The Effect of Guided Inquiry Learning Model on Creativity and Linguistic Ability Viewed from Social Interaction Ability among Kindergarten Children of Group B

I Made Elia Cahaya^1* ; Ketut Suarni² ; Nyoman Dantes³ ; I Gede Margunayasa⁴

^1,2,3,4Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Indonesia.

Abstract

This study analyzed the effect of guided inquiry learning model on creativity viewed from social interaction skill of the kindergarten children of group B in North Kuta district, Badung regency. This study used the 2x2 factorial design. The population was all kindergarten B’s in the North Kuta district with the total of 1.951 children from 49 schools, divided into 7 clusters. The sample was drawn by multistage random sampling technique creating 8 learning groups with 4 experimental groups and 4 control groups each of which consisted of 76 children. The study used a child’s social interaction ability observation sheet and a child’s creativity observation sheet as the instruments. The data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA. The data analysis revealed that (1) there is a significant difference in child’s creativity between children who learned with guided inquiry learning model and those who learned with conventional teaching model (F= 18.874; p<0.05) and (2) there is a significant interaction effect between learning model and social interaction ability on creativity (F= 15.975; p<0.05). The children who had a high social interaction would be more efficient if they were taught by using guided inquiry learning model in achieving the students’ creativity, meanwhile the students who had a low social interaction would be more efficient if they were taught by using conventional learning model.

Keywords:Guided inquiry learning model, Social interaction, Creativity.

Contribution of this paper to the literature: The result of this research strengthen the theory of guided inquiry learning model which had an effect toward the creativity of children in kindergarten. The application of guided inquiry learning model also interacted with the social interaction ability owned by the children. The children who had a high social interaction would be more efficient if they were taught by using guided inquiry learning model in achieving the students’ creativity, meanwhile the students who had a low social interaction would be more efficient if they were taught by using conventional learning model. So, the children’s social interaction ability needs to be identified before applying the appropriate learning model.

1. Introduction

This study was an effort in preparing high quality human resources. In relation to this, earlier education is one of the efforts of starting education at the earliest time since birth time up to age 6. Early education is based on age group and type of service, which consists of; a) early education service for children from birth time up to age six which consists of a day care center, the same type early education unit and the equivalent, b) early education for ages two to four that consists of play group and the equivalent, c) early education for ages four to six that consists of kindergarten /raudhatul athfal/ bustanul athfal and the equivalent.  Children of ages four to six who enter kindergarten are grouped into group A for ages four to five and group B for ages five to six.

Ages of five to six are the ages of preparation for entering elementary education. The education in these ages uses stimulations by using various skills and physical, motor, cognitive, language, social emotional condition, art, religious values and moral values.  Children like to learn and explore the world with all its potentials. The beginning of childhood  which include ages five to six is regarded  the time for learning  since at these ages children  are brave so that they like to try new things to master various skills (Elizabeth, 2012).

Bravery and the pleasure in trying new things are the potential that enables children to learn many things. In developing their potentials, teachers need to help children develop various skills and knowledge though stimulations with physical activity, imagination, thinking ability and problem solving. Solving problems needs critical thinking ability in finding and determining various possible alternative solutions. Thinking ability, imagination, and creating something that is resulted from child’s creativity through processing unique and useful ideas. Every child  has creative potential in his or herself, which means  that actually  it is natural that every child is creative  It implies that preschool child’s creativity can be stimulated by giving the child to think divergently (Mary, 2002).

Traditional education is strongly oriented toward quantity and depends solely on knowledge and is considered unable to supply them students with competencies that are necessary in life. Hence, the type of education that is wanted now is education that takes part contextually  (Marhaeni & Artini, 2015). Teachers who are competent in planning, designing, and implementing appropriate teaching in developing creativity ability will be able to select and utilize an appropriate teaching model. The teaching has to  be designed correctly in the form of  learning experiences that meet the curriculum expectation (Marhaeni & Artini, 2015). Guided inquiry is one of the models of teaching that is oriented toward children and provides opportunities for children to have learning experience and construct the children’s knowledge.  Teachers who have training experience and good  understanding of principles and models of teaching based on inquiry are more able to plan  and apply inquiry activities that are students’ centered so that the students will have control of their own learning (Kong & Song, 2014). Guided inquiry learning model gives freedom to learn to children by exploration, questions posting, discussing and presenting  the results. Through this teaching model children’s creativity potentials can be developed by stimulating the students’ curiosity, imagination and problem solving.

