Educational Interaction in Early Childhood Classroom Management
Iip Saripah and Ishak Abdulhak
Department of Non-Formal Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jln Dr Setiabudhi 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Educational Interaction, Classroom Management, Early Childhood Education.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe a classroom management in an early childhood education program.
The teaching and learning process requires interaction between teachers and students and between students
and students. A good classroom management will be based on teaching principles by taking account of
appropriate, systematic, practical and flexible teaching strategies. This study attempted to describe
educational interaction procedures in early childhood program at the Community Learning Center (PKBM)
of Sukamulya, Cinambo, Bandung. To this end, a qualitative descriptive study was carried out. The research
instruments included participant observation, in-depth interview and document analysis. The participants
were 17 learner’s parents, 1 program administrator, and 1 tutor. It is expected that classroom management
could be implemented as a conscious effort to organize teaching and learning activities systematically. This
includes preparing instructional materials, preparing learning facilities and properties, preparing classroom,
time management, setting up seating arrangement to ensure a good process of teaching and learning. The
seating arrangement is changed periodically to keep students from feeling boredom in learning. The early
childhood classroom requirements at the Sukamulya PKBM has been set up to facilitate early childhood needs
and development.
1 INTRODUCTION
Instruction refers to teaching-learning activities to
achieve desired objectives. Educational interaction is
aimed at educating and facilitating early childhood
development. Teaching is a conscious effort with a
systematic purpose to facilitate the learners’
development. One of the teacher’s main
responsibilities is to organize an effective, efficient,
dynamic, and positive teaching and learning process,
which is characterized by active involvement of the
teacher and learners. Teaching is a systematic and
systemic activity consisting of many components.
These components do not work severally, but are
interdependent and inter-complementary. Thus, a
good teaching management becomes a necessity. A
good teaching management should be developed in
accordance with teaching principles by taking
account of appropriate, systematic, conceptual but
practical, realistic and flexible teaching strategies.
In the teaching and learning process, a positive
interaction between the teacher and the learners is
required in order for the instructional objectives to be
achieved. This paper will discuss the definition and
nature of teaching management and teaching
approaches.
There are many components associated with
teaching and learning activities such as curriculum,
teachers, and learners. In non-formal education
setting, the role of teacher is as a facilitator that is
demanded to encourage the students to participate in
the teaching and learning activities.
The students play a role both as a subject and
object. The teacher should at the very beginning
prepare the students to socialize with their
environment by implementing different types of
teaching models to facilitate students’ development.
The students’ involvement in a teaching and learning
process is called participative teaching and learning.
2 RESEARCH METHODS
This research was designed using a
phenomenological qualitative approach (Moleong,
2000). Specifically, this research used a descriptive
analysis method. This research took place during a
semester of teaching and learning process, so the
researchers were able to observe the interaction
Saripah, I. and Abdulhak, I.
Educational Interaction in Early Childhood Classroom Management.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 425-427
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
425

process. The objects of intervention were 1 program
administrator, 1 tutor, and 17 learners’ parents at the
Sukamulya PKBM. The research data were collected
through participant observation, in-depth interview
and document analysis.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The Implementation of Classroom
Management Procedures in Early
Childhood Program at the
Community Learning Center
(PKBM) of Sukamulya, Cinambo,
Bandung
The classroom management in early childhood
program at the Sukamulya PKBM was implemented
by ensuring a safety and comfortable learning in order
for the students to be able to explore and interact with
their environment in accordance with the early
childhood developmental stage. According to
Thompson (Mikarsa et al., 2002), education is the
influence of environment on an individual in
establishing new behaviors, thinking, and attitudes.
Similarly, Crow and Crow (Mikarsa et al., 2002) put
forward: The main function of education is to guide
an individual to meet his needs and desire in
accordance with his potential so that he is satisfied
with his personal and social life.
This goes to say that education is not merely a
process of knowledge transfer and skill development,
but also an effort to realize an individual’s desires and
needs to achieve satisfactory persona and social life.
In this respect, education is not only deemed as a
vehicle to prepare an individual future life, but also
for his present life.
According Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan
Nasional No. 20 (2003) on National Education
System Article 1 Paragraph 1, education is a
conscious and well-planned effort to create an
atmosphere and process of learning so that learners
actively develop their spiritual power, self-control,
personality, intelligence, noble character, as well as
personal and social skills.
A well-planned classroom management is
generally aimed at improving effectiveness and
efficiency in achieving instructional objectives.
Among these instructional objectives are physical
activities and socio-emotional management. Based on
the result of a study (Peijian et al., 2015), a teacher
should not discriminate students based on their
gender and learning ability in order for the teaching
and learning process to elicit students’ awareness and
meet their needs.
