The Development of democratic behavior of Preschool children who received The Organizing Free Play or Creative Play based on the High/Scope Approach , Wat Tha Bot School, Hankha District, Chai Nat Province

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) study the relationship between preschool children’s democratic behavior before and after implementing free choice activities based on the High/Scope approach, and 2) compare preschool children’s democratic behavior before and after implementing free choice activities based on the High/Scope approach. The population consisted of 1 classroom with 15 preschool children, boys and girls, aged 5-6 years, studied in Kindergarten 3 in the second semester of the academic year 2024 at Wat Tha Bot School, Chai Nat Province.  The research instruments included 24 free choice activities based on the High/Scope approach lesson plans, with an IOC of 1.00, and a preschool children’s democratic behavior observation form. The experiment lasted 8 weeks, 3 days a week, 50 minutes a day during free choice activities period. The statistics used for data analysis were population mean, population standard deviation, and the Chi-square test.

                   The research findings revealed that 1) there was a relationship in preschool children’s democratic behavior before and after implementing free choice activities based on the High/Scope approach with statistical significance at the .05 level; and 2) preschool children’s democratic behavior after implementing free choice activities based on the High/Scope approach was higher than before the experiment in both overall and each aspect.