The result of an interview with some teachers of early child education, heads of kindergartens and chair of Ikatan Guru Taman Kanak-Kanak ( IGTKI) / Kindergarten Teacher Association in North Kuta district indicated that in the teaching process teachers of early child education to feel more comfortable to implement the type of teaching that is commonly implemented in which the teacher is still the major source of information. This may have been caused by the teacher’s limited knowledge about various teaching models, the limited ability to manage and implement teaching models, and the uncomfortable feeling of the teaching models. The result of a preliminary study showed that 61% of teachers never implemented guided inquiry learning (Cahaya, 2018).

In  selecting  teaching models for early education children a teacher has to pay attention and considers some  things which include  suitability with children’s age, children’s level of cognitive development, teacher’s ability and readiness to prepare and manage teaching, suitability with the objectives and children’s developmental achievements. Vygotsky introduced an interesting idea about the relation between learning and development (John, 2008). This idea specifically reflects his view that cognitive function comes from social situation.  His concept was the zone of proximal development (ZPD), that is, a series of tasks that are difficult to be mastered by a child  independently but can be learned with the help from an adult or a more able child. The technique that is related to ZPD is scaffolding, that is, a technique to change the level of support along the teaching process by a more able person (a teacher or a smarter friend) which adjusts the amount of guidance to the child’s ability. After the child’s ability increases, the guidance or support can be reduced. Researchers found that when scaffolding is used by the teacher and peers in collaborative learning, the child will be helped in his or her learning process (PressIey, John, & Wolfgang, 1987). This principle is suitable for children of early ages.

The inquiry learning model is a teaching model that focuses on children, in which they are engaged in a problem or in search of an answer to questions in a procedure and group structure that is clearly designed. Trowbridge & Bybee, 1990 grouped inquiries into three levels, namely simple inquiry (discovery), guided inquiry and open inquiry based on the role of the teacher and students in the inquiry process. In a simple inquiry the teacher formulates  problems  and work procedure and the students are facilitated to work and identify the results (Rizima, 2013).  Guided inquiry can be applied in the process of teaching children of early ages.

Guided inquiry is a teaching model in which the teacher gives examples, specific topics and guide children to understand the topics. This model is effective for encouraging children to be involved and motivating them and helping them to a deeper and clearer understanding about the topics that they learn (Paul & Don, 2012). The teaching with guided inquiry encourages and motivates children to learn topics through examples and the role of the teacher as facilitator.

Guided inquiry also applies an educational system which was developed by Indonesia’s Father of Education, Ki Hajar Dewantara, namely the Among System which is a method that is based on case and dedication based on love.  The education that follows the Among System is based on two things, namely the power of nature as the condition for bringing to life and reaching progress quickly and freedom as the condition for bringing to life and moving  physical and mental strengths of children to enable them to live independently. The Among System is often associated with  the principle of Ing ngarso sung  tulodo, Ing madya mangun karsa, Tut Wuri Handayani (Washington, 2001). The level of the mastery of the object of children taught with constructivist approach that is based on inquiry is better than that of those taught with the conventional model (Putrayasa, 2013).

Inquiry learning process as explained above corresponds with the principle of scaffolding, the teacher as facilitator who guides children gradually and the amount of guidance is reduced in keeping with the level of development so that the children will be able to learn various things according to their ways, interests, needs and levels of understanding. By developing children’s creativity through inquiry learning it is expected that we can meet the demands of the 21st education in preparing students to master knowledge and skills to succeed as  effective citizens, workers  and leaders  in line with the goals of the 21st education or  4C’s supper skills: creativity, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Some studies on guided inquiry show that the result of social studies learning of children who were taught with guided inquiry was higher than that of those who were taught with the conventional method (Eyiuche & Oge, 2013). Inquiry based teaching also has  a significant effect on the cognitive  learning process (Zaini, 2016). It enhances critical thinking ability, problem formulation, hypothesis formulation, data collection and analysis, and conclusion drawing. The students’ level of performance of the children who were treated with  traditional method  and process oriented  guided  inquiry learning showed that process oriented guided inquiry can enhance the level of performance and academic achievement better than the traditional teaching method (Villagonzalo, 2014). Children tend to learn better in a cooperative environment and the lesson is presented using process oriented guided inquiry learning model.

