PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN THE 21st CENTURY

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to develop a manual for developing the competency of early childhood education students in organizing early childhood education teaching activities in the 21^st century to achieve the efficiency criterion of 80/80; 2) to compare the competency of early childhood education students before and after the intervention. The sample group, obtained through purposive sampling, consisted of 100 early childhood education students. The research tools were the learning management manual based on the 21^st century and the pre-and post-tests. Statistics for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, percentage, and t-test using a statistical software package.

The research results could be summarized as follows:

1. The manual for developing competency of early childhood education students in organizing early childhood teaching activities for early childhood aligned with 21^st century standards consisted of six main activities. The manual achieved an efficiency of 93.20/91.60, which was higher than the defined criteria of 80/80.

2. The competency of early childhood education students in organizing teaching activities for early childhood in the 21st century showed differences before and after the intervention at the 0.05 level of significance. Their post-intervention average scores were higher than those before the intervention.