Development of Plant Leanring Package for Early Childhood in Mae Rim and Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to: 1) develop plant learning package for early childhood in educational institutions in Mae Rim and Mae Tang districts, Chiang Mai province; 2) investigate the quality of plant learning materials for early childhood students; and 3) examine the effect of using plant learning materials on executive functioning skills (EF) and essential mathematical skills in early childhood education. The population consisted of 15 early childhood teachers and 240 early childhood students aged 4-6 years in the second semester of the 2020 academic year from two educational institutions under the Department of Local Administration and two educational institutions under the Office of the Private Education Commission. The research instruments included an interview form, a plant data record form, an objective and content validity assessment form, an educational material quality assessment form, an executive function skill test, and a mathematics quiz for pre-primary children. The data were analyzed by mean and percentage and content analysis.

The results showed that three plant learning media for early childhood students were a Big Book collection to improve executive functioning (EF) skills for early childhood students aged 5–6 years, educational games to enhance essential mathematical skills for early childhood students aged 4–5 years, and unplugged coding activities to enhance essential mathematical skills for early childhood students aged 5–6 years. Experts determined that the objective and content validity were at the appropriate level. After implementing the set of plant learning media for early childhood students, the scores on the test of executive functioning (EF) skills and essential mathematical skills for early childhood children were higher than before the implementation.