The opportunity to interact socially with others is a very important factor in children’s development.  Through the social interaction the children start to know and develop their own identity and to understand other people.  The ability to interact strengthens children in exploring, investigating, posing questions, and stating many ideas without fear. Children who mostly interact with their environment have many opportunities to learn and undergo experiences in an increasingly wider environment. Some factors  that can influence creativity include students and creative teaching (Gupta, 2015). Personal quality, cognitive style, family factor, education and carrier experience, belief, self-effort, motivation, the teacher’s knowledge, fear to fail, collaboration and cooperation, competition and conflict, and creative experience can influence teacher’s creativity and teachers teaching behavior. Children’s creativity potential will become actualized optimally in a supporting environment, since all of children’s ideas and imagination can be expressed openly when adults and peers appreciate and admit the children’s creativity ability.

The ability to interact with peers is a supporting factor for the child in learning process. Social interaction ability will facilitate children to adapt and develop partnership with their friends as to enable them to develop linguistic ability in obtaining learning experiences optimally.  Good social interaction ability plays an important role in linguistic development and social relation that support and motivate children in sharing, playing, and spending time together (Piker & Rex, 2008). Through guided inquiry learning and with the support from social interaction ability will support children in enhancing their linguistic ability, since this teaching encourages and trains children to use language in every stage and activity.

Children’s creativity is supported by their social interaction ability social interaction ability is the means to develop relations, communication and partnership with others and the environment. This ability enables children to communicate and socialize with the environment. This ability will give self-confidence to the children to express and communicate their various creative ideas to other people. Based on the theoretical explanation, relevant research findings and the result of the preliminary observation a study was conducted with the goal of analyzing the effect of guided inquiry learning on children’s creativity viewed from social interaction ability among the kindergarten children of group B in North Kuta district, Badung regency.

1.1. Research Focus

This study analyzed the effect of guided inquiry learning model on creativity viewed from social interaction skill of the kindergarten children of group B in North Kuta district, Badung regency.

2. Methods

2.1. Study Design

This study used factorial design. The researcher determined the effect of two independent variables both separately and the effect of interaction between the independent variables. The effect of each independent variable is called the main effect. The effect of interaction between two or more independent variables is called the interaction effect (Gall, Joyce, & Walter, 2003). The factorial design  is an elaboration of  true experiment and enables the research to study two or more variables  separately  or the interaction between variables (Gay, 1987). The factorial design used in this study was the 2x2 design. The study constellation is presented in the following Table 1.

Table-1. Study Design.

Source: Modified from Kerlinger (2000).

A1: the group of children treated with guided inquiry teaching model.

A2: group of children treated with conventional teaching.

B1: the group of children with a high social interaction ability. 

B2: group of children with a low social interaction ability.

Y: children’s creativity.

The teaching model tested in this study was guided inquiry learning. The experiment group learned through guided inquiry learning model. Before this study was conducted at school the teaching was done using the conventional teaching. Thus, the control group was treated with the conventional teaching model. The same material was given to the two groups or the experiment and the control groups. The sequence of material presentation in the two groups was the same. The difference lay in the models of teaching used.

In this study  guided inquiry learning model is defined as the teaching model that enables  children  to play the role of active learning agents in constructing knowledge and experience  through  directions and clues in the form of questions by doing investigation, exploration, investigation, search, examination, and research that use  instruments and learning resources  through scaffolding process. The teaching syntax for the experiment group followed guided inquiry learning model which can be summed up on Table 2.

Table-2. Syntax of the experiment group teaching.

Stages	Children’s activities
Posing questions	Forming groups Answering questions asked by the teacher Listening to objectives and teaching materials Listening to the coverage of the teaching materials
Finding answers	Observing pictures shown by the teacher (observing) Answering question asked by the teacher Making hypothesis (collecting information)
Exploring probabilities	Preparing tools and materials Observing pictures and media (observing, collecting information) Doing a group discussion Doing group work in student’s worksheet based on the result of observation and discussion
Presenting findings	Presenting the result of group work in front of the class Giving a response to the result of the presentation of the group who presented the result Listening to the reinforcement of concept that have been presented by the teacher Listening to examples of the application examples in daily life Concluding teaching materials with the teacher’s guidance Doing individual task in student’s worksheet

Source: Coffman (2009).

2.2. Population and Sample

The population of this study was all kindergarten B’s in North Kuta district with the total number of 1,951 children, consisting of 49 schools, divided into seven clusters. The sample was drawn by using a multistage random sampling technique.

According to Creswell the steps of sampling in multistage random sampling is as follows:

(1) determining the site of study as population, selecting 25% randomly based on clusters, so that the reachable population in this study was two clusters, namely Gugus Mawar and Gugus Cempaka that consisted of 29 kindergartens with the total number of 718 children.
(2) finding learning groups randomly, thus eight learning groups were selected with the total number of 152 children.
(3) determining four experimental groups with 76 children and four control groups  with 76 children selected  randomly as shown in Table 3.

Table-3.  Sample of the study.

No.	Cluster	Sample
		Kindergarten Name	Eksperiment group	Control group
1.	Mawar	Widya Kumara Umalas	-	19
		Thomas Aquino	24	-
		Dharma Kumara I Tibubeneng	-	26
		Widya Puspita	19	-
2.	Cempaka	Dewi Kunti I	18	-
		Tunas Mekar I	-	15
		Dewi Kunti II	-	16
		Tunas Mekar II	15	-
Total			76	76

2.3. Instruments for Collecting Data

The data collected in this study were on social interaction ability and creativity. To collect the data needed in this study, some instruments were used: an observation sheet of social interaction and an observation sheet of creativity. The observation sheet of social interaction was used to collect data on social interaction (reliability = 0.99). The observation sheet consisted of 10 indicators. The observation sheet of creativity was used to collect data on creativity (reliability = 0.99). The observation sheet consisted of 8 indicators. The indicators of social interaction as shown in Table 4 and the indicators of creativity as shown in Table 5.

Table-4. Social interaction dimension and indicator.

Source: Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia (2014).

Table-5. Dimensions and Indicators of Creativity.

Source: Alia (2013).

2.4. Data Analysis Technique

There were three stages of data analysis in this study, namely (1) data description, (2) testing analysis prerequisites and (3) hypothesis testing. The data analysis in this study covered descriptive analysis, prerequisite testing, and inferential analysis. The descriptive analysis yielded mean (M) and standard deviation (SD).  Then, prerequisite testing consisted of two-way ANOVA to test the hypothesis of the study that was continued to post hoc test. To test it SPSS 17.0 was used.

3. Results and Discussion 

The result of analysis of data on children’s creativity based on the teaching model  and social interaction ability can be seen on Table 6. Based on Table 6 two hypotheses were  tested, namely: 1) there is a difference in creativity between children  who learned with  guided inquiry learning model and those who learned with the conventional teaching among  the kindergarten children of group B in North Kuta district, Badung regency, and 2) there is the effect of interaction between teaching model and social interaction ability on  creativity among the kindergarten children of group B in North Kuta district, Badung regency.

Table-6. Mean of Children’s Creativity (Y).

Before testing hypotheses prerequisite testing was done first that covered normality testing, and homogeneity testing. Normality testing was done with Kolmogorov - Smirnov test. The result of analysis for all data groups of children’s creativities yielded a significance level less than 0.05. Thus it can be concluded that all groups of data on children’s creativity in this study came from a population with a normal distribution. Variance homogeneity testing was done using F-test and Bartlet Test. The result of the test showed that Fobs. was smaller than Fc.v. so that the data on children’s creativity for the groups who learned with teaching models and social interaction ability  have homogeneous variances. Since the prerequisite testing has been met, the testing of hypotheses can be done and the results can be seen in Table 7.

Table-7. Result of  Hypothesis Testing

Source	Dependent Variable	Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Corrected Model	Y	428.000	3	142.667	26.927	0.000
Intercept	Y	93391.360	1	93391.360	17627.663	0.000
A	Y	100.000	1	100.000	18.874	0.000
B	Y	243.360	1	243.360	45.931	0.000
A * B	Y	84.640	1	84.640	15.975	0.000
Error	Y	508.640	96	5.298
Total	Y	94328.000	100
Corrected Total	Y	936.640	99