Using Scientific Methods to Enhance Early Childhood Students’ Geometry Thinking

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to describe the geometry learning process using the scientific method in learning the concept of geometry for early childhood. The series of learning activities were conducted using four stages of scientific methods. Participants were 46 children (4-5 years) and a teacher in one of the kindergartens in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. This study used explanatory design research to achieve the purpose, one type of mix method research. The geometry test and student activities observation sheet were used as data collection instruments, whereas for analyzing the data, descriptive statistic, and gain-N-gain were performed. Based on the hypothesis testing (sig.000, df 45, t-test 14.574) and the N-gain percent score (45,39%), the result shows that conducting scientific methods in geometry learning can improve children's understanding of geometry especially in recognizing the shape of geometry (in the medium category N-gain=0.453). Observations held during learning activities using scientific methods also show that children to be more imaginative and creative in thinking of geometry.