some kinds of classroom seat arrangement that can help the
students to learn in a social context such as :
Loop arrangement
U Shaped arrangement
Circle arrangement
Rectangle arrangement
Those kinds of seating arrangements allow the teacher and the students to learn in social
context because the students are able to learn by working in-group. In this case, they can
learn English as a foreign language in a social context through interaction.
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5. Acquainting the students with routines
Weinstein and Mignano (2007), mentioned that kindergarten students as very young
learners that need to be acquainted with routines that exist in kindergarten because
according to Linse (2006), children would be very happy if they know the expectations of
their teachers. Therefore, based on this factor, establishing routines for children also belongs
to the principles of classroom management in kindergarten.
6. Giving praise to students
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (1991) stated that giving praise to students makes them feel
comfortable and appreciated. Giving praise can be done in several ways such as
commenting on good work, praising good behavior, and appreciating young learner’s
efforts. However, teachers should not give over praise to the children because it might
become meaningless. Praising the children is quite simple. Teachers can use phrase such as
“well done”, “good job”, “very good”, etc. Receiving praise makes the children more
comfortable to learn English as the new language.
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The Study
A. Types of Research
This study was designed as the descriptive study since it described the way of preschool
teachers managed their classrooms. This study dealt with how teachers applied the principles of
effective classroom management during teaching preschools students. The data considered as
primary data since the data were collected directly using video recordings and observational
notes when the teachers were teaching in classrooms. The data in this study were analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
B. Context of The Study
The study took place in one of bilingual preschools in Salatiga. This study examined how
teachers applied the six principles of classroom management in two classes which were ; Class
X and Class Y. In those classes, teachers used English and Indonesian as the languages during
teaching-learning activities. In this school, teachers encouraged students to use English in every
class session. The writer decided to conduct the study in this preschool because English was
used as the main language in every class session. Therefore, the writer was able to examine how
teachers managed students when they were teaching using English as the main instruction..
C. Participants of The Study
The participants of the study were two teachers who were teaching young learners in the age
of 4-6 years old ( Teacher A and Teacher B). In this case, Teacher A was a class teacher in Class
X and Teacher B was a class teacher in Class Y. Teacher A and Teacher B had already had
experiences in teaching preschool students more than eight years. Therefore, they had
knowledge about how to manage young learners during teaching learning activities.
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D. Data Collection Instruments
To gain the data, the writer used classroom observation. In doing the observations, the
writer used video recordings and observational notes as the tools to record the data. The video
recordings helped the writer to gain more complete data when the writer observed the class
and observational notes helped the writer to keep focus on the six principles of classroom
management that would be examined in this study. The duration of video recordings were
about 30-60 minutes and there were 6 video recordings from each class. Therefore, there
would be 12 video recordings that can be used as the tools to collect the data. Meanwhile,
there were 6 different observational notes that helped the writer to focus on the principles that
would be examined. The examples of observational notes 1-6 can be seen in the attachment .
E. Data Collection Procedures
The data were gained through some procedures. First, before collecting the data, the writer
asked a permission from the preschool to conduct a study. Second, the writer observed
teaching learning activities in Class X and Class Y. After gaining the data, the writer would
transcribe the video recordings. Since the data were collected from observations, the data
belonged to primary data.
F. Data Analysis
In this study, the writer collected the data about how the teachers applied the six principles
of classroom management. They are :
- Using suitable techniques to deliver the instructions
- Providing various activities in each teaching stage
- Integrating physical activities into the lesson
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- Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
- Acquainting the students with routines
- Giving praise to students
To analyze the data, the data from video recordings were transcribed and categorized
based on the six principles in this study.
1. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instructions
To analyze the data on this principle, the writer counted the frequency of the 8 techniques
observed during teaching-learning activities in Class X and Class Y. Then, the writer
counted the percentage of each technique to see which techniques that mostly used by
Teacher A and Teacher B. In here, the writer trid to find the reason why Teacher A and
Teacher B mostly used one of the 8 techniques. For this principle, the data were analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
2. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
To analyze the data on this principle, the writer made a list of activities in each teaching
stage ( pre-teaching, whilst teaching and post teaching) and the writer also provided the
duration of each activity (see Table 3). From the list of activities and the duration, the
writer saw how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the class to have various activities and
the time for each activity. This data showed how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the
students to do various activities and time allocation for each activities. For this principle,
the data were analyzed qualitatively.
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3.
Integrating physical activities into the lesson
To analyze this principle, the writer made a list of physical activities which were
integrated in each subjects. From this data and the example of transcription, the writer saw
how the physical activities helped young learners to acquire new lessons. For this
principle, the data were analyzed qualitatively.
4.
Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
To analyze this principle, the writer counted the frequency of each type seating
arrangement that were suggested by experts (U-shaped, loop arrangement, circle
arrangement and rectangle arrangement). However, the writer also counted the frequency
of seating arrangements which were not suggested by the experts (others). This data
showed how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the seating arrangement. Therefore, the
students could learn in a social context. Besides that, from the data the writer could relate
type of seating arrangement and the type of class activity. Therefore, the writer could find
the relation of the type seating arrangement, class activity and how students could learn in
a social context. This principle was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
5.
Acquainting the students with routines
To analyze this principle, the writer made a list of routines which were acquainted by
Teacher A and Teacher B in each class and categorized them into 3 categories of why
teachers acquainted with routines, such as ; train the students to be discipline, train the
students to behave in a good manner and train the students to keep cleanliness. After that,
the writer counted the percentage of each purpose why teachers acquainted students with
routines to see which purpose that mostly become a reason for teacher to acquaint routine .
This principle was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
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6.
Giving praise to students
To analyze this principle the writer listed the praises given by Teacher A and Teacher B in
Class X and Class Y. Then, the writer counted the frequency of praises that were given
teachers to examine whether Teacher A and Teacher gave overpraises or not. Besides that,
from the list of praises, the writer categorized the praises into 3 categorize of teachers’
reasons for praising the students such as; to appreciate good behaviors, to appreciate
students’ effort and to appreciate good work. This kind of data was used to see which
reasons that mostly used by teachers to praise the students. This principle was analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
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Findings
As it is stated above, the writer would examine how the teachers implement the
principles of classroom management in preschool. In this section, the writer would discuss the
findings that were obtained during twelve times observations in Class X and Class Y . To
illustrate the data, the writer provided tables, charts and also some parts of transcriptions that
can help the readers to understand the result of the study.
A. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instruction
According to Halliwell (1992), teachers can use gesture and action to help students
understand the instructions. In this case, teachers can use body movement to model the
instructions. For instance, moving hands, closing eyes, shaking hands, etc. Then, related to the
action, the teachers can give the example of how to do the instructions. For example, the
teachers can jump when they instruct the students to jump. Meanwhile, Linse (2006) stated that
translating instructions into students’ native language can also be used as the technique to help
the students understand the instructions. However, Linse (2006) said that sometimes teachers
need to deliver the instruction into students’ native language to prevent the students to feel
uncomfortable but if the students have already understood the instructions which are delivered
in English, the teachers do need to use those techniques.
The tables below show how the teacher A and Teacher B in Class X and Class Y used the
suitable techniques to help the students understand the instructions
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Table 1
The Percentage of the use of each technique in Class X
Day
Gesture
Action
1
3 instructions
(8%)
3 instuctions
( 17%)
0 instruction
(0%)
8 instructions
(18%)
1 instruction
(4 %)
5 instructions
( 15%)
8 instructions
(21%)
0 instructions
( 0%)
6 instructions
(30%)
1 instruction
(2 %)
5 instructions
(20%)
4 instructions
(12%)
2
3
4
5
6
Translation
( E -I )
18 instructions
(48%)
6 instructions
(33%)
5 instructions
(25%)
22 instructions
(50%)
14 instructions
(56%)
15 instructions
(46%)
English only
Repetition
5 instructions
(13%)
8 instructions
(44%)
6 instructions
(30%)
3 instructions
(7%)
5 instructions
(20%)
8 instructions
(24%)
2 instructions
(5%)
0 instructions
(0%)
1 instruction
(5%)
8 instructions
(18%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
(3%)
Bahasa
Indonesia
2 instructions
(5%)
1 instruction
(6%)
2 instructions
(10%)
2 instructions
(5%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
Table 2
The Percentage of the use of each technique in Class Y
Day
Gesture
Action
1
4 instructions
(22%)
1 instruction
(7%)
2 instructions
(7 %)
2 instructions
(13%)
2 instructions
(7%)
4 instructions
(13%)
1 instruction
(5%)
6 instructions
(43%)
6 instructions
(22%)
0 instruction
(0%)
6 instructions
(22%)
12 instructions
(39%)
2
3
4
5
6
Translation
(E-I )
10 instructions
( 56%)
3 instructions
(21%)
13 instructions
(48%)
10 instructions
(67%)
13 instructions
(48%)
10 instructions
(32%)
English only
Repetition
3 instructons
(17%)
4 instructions
(29%)
5 instructions
(19%)
2 instructions
(13%)
5 instructions
(19%)
3 instructions
(10%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
2 instructions
(7%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
(3%)
Bahasa
Indonesia
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
( 4%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instructions
(4%)
1 instruction
(3%)
The data which are presented in Table 1 and Table 2 show how the teacher use each
method to deliver the instruction. From six times observations, in both Class X and Class Y,
four of the observations showed that translating the instruction into students’ native language
when delivering the instruction in English achieved the highest percentage. This finding is
related to the theory which was stated by Linse (2006) . Linse (2006) stated translating the
instruction into students’ native language will make the instruction more understandable
instead of using gesture and action because according to Halliwell (1992), when the students
come to school, their native language competence have already developed. Therefore, to help
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young learners understand the instructions, the teacher needs to translate the instruction into
the students’ native language.
Below is the example from Class X about how the teachers translated the instruction into
students’ native language which is Bahasa Indonesia and how students reacted toward the
instruction after the instruction was translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
Teacher A: Come forward! Ayo maju sedikit, tidak mundur-mundur ! (come forward, do not go
backward!)
First, the students just looked at the teacher but then, after the teacher translated the instruction into
the students’ native language, the students moved forward and did not move backward.
(Observation Day 3 in Class X)
From the example, we could see that the teachers in Class X translated the instruction into
the students’ native language. When the students did not understand the instructions which
were delivered in English, Teacher A translated the instruction into the students’ native
language and after Teacher A translated the instruction into the students’ native language, the
students did the instruction. It means that they were able to understand the instruction after the
teacher translated it into Bahasa Indonesia.
As it is stated before, besides translating the instruction in students’ native language, the
teachers also used gestures and actions when delivering the instruction. Below are the
examples that show how teachers used action and gesture to make the instructions
understandable.
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The
he use of actions when delivering instructions
(Teacher A wrote letter H when instructed about how to write letter H)
Teacher A : Ok, goes down, goes up a half, curved, goes down!
Some students tried to write letter H by looking at what Teacher A did.
(Observation In Class X Day 3)
In this transcription, the action that was used by Teacher A was giving an example of how to
write letter ”h’’ when instructed the students to write letter ”h’’. When Teacher A acted out
her instruction, some students tried to write letter ”h’’ by looking at the example (action)
which was given by Teacher A. Therefore, from this transcription, we could see how action
was used to deliver the instruction and made the instruction understandable for young learners
learners.
The use of gestures
gesture when delivering instructions
(Teacher B opened her hands when instructed the students)
Teacher B : Ok, keep open your book!
Some students almost closed their books. Then, Teacher B opened her hands like someone who
opened the book.
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All students left their books open.
(Observation Day 6 In Class Y)
In the picture, Teacher B opened her hands when she instructed the student to keep opening
their books. Before using gesture, some students did not understand the instruction and some
students closed their books. However, after seeing this gesture, some students who did not
understand the instruction, could follow the instruction. Therefore, from this transcption and
picture, we could see how the gesture was used to deliver the instruction and helped the students
understood the instruction which was delivered in English.
Those are the examples of using gestures and action when delivering the instructions. In
fact, gestures and action also helped the students to understand the instructions. This finding is
related to the theory which is stated by Haliwell (1992). According to him, gestures and action
are needed to make the instruction understandable.
Surprisingly, during twelve times observations, the writer also found that in delivering the
instructions, the teachers did not always use those techniques above to help the students
understand the instructions. During the observation, it was found that sometimes, teachers used
English only without any techniques to make the instruction clear, or used Bahasa Indonesia
only and repetition in English when delivering the instructions. Below is the transcription to
illustrate how Teacher A used English only when delivering
When Teacher A explained about some kinds of transportation, one student was busy playing a lego.
Teacher A : Boy, Wanna be here or outside? Outside?
Student: (Just shook his head)
Teacher A : No, Ya.. So, listen! Ok, do not play!
Then, the student stopped playing and listened to Teacher A .
(ObservationDay 2 In Class X)
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In this case, Teacher A did not need to use the techniques to make the instruction clear
since the student had already understood the instruction. Therefore, the student could do the
instruction.
From the example above, we could see how Teacher A only used English when she was
delivering the instructions. Without using the techniques, the students had been able to follow
the instruction. This finding matched the theory which was stated by Sukarno (2008). According
to him, if the students had already understood the instruction that is delivered in English, the
teacher did not need to use any techniques to make it understandable.
In contrast, the writer also found the teachers used Bahasa Indonesia directly when
delivering the instructions. Below is the example of how Teacher B used only Bahasa Indonesia
when delivering instruction.
Teacher B : Miss bilang apa tadi? Di masukkan di tas atau di kantong! (keep it in your bag or
pocket!)
The student put the socks in the pocket.
(Observation Day 1 in Class Y)
From the example, we could see that sometimes, the teachers used Bahasa Indonesia when
delivering the instructions. This finding is related to the theory which was stated by Linse
(2006). Linse (2006) stated that using English for the whole time might cause the students feel
uncomfortable when following the lessons because they will not really understand what is being
said by the teachers. Therefore, the teachers should be wise in using English and students’ native
language.
The last finding is related to principle number one is that sometimes, the teacher also used
repetition to make the instruction understandable. Below is the example how Teacher B used
repetition when delivering the instructions.
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Teacher B : Ok, every one! keep silent everyone! Keep silent everyone! Silent please!
All students kept silent.
(Observation Day 1In Class Y)
In this transcription, the teacher used repetition to make the instruction understandable. When
Teacher B repeated the instructions, Teacher B understood the instruction and they did the
instruction.
This finding is related to the study which was conducted by Thomson (2012) who said
that repetition also helps the students to understand the instruction because the teacher utters the
instruction in several times and it makes the students understand the instruction.
From the findings, the writer concluded that in delivering the instructions, teachers need
to use the suitable techniques. Gesture, action and translation help the students to understand the
instructions which are delivered in English. Meanwhile, delivering instruction using students’
native language directly makes the students feel comfortable and the teachers do need to use
techniques that can make the students understand the instruction if they have already been able
to understand and follow the instruction.
B. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
According to Brown (2001) in Sukarno (2008) most of children have concentration span
that is relatively short. Therefore, it is difficult for them to attend one activity for the whole
lesson. To deal with this situation, Linse (2006) stated that teachers need to provide various
activities in each teaching stage in order to make balance activities.
During twelve times observations, the writer found that to manage the activities in the
classroom, Teacher A and Teacher B provided different activities for each teaching stage. The
tables below illustrate how the teachers managed the students to keep engaged in class activities.
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Table 3
Activities in Class X
Teaching
stage
Pre-teaching
Whilst
teaching
a.Exploration
b.Elaboration
1
2
Observation
3
4
5
6
Mention the
parts of cars
(3 minutes )
Review the
previous topic
(3 minutes)
Review
letters
(6 minutes)
Observe
provided foods
(10 minutes)
Mention the
names of
some fruits
( 4 minutes)
Counting
numbers
from 1 to
10
(3
minutes)
Discuss where
the cars can go
(4 minutes)
Mention the name
of transportations.
(3 minutes)
Learn letter
“h”
Mention and
describe taste
foods.
(15 minutes)
Mention fruits
that teacher
brought
(5minutes)
Arrange and
stick the parts of
cars and scenery
(20 minutes)
Guessing game
Guess the area of
transportation
(10 minutes)
writing letter
“h”
Taste the foods
( 10 minutes)
Arrange and
stick object
to make fruits
(15 minutes)
Guessing game
Guess vehicle that
need fuel and do
not need fuel.
( 10 minutes)
writing letter
“h”
Break Time
(10 minutes)
Mention
some
numbers
in the
cards.
(3
minutes)
Game;
Human
chain
( 25
minutes)
Taste the left
foods
( 10 minutes)
Describe the
taste of the foods
(4 minutes)
c.
Confirmation
Show the craft to
the teacher
( 2 minutes)
Guessing game
fuel or no fuel?
(3 minutes)
Matching pictures
(5 minutes)
Writing
letter “h”
Post teaching
Clean up
(1 minute)
Clean up
(1 minute)
writing letter
“ h”
Clean up
(1 minute)
Clean up
(1 minute)
Total duration
About 30
minutes
About 35 minutes
About 30
minutes
About 60
minutes
About 30
minutes
20
Count and
mention fruits
that they have
made.
( 5 minutes)
Mention
the name
of the
game.
(2
minutes)
Relaxing
activity
(2
minutes)
About 35
minutes
Table 4
Activities in Class Y
Teaching
stage
Pre-teaching
Observation
1
2
3
4
5
6
Review the last
lesson
(6 minutes)
Guess today’s
activity
(2 minutes)
Listen to the
short story
( 5 minutes)
Observe the
magnet
(3 minutes)
Stick grape
Guess who
the baker is
( 2 minutes)
Practice counting
backward
( 10 minutes)
Observe the
colors, shape of
balls.
(5 minutes)
Guess some
traffic signs
( 5 minutes)
Stick grape
Arrange the
parts of
baker.
( 10 minutes)
b.Elaboration
Do the task about
counting
backward
(20 minutes)
Do the game :
Balls estaffete
(23 minutes)
Draw and color
traffic light
( 16 minutes)
Stick grape
Stick the
objects to
make baker
(15 minutes)
c.Confirmation
Discuss the
answer with the
students
(5 minutes)
Count the balls
for each group.
( 5 minutes)
Show the
craft to the
teacher
( 1 minutes)
Show the
craft to the
teacher
(2 minutes)
Post teaching
Clean up activity
(1 minute)
Additional
activity
Having Lunch
together
(18 minutes)
About 60
minutes
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
Mention the
color of traffic
light and its’
function.
(2 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(2 minutes)
Observe what
things that
can be stick to
the magnet
(10 minutes)
Color
pictures;
which things
that can be
stick to
magnet?
( 15 minutes)
Re-mention
things that
can be stick to
magnet
(3 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
Clean up
activity
( 2 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
About 35
minutes
About 30
minutes
About 32
minutes
About 30
minutes
About 30
minutes
Whilst
teaching
a. Exploration
Total Duration
From those tables, we can see that from six times observations in Class X and Class Y,
five observations showed Teacher A and Teacher B provided various activites. In other words,
mostly, Teacher A and Teacher B provided various activities during teaching-learning activity.
This finding is related to the theory which was stated by Linse (2006). That is stated before,
teacher needs to provide various activities in every teaching-learning activity such as those
presented in the table of example of various activities on page 6.
From the activities that Linse suggested, we can see the similarity with the activities
which were created by the teachers in Class X and Class Y during five times observations in
21
each class. In Class X and Class Y, the writer found different activities in each teaching stage
and Linse (2006) also stated that the balance activities require different activities in each
teaching stage. Different activities in each teaching stage manage the students to keep engaged
in teaching-learning activities. Besides that, from the observations both in Class X and Class Y,
the writer found some ways of how teachers managed the activities. First, as we can see in
Table 3 and Table 4, for each pre teaching stage and exploration stage, Teacher A and Teacher B
never took time more than 10 minutes. This finding is related to the study which was conducted
by Sakui (2007). In his study he mentioned that young learners are able to fully concentrate not
more than 10 minutes. Surprisingly, in the elaboration stage, the writer found that sometimes,
Teacher A and Teacher B took 10-25 minutes to conduct an activity or task. This is against what
Sakui said. The possible explanation for this might be that in the elaboration stage, Teacher A
and Teacher B provided a task which is uneasy to do for young learners such as counting
practice. Therefore, students needed extra time to do the task. Another possible explanation
might be that in the elaboration stage, Teacher A and Teacher B provided activities that were
interesting for young learners such as coloring pictures, sticking objects, or having games. Those
activities probably were interesting for students because those activities required a lot of body
movements and suitable with their hobbies. Therefore, Teacher A and Teacher B provided long
duration for those activities. This finding is related to the study which was conducted by
Kalendova (2008). Kalendova’s study shows that young learners will always be attracted with
activities that required them to do a lot of physical movements or match with their pleasure.
One more thing related to how the teachers managed various activities is that, if the
class duration was more than 35 minutes, Teacher A and Teacher B provided an additional
activity or break time that could make students feel comfortable or relax. For instance in Class
X, when the class duration was 60 minutes, Teacher A gave a break time for students to play and
22
in Class Y when the class duration was 60 minutes, Teacher B gave an additional activity which
was having lunch together.
Anyhow, both in Class X and Class Y, there was one time in which Teacher A and Teacher
B did not provide various activities in each teaching stage. In Class X, Teacher A did not create
different activities during the Reading and Writing lesson. In table 3, we could see that there
were no different activities in confirmation and post teaching stage. However, in Class Y,
Teacher B did not create various activities in Art and Craft Class 1 because as we can see in
table 4, there were no different activities in pre-teaching and exploration stage.
This finding does not match with the theory which is stated by Linse because the writer did
not see different activites in each teaching stage. As a result, the writer found that once teacher
did not provide different activities in each teaching stage, the students started to make nosies.
Below is the transcription that shows that the students made nosies when they got bored with
unvarious activities.
In classroom, Teacher A helped student 1 to write letter “h”
Teacher A : Girl, look at this! Goes down, goes up a half, curve..
Meanwhile, some students did not do their exercise because they started to get bored with writing
practice activity.
Student 2 : Boy, aku punya gambar bagus..( Boy, I have a nice picture..) (showed flash cards)
Student 3 : Lihat.. (Let me see!)
Student 4 : Where is thumbkind.. where is thumbkind.. (sang loudly)
Some students walked around the class.
(Observation Day 3 in Class X)
From the transcription above, the writer saw that students started making noises because
they were not interested any longer in the activity. Therefore, they prefered to sing, talk each
other or walk around the class. What the writer saw in Class X and Class Y are in line with the
theory which was stated by Lines (2006). According to Linse (2006) unvarious activities causes
23
the students’ boredom and they will be uncontrolled. Therefore, the teachers have to think about
different activities in each teaching stage to avoid this chaos. This is also supported with the
study which is conducted by Sukarno. Sukarno (2008) in his study said that the more various
activities that are provided by teachers, the more interested students to follow the lessons but
unvarious activities do not attract the students to enjoy the teaching learning activities.
In conclusion, to manage the students in order to keep engaged in a lesson during the
whole class time, teachers should provide various activities with the suitable duration in each
teaching stage to make the students keep engage in teaching-learning process.
C. Integrating physical activities into the lesson
According to Brumfit, Moon and Tongue (1991) young learners are active learners who
need a lot of physical movement or activities. Therefore, to manage young learners who are
physically active, teachers need to integrate physical activities into the lesson.
These following tables illustrate how teachers in Class X and Class Y conducted
physical activities when they were learning.
Table 5
Physical activities in Class X
Subject
Art and Craft
Physical activities
Sticking items
Science
ReadingWriting
Science
Game:Matching pictures
Tracing letter “h”
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Sport
Game : Human chain
Tasting foods
Explanation
The teacher asked the students to stick some items in
the art and craft book.
The teacher asked the students to macth the pictures.
The teacher asked the students to practice tracing
letter H
The teacher asked the students to taste some healthy
foods that she brought to the class
The teacher asked the students to stick some items in
the art and craft book.
The teacher asked the students to involve in a game.
24
Table 6
Physical activities in Class Y
Subject
Physical activities
Mathematic
Writing numbers
Sport
Game : Balls estafette
Social Studies
Drawing and coloring
Science
Coloring pictures
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Explanation
In Mathematic class, the teacher asked the students to
write numbers.
In this class, the students were asked to involve in the
game and move their body.
In this class, the students were asked to draw and color
pictures.
Same to the previous class, the students were asked to
color the pictures.
In this class, the students were asked to stick some items
in the art and craft book.
In this class, the students were asked to stick some items
in the art and craft book.
From those two tables, the writer saw that in Class X and in Class Y, six observations
showed that Teacher A and Teacher B conducted physical activities in class. This finding
showed us that mostly, teachers conducted physical activities in class to help the students
learning the lesson and this finding matches the theory which was stated by Sukarno (2008).
He said that young learners need lessons which contain physical activities to help them
understand the lesson.
Moreover, according to the previous study which was conducted by Rodliyah (2012),
mostly, young learners are kinesthetic learners which means that they have to move to
understand the lesson. Then, her study showed that it is easier for students to acquaire a new
lesson when they are allowed to do physical movement. Below is the transcription that shows
how the teacher manages the students to learn without ignoring their need to do physical
movement .
In Science class, Teacher B taught about magnet and to teach students about which things that can
be stuck to the magnet, Teacher B asked students to choose and colors some pictures of stuffs that
can be stuck to the magnet.
25
Student 1 : Yang di colour not the pencil.. pencil kan dari wood.. yang di color itu yang nail, lock,
key and needle. (do not color the pencil.. pencil is made from wood, just color the nail, lock, key
and needle..)
Student 2 : Ok... berarti pencil nggak ya? ( Ok, so the pencil is not colored isn’t it?)
Student 1 : No.. nggak.... (No)
Student 2 tried to colour the others pictures.
(Observation Day 4 in Class Y)
In this case, the physical activity was coloring the pictures. The students were asked to color
the pictures of some stuffs that can be stuck to the magnet. Therefore, toward this activity, the
students were able to acquire a new lesson about “which stuffs that can be stuck to the magnet
and which stuff that cannot be stuck to the magnet” through coloring the pictures. During the
lesson, Teacher B integrated physical activities which was coloring pictures to help the
students understand the lesson.
As the conclusion, to manage the classes of young learners who love to do physical
movement, teachers integrated the physical movement into the lesson. The students can
acquire the new lesson without losing the chances to do physical movement.
D. Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
According to Cameron (2001), young learners need to learn in a social context by having
interaction. Cameron (2001) also said that interaction can be conducted by having simple
discussions and also sharing stuffs. To fulfill this need, Weinstein and Mignano (2007)
suggested teachers to provide a seating arrangement that promotes learning in social context
such as; loop arrangement, U-shaped arrangement, rectangle arrangement and circle
arrangement.
26
During twelve times observations in Class X and Class Y, the writer found that teachers
also applied this principle. The tables and charts below illustrate the findings.
Table 7
Seating arrangement in Class X
Subject
Loop
Art and Craft
Science
Reading-writing
Fun Tuesday
Art and craft
Sport
Circle
Ushaped
Rectangle
Other
Figure 1
Seating Arrangement in Class X
Seating Arrangement
Others
0%
U-shaped
0%
Rectangle
50%
Circle
50%
Loop
0%
Table 8
Seating arrangement in Class Y
Subject
Mathematic –
Science (Fun
Thursday)
Sport
Social studies
Loop
Circle
Ushaped
√
Rectangle
Other
√
√
√ (Row
arrangement)
Science
Art and craft
√
Art and craft
√
√ (Row
arrangement)
27
Figure 2
Seating Arrangement in Class Y
Seating Arrangement
Others
29%
Rectangle
14%
U-shaped Loop
0%
0%
Circle
57%
By looking at those tables and figures, the writer found that during six times
observations in Class X, Teacher A only applied two kinds of seating arrangement which
were ; circle and rectangle seating arrangement. Meanwhile, in Class Y, the writer found that
Teacher B applied three kinds of seating arrangement which were rectangle arrangement,
circle arrangement and row arrangement (others). In this case, row seating arrangement is
considered as “other” since actually, this type does not recommended for kindergarten
students.
Based on the observations, both in Class X and Class Y the teachers used seating
arrangement based on the purposes of activities that were conducted during teaching learning
activity. The teachers used circle seating arrangement when the activities required students to
have a lot of discussions. For example, circle arrangement was used in Class X when teacher
A was teaching about transportations. In this class, the students were required to have a lot of
discussions when mentioning the names of transportations and the characteristics of
transportations. The picture and transcription below illustrate the situation when students
were seating in a circle arrangement.
28
Circle Arrangement In Class X
T
T = Teacher
s
s
s
S = Students
s
s
s
Discussion 1 (The name of transportations)
Teacher A : Now, let’s see! Let’s see if you still remember those transportation. How about this one?
( showed a picture of car) What picture is it?
Students : Car...
Teacher A : Car.. Ok..what about this one? What is it? (showed a picture bike)
Student 1 : Itu bike ya ? ( it is a bike isn’t it?)
Student2
: Iya, itu bike... aku punya bike..do you have bike? (Yes, that’s a bike, i have one)
Student 3 : Iya tapi aku call that bicycle..( Yes, but I call that bicycle)
Student 4 : Iya.. I have bike.. ( Yes, I have bike)
Teacher A : You can say this ( still showing a picture of bike) bike or bicycle.
Discussion 2 (Decide what kinds of transportations that go on land)
Teacher A : Ok, which transportation, which transportation go on land? Kendaraan apa saja yang
jalannya di darat? ( Which vehicles that go on land?) Can you mention some of them?
Student 1 : Bus..
Student 2
: Car..
Teacher A : Car.. what else?
Student 3 : Motorcycle
Discussion 3 (Decide whether the vehicle need fuel or do not need fuel)
29
Teacher A
: Ok, helicopter machine or no machine?
Students
: Machine..
Teacher A
: Ok, how about car?
Students
: Car.
Teacher A
: Machine or no machine?
Students
: Machine !
Teacher A
:Ya.. good job! Machine.. Now, bicycle. Machine or no machine?
Students
: No machine
( Observation Day 2 in Class X)
From the pictures and the transcriptions above, we could see that circle arrangement
was used when the students need a lot of discussions. Circle arrangement allowed the
students to conduct discussions with the wider group. In the circle arrangement, the students
could conduct discussions with the whole members of the class. That’s why the circle
arrangement is suitable for the class activity that requires a lot of discussions.
Besides that, circle seating arrangement was also applied when the class activity
required the students to do a lot of physical movement. As we can see in Table 7 and Table 8,
both in class X and Class Y, circle arrangement was applied in sport class because in sport
class, the students were asked to do a lot of physical movement. However, in Class X, this
type was also used in science class when the students were asked to be involved actively in
game. From this finding the writer concluded that circle seating arrangement was used when
the students were required to be physically active because according to Scrivener (2012),
circle seating arrangement enables students to move freely. Besides that, the writer found that
in circle seating arrangement, Teacher A sat between two students (see picture circle
arrangement). This position enabled all students to see the teacher and the teacher can also
controll the whole members in class when conducting discussion.
30
Meanwhile, mostly, the teachers used rectangle seating arrangement when the
students were required to do the activities that do not need a lot of discussions but need more
focus when doing the tasks. For example, in Class Y, rectangle seating arrangement was used
in Mathematics class. The pictures below illustrate rectangle seating arrangement in Class Y.
Rectangle arrangement in Class Y (Observation Day 1 in Class Y)
T
( The students were asked to sit in a group of four to five)
T : Teacher
The picture above showed that rectangle arrangement facilitated the students to have
discussion in smaller groups. They were still able to conduct discussions but the discussions
happened in smaller groups and the discussions in the rectangle seating arrangement did not
happen as often as the discussions in the circle seating arrangement. As we can see in the
example, in Mathematics class, the students were required to do a lot of practices counting
backward. Durin
Preschool
Introduction
Ferk (2008) stated that classroom management in kindergarten must be the concern of
English teachers who teach young learners because teaching English for young learners is
completely different from teaching English for teens or adults. Qinglan, Junyan, Shongshan
(2009) also said that an effective classroom management can reduce the chaos that might
happen in preschools level.
Those theories are related to the writer’s experiences when observing teaching
learning activity in preschools. There were some problems related to classroom management
that young learners’ teachers found when they were teaching in preschools. The following are
examples of the problems.
When delivering instruction using English, sometimes the students did not do the
instruction immediately because they did not understand the instruction.
Young learners were easily distracted and bored during teaching-learning activities.
Young learners could not engage in one activity or task for the whole class time and their
speed to finish one activity is unpredictable.
Young learners were physically active during teaching learning activities.
Young learners needed a lot of discussions and interaction during teaching learning
process.
Mostly, teachers had difficulty to control young learners’ misbehaviors such as coming
late to school, not submitting homework on time, teasing friends, etc.
1
Young learners needed to be appreciated but, overpraises made young learners to be less
motivated to show their good behaviors or efforts to learn the lesson.
By seeing that fact, young learners teachers have to realize that teaching English for young
learners needs the right implementation of classroom management to deal with the problems
above. If the teachers do not implement the right classroom management principles in
teaching young learners, it will be difficult for them to control the class. This is in line with the
result of a previous study which is conducted by Vale and Feunteun (1995), that once a teacher
loses control of their classroom management, it will be more difficult for them to manage the
classroom. This study shows that poor classroom management results in children’s
misbehaviors and lower academic achievement.
Then, to help young learners’ teachers finding the right implementation of classroom
management principles for young learners, the writer was interested in conducting a study
about the implementation of classroom management principles when teaching young learners.
This study was conducted to find out the answer for the following research question;
“how do the teachers implement the principles of classroom management in preschool?”
To answer that research question, the study examined the implementation of the
classroom management principles in one of the bilingual preschools in Salatiga. The
teaching-learning activities in this school were conducted in two languages which are English
and Indonesian.
Hopefully, the results of this study can give suggestions or input for teachers about how
to establish effective classroom management when they are teaching in bilingual preschools
or teaching English for very young learners.
2
Theoretical Framework
In this section, the writer provided definition of young learners, classroom
management and some principles that must be applied when managing the classroom for
young learners. Before discussing about the definition of classroom management and some
principles that must be applied to manage the classroom for young learners, we should know
who a young learner is. There are some definitions that can explain about who a young
learner is.
According to Kalendova (2008), a young learner means children from the first school
year of formal schooling to eleven or twelve years of age. However, as it is stated by Slattery
and Willis (2001), young learners can be divided into two groups. The first group is called
very young learners. This group consists of young learners under seven years old. Then, the
second group is young learners at the age of eight years old to twelve years old. Khatib and
Mellati (2012) stated another definition. Based on their definition, the term young learners
mean students who attend pre primary school and primary school. From their definition, we
can conclude that young learners are the students who attend pre primary school or
preschools.
As we know, teaching young learners is completely different from teaching adults.
Therefore,in teaching young learners, teachers need to know the right principles of classroom
management that should be applied. Below are the definition of classroom management
according to some experts and several principles of classroom management that should be
implemented in teaching young learners.
