A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING ACTIVITIES ON THE ABILITY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION STUDENTS TO DESIGN PROJECTS FOR PROMOTING HEALTH AND SAFETY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to: 1) examine the effects of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) activities on the ability of early childhood education students to design projects for promoting health and safety in early childhood, and 2) to investigate students’ satisfaction with the activities. The problems were based on real situations related to health and safety of young children. Students applied the PBL process, which consisted of 1) problem identification, 2) problem analysis, 3) hypothesis formulation, 4) research and inquiry, 5) project design, and 6) presentation and discussion, to systematically design the projects. The sample consisted of 30 first-year students in the Early Childhood Education Program, Faculty of Education, Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the Royal Patronage, during the first semester of the 2024 academic year. They were selected through Cluster Sampling. The research instruments included a project design ability assessment form, a satisfaction questionnaire has high precision (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89) and pre-test and post-test knowledge assessments. Data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test
The results revealed that: 1) students’ ability to design projects for promoting health and safety in early childhood after participating in Problem-Based Learning activities was at a high level and significantly higher than before the activities at the .05 level, and 2) students’ satisfaction with the Problem-Based Learning activities was at a high level. These findings demonstrated that Problem-Based Learning effectively enhanced students’ project design skills and promoted learning satisfaction.