Although maintenance of learning facilities is a
technical work, but it is part of a professional
autonomy under the supervision of a classroom
teacher in providing services to the students.
The learning environment organization at the
Sukamulya PKBM can be seen in terms of services
they provide, number of students, number of grades,
and service time. In terms of service, it offers an early
childhood program that combines indoor and outdoor
education.
In terms of number of students, both program
administrator and teachers do not restrict the number
of students in a class (Parer, 1989). Moving class is
the solution they offer.
In terms of students age, students are set up into
different grades. The earlier the age of students are,
the bigger the classroom is and the more the number
of teachers are. This is to facilitate students’
development. In terms of service time, classes are
scheduled based on students’ age. Classes are
arranged in accordance with the vision and mission of
the Sukamulya PKBM. Based on classroom
observation, it was revealed that the seating is
arranged in group pod. In each group, students sit face
to face with each other. Such arrangement makes
potential interference from one student to another
quite big. To solve this problem, the class is provided
with two teachers.
Classroom management is an effort to realize
an effective, fun, and motivating learning
environment. Thus, classroom management is a
conscious effort to organize the process of teaching
and learning systematically. This includes preparing
instructional materials, preparing learning facilities
and properties, preparing classroom, time
management, setting up seating arrangement to
ensure a good process of teaching and learning and
the achievement of curricular objectives.
The main purpose of arranging the classroom
physical environment is to facilitate the learning
activities and avoid unwanted activities from students
that may be harmful to the classroom facilities and
properties.
Seating arrangement is a teacher’s effort to
manage a classroom. An effective classroom
management will determine the learning outcomes.
With a good seating arrangement, it is expected that
learning condition becomes conducive and fun for the
students.
In early childhood classrooms at the Sukamulya
PKBM, the seating arrangement is periodically
changed. The early childhood classroom
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
426

requirements at the Sukamulya PKBM has been set
up in accordance with the needs of the students.
Seating arrangement in early childhood classroom is
very important. This is due to the fact that early
childhood is the golden age where children
experience a very rapid development that should be
supported by suitable stimulation. Students’ optimal
growth and development demand a good classroom
setting that meets the learning requirements.
A classroom setting suitable for the needs of
students is to ensure comfortable learning
environment. The attachment of colorful pictures on
the wall is done to bring up the cheerful nuances so
that the children will feel that they are learning in their
world. The early childhood classroom at the
Sukamulya PKBM is set up in such a way that
students’ access to the playground is made easy.
The classroom is also set up by considering the
number of students. Classroom setting is monthly
changed to avoid students from feeling bored in
learning. Furthermore, in early childhood education,
the classroom should be set up in accordance with the
development and interests of the students.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The classroom management in early childhood
program at the Sukamulya PKBM was implemented
by ensuring a safety and comfortable learning in order
for the students to be able to explore and interact with
their environment in accordance with the early
childhood developmental stage (Armico, 1994).
The learning environment organization at the
Sukamulya PKBM can be seen in terms of services
they provide, number of students, number of grades,
and service time. In terms of service, it offers an early
childhood program that combines indoor and outdoor
education.
The seating is arranged in group pod. In each
group, students sit face to face with each other. The
seating arrangement is periodically changed to keep
students from feeling bored in learning. The early
childhood classroom is set up to facilitate early
childhood needs and development. Seating
arrangement in early childhood classroom is very
important because early childhood is the golden age
where children experience a very rapid development
that should be supported by suitable stimulation.
The evaluation of the early childhood classroom
setting activities at the Sukamulya PKBM is done
daily by conducting continuous observation on
students’ development and behaviors. The tutor also
conducts an evaluation through buku penghubung
(literally means: connecting book, a book of written
interaction between a teacher and students’ parents)
and school report book that is returned to students
three times in a semester.
REFERENCES
Armico, S., 1994. Interaksi dan Motivasi Belajar Mengajar,
PT. Jaya Grafindo Jakarta.
Mikarsa, H. L., Taufik, A., Prianto, P. L., 2002. Pendidikan
Anak di SD, Universitas Terbuka. Jakarta.
Moleong, L. J., 2000. Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif, PT.
Remaja Rosdakarya. Bandung.
Parer, M. S., 1989. Development, design and distance
education, Centre for Distance Learning Gippsland
Institute. Victoria.
Peijian S., Rui Y., Lin T., 2015. Understanding L2 French
teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom
context. Journal of Education for Teaching. 41:3, 324-
328, DOI: 10.1080/02607476.2015.1044228.
Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional No. 20 Tahun
2003. Sistem Pendididkan Nasional, Depdiknas.
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