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Needs Assessment

A needs analysis was collated through the findings from an interview with the principal.

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Three main categories of needs were retrieved from the findings:

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NEEDS IDENTIFIED

Teachers

  • Unwillingness to participate in play

  • Unpreparedness to join in play scenarios due to lack in training

  • Teachers’ job scope entails many tasks

    • Lack of time​

    • Responsibilities: Creating resources, setting up learning environment, communicating with parents

Parents

  • Lack confidence in the feasibility  of a play-based curriculum

  • Lack of participation in school events

    • Scheduling conflicts

  • Lack in contribution of materials to play environment

Resources

  • Lack of materials

    • Role playing resources in the school are supplied by parents, who do not participate actively

  • Teachers collect contextual and natural materials for the learning environment

For this project, we will be focusing on parental involvement.​

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Parents need to believe in play-based learning for them to best support their child and the inclusion of play in the curriculum (Rice, 2014). 

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Benefits of parental engagement include:

  • Enhancement of student achievement and well-being

  • Increased motivation

  • Higher grades

  • Better behaviour and social skills

  • More likely to continue their education to a higher level
    (Halton,n.d.)

 

Importance of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

 

Alongside, pre-schools value the importance of parental involvement as well. Teachers need parents to support pre-school programmes and trust their professionalism in providing the best care and education for their children. Only with constant parent's participation and involvement, a strong home-school partnership based on care, respect and trust can be built. This will contribute to children's love for learning, and ensuring that it continues beyond the pre-school– including their further education, work and life (Karuppiah, 2017).

 

As mentioned by the principal of E preschool, she stated that parent's involvement is crucial in the school through collaborations like Parent Support Group (PSG), storytelling sessions and even a project to set up a community playground for the children. Hence, we wanted to focus our project on parental involvement.

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