According to Sakui (2007), classroom management is an atmosphere in the class in
which the learners are cooperating in the program of action defined by the activity a teacher
is attempting to use. However, Wong and Rosemary (2001) assumed classroom management
3
as what the teachers do to organize students’ space, time and materials. Meanwhile,
according to Scrivener ( 2012), classroom management is the way teachers manage the
students’ learning by organising and controlling what happens in a classroom. As Wright
(2005) stated, managing classroom is something that the teachers should do rather than
analyze. It means that teachers should not only master theories of classroom management, but
the teachers should be able to implement the principles of classroom management in their
teaching. Scrivener (2012) also said that teachers need to learn about classroom management
strategies because they need to create engaging and useful learning environment. Seda (2008)
said that effective classroom management cannot be ignored since effective classroom
management prepares the students to follow the lesson well and to conduct the effective
classroom management, the teachers should implement some principles of classroom
management to teach young learners such as :
1. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instruction
Halliwell (1992) stated that it is still difficult for young learners to follow verbal instructions
and information which are delivered not in their mother tongue. This fact causes teacher’s
problem in giving an oral instruction for young learners. Sometimes, children are not able to
acquire the meaning of instruction, which is given by the teacher. To deal with this problem,
Halliwell suggested that teachers should use several techniques to help the students undestand
the instruction such as using gestures and action. The teachers could use body movement to
model their instruction and the teacher can also give the example to do the instruction.
However, according to Linse (2006), to help the students understand the instruction which is
delivered in English, teachers need to translate the instruction into their mother tongue and
Thomson (2012) said that repetition also helps the students to understand the instruction.
Meanwhile, Linse (2006) said that the teachers do not always have to deliver the instruction
4
in English because it might cause young learners feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, the teachers
also need to deliver the instruction using the students’ native language.
Those are several techniques that can be used to help young learners understand the
instruction but Linse (2006) stated that teachers do not need to use those techniques if the
students have already understood the instructions which are delivered in English.
2. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
Brown (2001) in Sukarno (2008) said that most children have concentration span that is
relatively short. Linse (2006) mentioned that children would not be able to enjoy or learn
from the same type of activities. Therefore, it is difficult for them to attend the whole lesson.
To deal with this situation, Linse (2006) stated that teachers need to provide different
activities in each teaching stage in order to make balance activities. Below is the example of
class activities which is given by Linse.
Example of balance activities according to Linse (2006)
Stage
Pre –teaching
Whilst teaching
Exploration
Elaboration
Confirmation
Post teaching
Activities
Warm up with finger plays and songs
Discussion on whether and daily activities
Story telling
Art activities and writing activities
Discussion on the task
Clean up activity
Those activities are balanced because there are different activities in each teaching stage.
In conclusion, the teacher should provide various activities with the suitable duration for
each activity.
5
3.
Integrating physical activities into the lesson
Sukarno (2008) stated that young learners need lessons that contain physical activities to
help the students thinking or stimulate the students to learn. The physical activities can be
done by cutting practice, drawing, having games, coloring pictures or any kinds of
activities that involve body or parts of body movement. By looking at this fact, we can
conclude that one of the principles in classroom management for kindergarten students is
creating physical activities in some occasion to stimulate children’s thinking.
4.
Providing seating arrangement that promote learning in a social context
According to Cameron (2001), the children learn in a social context by conducting a
simple discussion or sharing stuffs each other. Therefore, teachers need to provide seating
arrangements that can facilitate young learners to learn in a social context. Weinstein and
Mignano (2007) suggested some kinds of classroom seat arrangement that can help the
students to learn in a social context such as :
Loop arrangement
U Shaped arrangement
Circle arrangement
Rectangle arrangement
Those kinds of seating arrangements allow the teacher and the students to learn in social
context because the students are able to learn by working in-group. In this case, they can
learn English as a foreign language in a social context through interaction.
6
5. Acquainting the students with routines
Weinstein and Mignano (2007), mentioned that kindergarten students as very young
learners that need to be acquainted with routines that exist in kindergarten because
according to Linse (2006), children would be very happy if they know the expectations of
their teachers. Therefore, based on this factor, establishing routines for children also belongs
to the principles of classroom management in kindergarten.
6. Giving praise to students
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (1991) stated that giving praise to students makes them feel
comfortable and appreciated. Giving praise can be done in several ways such as
commenting on good work, praising good behavior, and appreciating young learner’s
efforts. However, teachers should not give over praise to the children because it might
become meaningless. Praising the children is quite simple. Teachers can use phrase such as
“well done”, “good job”, “very good”, etc. Receiving praise makes the children more
comfortable to learn English as the new language.
7
The Study
A. Types of Research
This study was designed as the descriptive study since it described the way of preschool
teachers managed their classrooms. This study dealt with how teachers applied the principles of
effective classroom management during teaching preschools students. The data considered as
primary data since the data were collected directly using video recordings and observational
notes when the teachers were teaching in classrooms. The data in this study were analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
B. Context of The Study
The study took place in one of bilingual preschools in Salatiga. This study examined how
teachers applied the six principles of classroom management in two classes which were ; Class
X and Class Y. In those classes, teachers used English and Indonesian as the languages during
teaching-learning activities. In this school, teachers encouraged students to use English in every
class session. The writer decided to conduct the study in this preschool because English was
used as the main language in every class session. Therefore, the writer was able to examine how
teachers managed students when they were teaching using English as the main instruction..
C. Participants of The Study
The participants of the study were two teachers who were teaching young learners in the age
of 4-6 years old ( Teacher A and Teacher B). In this case, Teacher A was a class teacher in Class
X and Teacher B was a class teacher in Class Y. Teacher A and Teacher B had already had
experiences in teaching preschool students more than eight years. Therefore, they had
knowledge about how to manage young learners during teaching learning activities.
8
D. Data Collection Instruments
To gain the data, the writer used classroom observation. In doing the observations, the
writer used video recordings and observational notes as the tools to record the data. The video
recordings helped the writer to gain more complete data when the writer observed the class
and observational notes helped the writer to keep focus on the six principles of classroom
management that would be examined in this study. The duration of video recordings were
about 30-60 minutes and there were 6 video recordings from each class. Therefore, there
would be 12 video recordings that can be used as the tools to collect the data. Meanwhile,
there were 6 different observational notes that helped the writer to focus on the principles that
would be examined. The examples of observational notes 1-6 can be seen in the attachment .
E. Data Collection Procedures
The data were gained through some procedures. First, before collecting the data, the writer
asked a permission from the preschool to conduct a study. Second, the writer observed
teaching learning activities in Class X and Class Y. After gaining the data, the writer would
transcribe the video recordings. Since the data were collected from observations, the data
belonged to primary data.
F. Data Analysis
In this study, the writer collected the data about how the teachers applied the six principles
of classroom management. They are :
- Using suitable techniques to deliver the instructions
- Providing various activities in each teaching stage
- Integrating physical activities into the lesson
9
- Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
- Acquainting the students with routines
- Giving praise to students
To analyze the data, the data from video recordings were transcribed and categorized
based on the six principles in this study.
1. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instructions
To analyze the data on this principle, the writer counted the frequency of the 8 techniques
observed during teaching-learning activities in Class X and Class Y. Then, the writer
counted the percentage of each technique to see which techniques that mostly used by
Teacher A and Teacher B. In here, the writer trid to find the reason why Teacher A and
Teacher B mostly used one of the 8 techniques. For this principle, the data were analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
2. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
To analyze the data on this principle, the writer made a list of activities in each teaching
stage ( pre-teaching, whilst teaching and post teaching) and the writer also provided the
duration of each activity (see Table 3). From the list of activities and the duration, the
writer saw how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the class to have various activities and
the time for each activity. This data showed how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the
students to do various activities and time allocation for each activities. For this principle,
the data were analyzed qualitatively.
10
3.
Integrating physical activities into the lesson
To analyze this principle, the writer made a list of physical activities which were
integrated in each subjects. From this data and the example of transcription, the writer saw
how the physical activities helped young learners to acquire new lessons. For this
principle, the data were analyzed qualitatively.
4.
Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
To analyze this principle, the writer counted the frequency of each type seating
arrangement that were suggested by experts (U-shaped, loop arrangement, circle
arrangement and rectangle arrangement). However, the writer also counted the frequency
of seating arrangements which were not suggested by the experts (others). This data
showed how Teacher A and Teacher B managed the seating arrangement. Therefore, the
students could learn in a social context. Besides that, from the data the writer could relate
type of seating arrangement and the type of class activity. Therefore, the writer could find
the relation of the type seating arrangement, class activity and how students could learn in
a social context. This principle was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
5.
Acquainting the students with routines
To analyze this principle, the writer made a list of routines which were acquainted by
Teacher A and Teacher B in each class and categorized them into 3 categories of why
teachers acquainted with routines, such as ; train the students to be discipline, train the
students to behave in a good manner and train the students to keep cleanliness. After that,
the writer counted the percentage of each purpose why teachers acquainted students with
routines to see which purpose that mostly become a reason for teacher to acquaint routine .
This principle was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
11
6.
