Teachers’ Perceptions Towards The Use of Play Based Curriculum in Language and Literacy Development For Preschoolers

Preschool education focuses on child-centered curriculum using a variety of activities that require the child to participate actively such learn through play, explore the environment, doing experiments, trial and error. This article discusses the findings on the study of teachers’ understandings and perceptions towards the use of play based curriculum in language and literacy development of preschoolers. The four main providers of preschool education namely MOE, KEMAS, JPN, and private sectors were involved in the study. Quantitative method using questionnaire was employed for data collections. The respondents consisted of 60 preschool teachers from the Hulu Langat district in Selangor but only 51 respondents returned the questionnaire. Respondents were selected using simple random sampling. The findings showed that respondents have good perceptions towards play-based curriculum but unsure on how to do it . Results of One Way ANOVA showed types of preschool, academic qualifications and duration of teaching experiences were not the main factors that determined teachers’ levels of perceptions towards the use of play based curriculum in the development of language and literacy skills for preschoolers. Comparisons of teachers’ perceptions point to the importance of incorporating play activities in their teaching and learning and that collaborations among the four providers of preschool education need to be established in order to strengthen the national preschool curriculum particularly in developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood.