Abstract

As an instructional designer, a preschool teacher should be able to determine the current state and identify the needs of preschool children, define the end goal of instruction, and create some ‘intervention’ to assist in the teaching and learning process of preschoolers. The instructional designer, in this case the preschool teachers should know the desired learning outcomes that can be achieved using various methods. Instructional designer should be able to apply systematic methods of evaluating instructional needs and creating learning solution for the preschool children. A case study was conducted involving 197 preschool teachers in the northern region of Malaysia. They were engaged in answering questionnaire (closed and open-ended questions) which employed four Likert scales (disagree, less agree, agree, strongly agree). The questionnaire focuses on three main components on designing lesson plan: (a) the planning section, (b) the organisation of steps in teaching activities, and (c) the preparation of the teaching materials or resources. Based on the factorial analysis, these three main components were categorised into five main factors that concern preschool teachers as an instructional designer, that is (i) planning based on children’s abilities and interest; (ii) planning based on the Malaysian National Preschool Curriculum as the main reference; (iii) planning using various teaching aids and resources; (iv) planning following procedure and principle of learning and; (v) planning following procedure and principle of teaching. The research findings showed that the factor related to “planning followed procedure and principle of learning” were frequently practiced by the preschool teachers as instructional designer (mean = 3.2554). The findings also showed that most preschool teachers agreed that they were practicing all the four factors except the factor on “planning followed procedure and principle of teaching” (mean = 2.6826). The open-ended data obtained from the questionnaire support and further complement the preschool teacher problems in preparing lesson plans as an instructional designer at preschool level. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the findings of a case study concerning the preschool teachers as instructional designers in preparing their lesson plans.