Giving praise to students
To analyze this principle the writer listed the praises given by Teacher A and Teacher B in
Class X and Class Y. Then, the writer counted the frequency of praises that were given
teachers to examine whether Teacher A and Teacher gave overpraises or not. Besides that,
from the list of praises, the writer categorized the praises into 3 categorize of teachers’
reasons for praising the students such as; to appreciate good behaviors, to appreciate
students’ effort and to appreciate good work. This kind of data was used to see which
reasons that mostly used by teachers to praise the students. This principle was analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively.
12
Findings
As it is stated above, the writer would examine how the teachers implement the
principles of classroom management in preschool. In this section, the writer would discuss the
findings that were obtained during twelve times observations in Class X and Class Y . To
illustrate the data, the writer provided tables, charts and also some parts of transcriptions that
can help the readers to understand the result of the study.
A. Using suitable techniques to deliver the instruction
According to Halliwell (1992), teachers can use gesture and action to help students
understand the instructions. In this case, teachers can use body movement to model the
instructions. For instance, moving hands, closing eyes, shaking hands, etc. Then, related to the
action, the teachers can give the example of how to do the instructions. For example, the
teachers can jump when they instruct the students to jump. Meanwhile, Linse (2006) stated that
translating instructions into students’ native language can also be used as the technique to help
the students understand the instructions. However, Linse (2006) said that sometimes teachers
need to deliver the instruction into students’ native language to prevent the students to feel
uncomfortable but if the students have already understood the instructions which are delivered
in English, the teachers do need to use those techniques.
The tables below show how the teacher A and Teacher B in Class X and Class Y used the
suitable techniques to help the students understand the instructions
13
Table 1
The Percentage of the use of each technique in Class X
Day
Gesture
Action
1
3 instructions
(8%)
3 instuctions
( 17%)
0 instruction
(0%)
8 instructions
(18%)
1 instruction
(4 %)
5 instructions
( 15%)
8 instructions
(21%)
0 instructions
( 0%)
6 instructions
(30%)
1 instruction
(2 %)
5 instructions
(20%)
4 instructions
(12%)
2
3
4
5
6
Translation
( E -I )
18 instructions
(48%)
6 instructions
(33%)
5 instructions
(25%)
22 instructions
(50%)
14 instructions
(56%)
15 instructions
(46%)
English only
Repetition
5 instructions
(13%)
8 instructions
(44%)
6 instructions
(30%)
3 instructions
(7%)
5 instructions
(20%)
8 instructions
(24%)
2 instructions
(5%)
0 instructions
(0%)
1 instruction
(5%)
8 instructions
(18%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
(3%)
Bahasa
Indonesia
2 instructions
(5%)
1 instruction
(6%)
2 instructions
(10%)
2 instructions
(5%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
Table 2
The Percentage of the use of each technique in Class Y
Day
Gesture
Action
1
4 instructions
(22%)
1 instruction
(7%)
2 instructions
(7 %)
2 instructions
(13%)
2 instructions
(7%)
4 instructions
(13%)
1 instruction
(5%)
6 instructions
(43%)
6 instructions
(22%)
0 instruction
(0%)
6 instructions
(22%)
12 instructions
(39%)
2
3
4
5
6
Translation
(E-I )
10 instructions
( 56%)
3 instructions
(21%)
13 instructions
(48%)
10 instructions
(67%)
13 instructions
(48%)
10 instructions
(32%)
English only
Repetition
3 instructons
(17%)
4 instructions
(29%)
5 instructions
(19%)
2 instructions
(13%)
5 instructions
(19%)
3 instructions
(10%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
2 instructions
(7%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
(3%)
Bahasa
Indonesia
0 instruction
(0%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instruction
( 4%)
0 instruction
(0%)
1 instructions
(4%)
1 instruction
(3%)
The data which are presented in Table 1 and Table 2 show how the teacher use each
method to deliver the instruction. From six times observations, in both Class X and Class Y,
four of the observations showed that translating the instruction into students’ native language
when delivering the instruction in English achieved the highest percentage. This finding is
related to the theory which was stated by Linse (2006) . Linse (2006) stated translating the
instruction into students’ native language will make the instruction more understandable
instead of using gesture and action because according to Halliwell (1992), when the students
come to school, their native language competence have already developed. Therefore, to help
14
young learners understand the instructions, the teacher needs to translate the instruction into
the students’ native language.
Below is the example from Class X about how the teachers translated the instruction into
students’ native language which is Bahasa Indonesia and how students reacted toward the
instruction after the instruction was translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
Teacher A: Come forward! Ayo maju sedikit, tidak mundur-mundur ! (come forward, do not go
backward!)
First, the students just looked at the teacher but then, after the teacher translated the instruction into
the students’ native language, the students moved forward and did not move backward.
(Observation Day 3 in Class X)
From the example, we could see that the teachers in Class X translated the instruction into
the students’ native language. When the students did not understand the instructions which
were delivered in English, Teacher A translated the instruction into the students’ native
language and after Teacher A translated the instruction into the students’ native language, the
students did the instruction. It means that they were able to understand the instruction after the
teacher translated it into Bahasa Indonesia.
As it is stated before, besides translating the instruction in students’ native language, the
teachers also used gestures and actions when delivering the instruction. Below are the
examples that show how teachers used action and gesture to make the instructions
understandable.
15
The
he use of actions when delivering instructions
(Teacher A wrote letter H when instructed about how to write letter H)
Teacher A : Ok, goes down, goes up a half, curved, goes down!
Some students tried to write letter H by looking at what Teacher A did.
(Observation In Class X Day 3)
In this transcription, the action that was used by Teacher A was giving an example of how to
write letter ”h’’ when instructed the students to write letter ”h’’. When Teacher A acted out
her instruction, some students tried to write letter ”h’’ by looking at the example (action)
which was given by Teacher A. Therefore, from this transcription, we could see how action
was used to deliver the instruction and made the instruction understandable for young learners
learners.
The use of gestures
gesture when delivering instructions
(Teacher B opened her hands when instructed the students)
Teacher B : Ok, keep open your book!
Some students almost closed their books. Then, Teacher B opened her hands like someone who
opened the book.
16
All students left their books open.
(Observation Day 6 In Class Y)
In the picture, Teacher B opened her hands when she instructed the student to keep opening
their books. Before using gesture, some students did not understand the instruction and some
students closed their books. However, after seeing this gesture, some students who did not
understand the instruction, could follow the instruction. Therefore, from this transcption and
picture, we could see how the gesture was used to deliver the instruction and helped the students
understood the instruction which was delivered in English.
Those are the examples of using gestures and action when delivering the instructions. In
fact, gestures and action also helped the students to understand the instructions. This finding is
related to the theory which is stated by Haliwell (1992). According to him, gestures and action
are needed to make the instruction understandable.
Surprisingly, during twelve times observations, the writer also found that in delivering the
instructions, the teachers did not always use those techniques above to help the students
understand the instructions. During the observation, it was found that sometimes, teachers used
English only without any techniques to make the instruction clear, or used Bahasa Indonesia
only and repetition in English when delivering the instructions. Below is the transcription to
illustrate how Teacher A used English only when delivering
When Teacher A explained about some kinds of transportation, one student was busy playing a lego.
Teacher A : Boy, Wanna be here or outside? Outside?
Student: (Just shook his head)
Teacher A : No, Ya.. So, listen! Ok, do not play!
Then, the student stopped playing and listened to Teacher A .
(ObservationDay 2 In Class X)
17
In this case, Teacher A did not need to use the techniques to make the instruction clear
since the student had already understood the instruction. Therefore, the student could do the
instruction.
From the example above, we could see how Teacher A only used English when she was
delivering the instructions. Without using the techniques, the students had been able to follow
the instruction. This finding matched the theory which was stated by Sukarno (2008). According
to him, if the students had already understood the instruction that is delivered in English, the
teacher did not need to use any techniques to make it understandable.
In contrast, the writer also found the teachers used Bahasa Indonesia directly when
delivering the instructions. Below is the example of how Teacher B used only Bahasa Indonesia
when delivering instruction.
Teacher B : Miss bilang apa tadi? Di masukkan di tas atau di kantong! (keep it in your bag or
pocket!)
The student put the socks in the pocket.
(Observation Day 1 in Class Y)
From the example, we could see that sometimes, the teachers used Bahasa Indonesia when
delivering the instructions. This finding is related to the theory which was stated by Linse
(2006). Linse (2006) stated that using English for the whole time might cause the students feel
uncomfortable when following the lessons because they will not really understand what is being
said by the teachers. Therefore, the teachers should be wise in using English and students’ native
language.
The last finding is related to principle number one is that sometimes, the teacher also used
repetition to make the instruction understandable. Below is the example how Teacher B used
repetition when delivering the instructions.
18
Teacher B : Ok, every one! keep silent everyone! Keep silent everyone! Silent please!
All students kept silent.
(Observation Day 1In Class Y)
In this transcription, the teacher used repetition to make the instruction understandable. When
Teacher B repeated the instructions, Teacher B understood the instruction and they did the
instruction.
