Integrating movement activities to improve preschool students gross motor skills through collaborative lesson planning

• Main Author: Piccio, Rizza Joy
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Education, Preschool—Activity programs; Early childhood education—Activity programs; Lesson planning; Motor ability in children; Early Childhood Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_elmd/29; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdm_elmd/article/1034/viewcontent/2023_Piccio_CompleteVersionETD_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Collaborative Lesson Planning (CLP) engages teachers who are teaching in the same grade level or content to plan together across curricular areas on a weekly basis and implement the lessons. This collaborative study involved preschool teachers(n1=3) who used the CLP strategy to improve the learning plans, provide movement activities, and improve the gross motor skills of pupils(n2 =34). This action research employed a mixed method quasi-experimental approach. Quantitative data were gathered from the pretest and post-test scores of the Early Childhood Care and Development Gross Motor Domain Checklist (ECCD). Qualitative data were obtained from the field notes during lesson observations and from the teachers' responses to the open-ended self-report questionnaires. Data gathered from the ECCD gross motor domain checklist were tallied. The yielded ECCD raw scores were converted to scaled scores for interpretation, which revealed a mean score of 11.92 with a standard deviation equivalent to 1.3566 and a gain score of 4.5294. Qualitative data on the other hand was analyzed using the inductive thematic analysis approach. Results showed that collaborative lesson planning yielded the following themes: opportunities to learn and exchange new ideas and strategies with others, positive changes observed among students, and challenges encountered in implementing the intervention. Movement activities intervention showed a hundred percent average overall development in the domain and an increase in the performance of the identified gross motor skills based on the ECCD gross motor domain checklist. Lastly, students were found to be more active and participative both in and out of classroom activities. This study recommended the use of CLP in preparing lessons to improve the students’ movement experiences and support their gross motor skills. Keywords: preschool, collaborative lesson planning, early childhood, gross motor skills checklist, movement activities, psychomotor skills