This finding is related to the study which was conducted by Thomson (2012) who said
that repetition also helps the students to understand the instruction because the teacher utters the
instruction in several times and it makes the students understand the instruction.
From the findings, the writer concluded that in delivering the instructions, teachers need
to use the suitable techniques. Gesture, action and translation help the students to understand the
instructions which are delivered in English. Meanwhile, delivering instruction using students’
native language directly makes the students feel comfortable and the teachers do need to use
techniques that can make the students understand the instruction if they have already been able
to understand and follow the instruction.
B. Providing various activities in each teaching stage
According to Brown (2001) in Sukarno (2008) most of children have concentration span
that is relatively short. Therefore, it is difficult for them to attend one activity for the whole
lesson. To deal with this situation, Linse (2006) stated that teachers need to provide various
activities in each teaching stage in order to make balance activities.
During twelve times observations, the writer found that to manage the activities in the
classroom, Teacher A and Teacher B provided different activities for each teaching stage. The
tables below illustrate how the teachers managed the students to keep engaged in class activities.
19
Table 3
Activities in Class X
Teaching
stage
Pre-teaching
Whilst
teaching
a.Exploration
b.Elaboration
1
2
Observation
3
4
5
6
Mention the
parts of cars
(3 minutes )
Review the
previous topic
(3 minutes)
Review
letters
(6 minutes)
Observe
provided foods
(10 minutes)
Mention the
names of
some fruits
( 4 minutes)
Counting
numbers
from 1 to
10
(3
minutes)
Discuss where
the cars can go
(4 minutes)
Mention the name
of transportations.
(3 minutes)
Learn letter
“h”
Mention and
describe taste
foods.
(15 minutes)
Mention fruits
that teacher
brought
(5minutes)
Arrange and
stick the parts of
cars and scenery
(20 minutes)
Guessing game
Guess the area of
transportation
(10 minutes)
writing letter
“h”
Taste the foods
( 10 minutes)
Arrange and
stick object
to make fruits
(15 minutes)
Guessing game
Guess vehicle that
need fuel and do
not need fuel.
( 10 minutes)
writing letter
“h”
Break Time
(10 minutes)
Mention
some
numbers
in the
cards.
(3
minutes)
Game;
Human
chain
( 25
minutes)
Taste the left
foods
( 10 minutes)
Describe the
taste of the foods
(4 minutes)
c.
Confirmation
Show the craft to
the teacher
( 2 minutes)
Guessing game
fuel or no fuel?
(3 minutes)
Matching pictures
(5 minutes)
Writing
letter “h”
Post teaching
Clean up
(1 minute)
Clean up
(1 minute)
writing letter
“ h”
Clean up
(1 minute)
Clean up
(1 minute)
Total duration
About 30
minutes
About 35 minutes
About 30
minutes
About 60
minutes
About 30
minutes
20
Count and
mention fruits
that they have
made.
( 5 minutes)
Mention
the name
of the
game.
(2
minutes)
Relaxing
activity
(2
minutes)
About 35
minutes
Table 4
Activities in Class Y
Teaching
stage
Pre-teaching
Observation
1
2
3
4
5
6
Review the last
lesson
(6 minutes)
Guess today’s
activity
(2 minutes)
Listen to the
short story
( 5 minutes)
Observe the
magnet
(3 minutes)
Stick grape
Guess who
the baker is
( 2 minutes)
Practice counting
backward
( 10 minutes)
Observe the
colors, shape of
balls.
(5 minutes)
Guess some
traffic signs
( 5 minutes)
Stick grape
Arrange the
parts of
baker.
( 10 minutes)
b.Elaboration
Do the task about
counting
backward
(20 minutes)
Do the game :
Balls estaffete
(23 minutes)
Draw and color
traffic light
( 16 minutes)
Stick grape
Stick the
objects to
make baker
(15 minutes)
c.Confirmation
Discuss the
answer with the
students
(5 minutes)
Count the balls
for each group.
( 5 minutes)
Show the
craft to the
teacher
( 1 minutes)
Show the
craft to the
teacher
(2 minutes)
Post teaching
Clean up activity
(1 minute)
Additional
activity
Having Lunch
together
(18 minutes)
About 60
minutes
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
Mention the
color of traffic
light and its’
function.
(2 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(2 minutes)
Observe what
things that
can be stick to
the magnet
(10 minutes)
Color
pictures;
which things
that can be
stick to
magnet?
( 15 minutes)
Re-mention
things that
can be stick to
magnet
(3 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
Clean up
activity
( 2 minutes)
Clean up
activity
(1 minute)
About 35
minutes
About 30
minutes
About 32
minutes
About 30
minutes
About 30
minutes
Whilst
teaching
a. Exploration
Total Duration
From those tables, we can see that from six times observations in Class X and Class Y,
five observations showed Teacher A and Teacher B provided various activites. In other words,
mostly, Teacher A and Teacher B provided various activities during teaching-learning activity.
This finding is related to the theory which was stated by Linse (2006). That is stated before,
teacher needs to provide various activities in every teaching-learning activity such as those
presented in the table of example of various activities on page 6.
From the activities that Linse suggested, we can see the similarity with the activities
which were created by the teachers in Class X and Class Y during five times observations in
21
each class. In Class X and Class Y, the writer found different activities in each teaching stage
and Linse (2006) also stated that the balance activities require different activities in each
teaching stage. Different activities in each teaching stage manage the students to keep engaged
in teaching-learning activities. Besides that, from the observations both in Class X and Class Y,
the writer found some ways of how teachers managed the activities. First, as we can see in
Table 3 and Table 4, for each pre teaching stage and exploration stage, Teacher A and Teacher B
never took time more than 10 minutes. This finding is related to the study which was conducted
by Sakui (2007). In his study he mentioned that young learners are able to fully concentrate not
more than 10 minutes. Surprisingly, in the elaboration stage, the writer found that sometimes,
Teacher A and Teacher B took 10-25 minutes to conduct an activity or task. This is against what
Sakui said. The possible explanation for this might be that in the elaboration stage, Teacher A
and Teacher B provided a task which is uneasy to do for young learners such as counting
practice. Therefore, students needed extra time to do the task. Another possible explanation
might be that in the elaboration stage, Teacher A and Teacher B provided activities that were
interesting for young learners such as coloring pictures, sticking objects, or having games. Those
activities probably were interesting for students because those activities required a lot of body
movements and suitable with their hobbies. Therefore, Teacher A and Teacher B provided long
duration for those activities. This finding is related to the study which was conducted by
Kalendova (2008). Kalendova’s study shows that young learners will always be attracted with
activities that required them to do a lot of physical movements or match with their pleasure.
One more thing related to how the teachers managed various activities is that, if the
class duration was more than 35 minutes, Teacher A and Teacher B provided an additional
activity or break time that could make students feel comfortable or relax. For instance in Class
X, when the class duration was 60 minutes, Teacher A gave a break time for students to play and
22
in Class Y when the class duration was 60 minutes, Teacher B gave an additional activity which
was having lunch together.
Anyhow, both in Class X and Class Y, there was one time in which Teacher A and Teacher
B did not provide various activities in each teaching stage. In Class X, Teacher A did not create
different activities during the Reading and Writing lesson. In table 3, we could see that there
were no different activities in confirmation and post teaching stage. However, in Class Y,
Teacher B did not create various activities in Art and Craft Class 1 because as we can see in
table 4, there were no different activities in pre-teaching and exploration stage.
This finding does not match with the theory which is stated by Linse because the writer did
not see different activites in each teaching stage. As a result, the writer found that once teacher
did not provide different activities in each teaching stage, the students started to make nosies.
Below is the transcription that shows that the students made nosies when they got bored with
unvarious activities.
In classroom, Teacher A helped student 1 to write letter “h”
Teacher A : Girl, look at this! Goes down, goes up a half, curve..
Meanwhile, some students did not do their exercise because they started to get bored with writing
practice activity.
Student 2 : Boy, aku punya gambar bagus..( Boy, I have a nice picture..) (showed flash cards)
Student 3 : Lihat.. (Let me see!)
Student 4 : Where is thumbkind.. where is thumbkind.. (sang loudly)
Some students walked around the class.
(Observation Day 3 in Class X)
From the transcription above, the writer saw that students started making noises because
they were not interested any longer in the activity. Therefore, they prefered to sing, talk each
other or walk around the class. What the writer saw in Class X and Class Y are in line with the
theory which was stated by Lines (2006). According to Linse (2006) unvarious activities causes
23
the students’ boredom and they will be uncontrolled. Therefore, the teachers have to think about
different activities in each teaching stage to avoid this chaos. This is also supported with the
study which is conducted by Sukarno. Sukarno (2008) in his study said that the more various
activities that are provided by teachers, the more interested students to follow the lessons but
unvarious activities do not attract the students to enjoy the teaching learning activities.
In conclusion, to manage the students in order to keep engaged in a lesson during the
whole class time, teachers should provide various activities with the suitable duration in each
teaching stage to make the students keep engage in teaching-learning process.
C. Integrating physical activities into the lesson
According to Brumfit, Moon and Tongue (1991) young learners are active learners who
need a lot of physical movement or activities. Therefore, to manage young learners who are
physically active, teachers need to integrate physical activities into the lesson.
These following tables illustrate how teachers in Class X and Class Y conducted
physical activities when they were learning.
Table 5
Physical activities in Class X
Subject
Art and Craft
Physical activities
Sticking items
Science
ReadingWriting
Science
Game:Matching pictures
Tracing letter “h”
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Sport
Game : Human chain
Tasting foods
Explanation
The teacher asked the students to stick some items in
the art and craft book.
The teacher asked the students to macth the pictures.
The teacher asked the students to practice tracing
letter H
The teacher asked the students to taste some healthy
foods that she brought to the class
The teacher asked the students to stick some items in
the art and craft book.
The teacher asked the students to involve in a game.
24
Table 6
Physical activities in Class Y
Subject
Physical activities
Mathematic
Writing numbers
Sport
Game : Balls estafette
Social Studies
Drawing and coloring
Science
Coloring pictures
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Art and Craft
Sticking items
Explanation
In Mathematic class, the teacher asked the students to
write numbers.
In this class, the students were asked to involve in the
game and move their body.
In this class, the students were asked to draw and color
pictures.
Same to the previous class, the students were asked to
color the pictures.
In this class, the students were asked to stick some items
in the art and craft book.
In this class, the students were asked to stick some items
in the art and craft book.
From those two tables, the writer saw that in Class X and in Class Y, six observations
showed that Teacher A and Teacher B conducted physical activities in class. This finding
showed us that mostly, teachers conducted physical activities in class to help the students
learning the lesson and this finding matches the theory which was stated by Sukarno (2008).
He said that young learners need lessons which contain physical activities to help them
understand the lesson.
Moreover, according to the previous study which was conducted by Rodliyah (2012),
mostly, young learners are kinesthetic learners which means that they have to move to
understand the lesson. Then, her study showed that it is easier for students to acquaire a new
lesson when they are allowed to do physical movement. Below is the transcription that shows
how the teacher manages the students to learn without ignoring their need to do physical
movement .
In Science class, Teacher B taught about magnet and to teach students about which things that can
be stuck to the magnet, Teacher B asked students to choose and colors some pictures of stuffs that
can be stuck to the magnet.
25
Student 1 : Yang di colour not the pencil.. pencil kan dari wood.. yang di color itu yang nail, lock,
key and needle. (do not color the pencil.. pencil is made from wood, just color the nail, lock, key
and needle..)
Student 2 : Ok... berarti pencil nggak ya? ( Ok, so the pencil is not colored isn’t it?)
Student 1 : No.. nggak.... (No)
Student 2 tried to colour the others pictures.
(Observation Day 4 in Class Y)
In this case, the physical activity was coloring the pictures. The students were asked to color
the pictures of some stuffs that can be stuck to the magnet. Therefore, toward this activity, the
students were able to acquire a new lesson about “which stuffs that can be stuck to the magnet
and which stuff that cannot be stuck to the magnet” through coloring the pictures. During the
lesson, Teacher B integrated physical activities which was coloring pictures to help the
students understand the lesson.
As the conclusion, to manage the classes of young learners who love to do physical
movement, teachers integrated the physical movement into the lesson. The students can
acquire the new lesson without losing the chances to do physical movement.
D. Providing seating arrangement that promotes learning in a social context
According to Cameron (2001), young learners need to learn in a social context by having
interaction. Cameron (2001) also said that interaction can be conducted by having simple
discussions and also sharing stuffs. To fulfill this need, Weinstein and Mignano (2007)
suggested teachers to provide a seating arrangement that promotes learning in social context
such as; loop arrangement, U-shaped arrangement, rectangle arrangement and circle
arrangement.
26
During twelve times observations in Class X and Class Y, the writer found that teachers
also applied this principle. The tables and charts below illustrate the findings.
Table 7
Seating arrangement in Class X
Subject
Loop
Art and Craft
Science
Reading-writing
Fun Tuesday
Art and craft
Sport
Circle
Ushaped
Rectangle
Other
Figure 1
Seating Arrangement in Class X
Seating Arrangement
Others
0%
U-shaped
0%
Rectangle
50%
Circle
50%
Loop
0%
Table 8
Seating arrangement in Class Y
Subject
Mathematic –
Science (Fun
Thursday)
Sport
Social studies
Loop
Circle
Ushaped
√
Rectangle
Other
√
√
√ (Row
arrangement)
Science
Art and craft
√
Art and craft
√
√ (Row
arrangement)
27
Figure 2
Seating Arrangement in Class Y
Seating Arrangement
Others
29%
Rectangle
14%
U-shaped Loop
0%
0%
Circle
57%
By looking at those tables and figures, the writer found that during six times
observations in Class X, Teacher A only applied two kinds of seating arrangement which
were ; circle and rectangle seating arrangement. Meanwhile, in Class Y, the writer found that
Teacher B applied three kinds of seating arrangement which were rectangle arrangement,
circle arrangement and row arrangement (others). In this case, row seating arrangement is
considered as “other” since actually, this type does not recommended for kindergarten
students.
Based on the observations, both in Class X and Class Y the teachers used seating
arrangement based on the purposes of activities that were conducted during teaching learning
activity. The teachers used circle seating arrangement when the activities required students to
have a lot of discussions. For example, circle arrangement was used in Class X when teacher
A was teaching about transportations. In this class, the students were required to have a lot of
discussions when mentioning the names of transportations and the characteristics of
transportations. The picture and transcription below illustrate the situation when students
were seating in a circle arrangement.
28
Circle Arrangement In Class X
T
T = Teacher
s
s
s
S = Students
s
s
s
Discussion 1 (The name of transportations)
Teacher A : Now, let’s see! Let’s see if you still remember those transportation. How about this one?
( showed a picture of car) What picture is it?
Students : Car...
Teacher A : Car.. Ok..what about this one? What is it? (showed a picture bike)
Student 1 : Itu bike ya ? ( it is a bike isn’t it?)
Student2
: Iya, itu bike... aku punya bike..do you have bike? (Yes, that’s a bike, i have one)
Student 3 : Iya tapi aku call that bicycle..( Yes, but I call that bicycle)
Student 4 : Iya.. I have bike.. ( Yes, I have bike)
Teacher A : You can say this ( still showing a picture of bike) bike or bicycle.
Discussion 2 (Decide what kinds of transportations that go on land)
Teacher A : Ok, which transportation, which transportation go on land? Kendaraan apa saja yang
jalannya di darat? ( Which vehicles that go on land?) Can you mention some of them?
Student 1 : Bus..
Student 2
: Car..
Teacher A : Car.. what else?
Student 3 : Motorcycle
Discussion 3 (Decide whether the vehicle need fuel or do not need fuel)
29
Teacher A
: Ok, helicopter machine or no machine?
Students
: Machine..
Teacher A
: Ok, how about car?
Students
: Car.
Teacher A
: Machine or no machine?
Students
: Machine !
Teacher A
:Ya.. good job! Machine.. Now, bicycle. Machine or no machine?
Students
: No machine
( Observation Day 2 in Class X)
From the pictures and the transcriptions above, we could see that circle arrangement
was used when the students need a lot of discussions. Circle arrangement allowed the
students to conduct discussions with the wider group. In the circle arrangement, the students
could conduct discussions with the whole members of the class. That’s why the circle
arrangement is suitable for the class activity that requires a lot of discussions.
Besides that, circle seating arrangement was also applied when the class activity
required the students to do a lot of physical movement. As we can see in Table 7 and Table 8,
both in class X and Class Y, circle arrangement was applied in sport class because in sport
class, the students were asked to do a lot of physical movement. However, in Class X, this
type was also used in science class when the students were asked to be involved actively in
game. From this finding the writer concluded that circle seating arrangement was used when
the students were required to be physically active because according to Scrivener (2012),
circle seating arrangement enables students to move freely. Besides that, the writer found that
in circle seating arrangement, Teacher A sat between two students (see picture circle
arrangement). This position enabled all students to see the teacher and the teacher can also
controll the whole members in class when conducting discussion.
30
Meanwhile, mostly, the teachers used rectangle seating arrangement when the
students were required to do the activities that do not need a lot of discussions but need more
focus when doing the tasks. For example, in Class Y, rectangle seating arrangement was used
in Mathematics class. The pictures below illustrate rectangle seating arrangement in Class Y.
Rectangle arrangement in Class Y (Observation Day 1 in Class Y)
T
( The students were asked to sit in a group of four to five)
T : Teacher
The picture above showed that rectangle arrangement facilitated the students to have
discussion in smaller groups. They were still able to conduct discussions but the discussions
happened in smaller groups and the discussions in the rectangle seating arrangement did not
happen as often as the discussions in the circle seating arrangement. As we can see in the
example, in Mathematics class, the students were required to do a lot of practices counting
backward. Durin