Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction of the research

This study is designed to address teacher’s problem in teaching visual arts subject
in primary schools. In the new Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR), the visual
arts topics consist of four aspects which are exploration, production process, the notion of
art as a whole, and criticism. Under the production process, one of the challenging skills
to achieve is the weaving skill. In addition to build the pupils’ skills and to instill values
during the learning of arts and crafts in school, students need to have knowledge on
artworks and crafts. Lacking of knowledge may cause many pupils face difficulties in the
weaving activities thus failing them to accomplish their weaving in the given time.

The effectiveness of teaching and learning art and craft also depends on the
teachers’ trust, knowledge, skills and attitudes when delivering the art lesson so that the
objectives of the lesson can be achieved. Pupils must have strong skill in simple weaving
before moving into the next level of the complicated ones. Therefore, this study is to find
out the factors that affect the weaving skill among the primary school pupils and to find
out if ‘step by step’ procedure of weaving makes the weaving easier to understand and
could be completed in time. Thirty-six pupils of a Year 3 class will be given a survey
consisting of 12 questions on weaving. These pupils will also undergo a pre-test as a
preliminary data. The ‘step by step’ procedure will be given during each class with the
pupils’ progress will be recorded and finally a post-test as the final stage. The data will
show the effectiveness of the ‘step by step’ procedure in the teaching of weaving in the
primary school. It will be a an indicator whether the intervention created is successful or
not.
“Learning will be made more fun and the approaches used include it being project
and activity based and problem based learning, with ICT components introduced as early
as Year One” (Julaihi, 2010). The arts would be more fun if the teacher is able to integrate
arts with ICT in learning. That is why ICT components are introduced in primary school.
1.2 Background of the research

According to Oxford Dictionary, (2014) weaving is a method of fabric production

in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form
a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making, felting,
and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral
threads are the weft or filling. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English
Language, Fifth Edition (2011) defined weaving as; to make (cloth) by interlacing the
threads of the weft and the warp on the loom and to interlace (threads, for example) into
cloth. Secondly, its definition of weaving is to construct by interlacing or interweaving
strips or strands of material. For example, weave a basket.

In this study, the latter fits the definition of weaving. The focus of this study is
paper weaving which is one of the topics to be taught in the Year 3 syllabus. Paper
weaving uses coloured paper where the students will interlace the coloured paper to make
the desired pattern.

Thus, pupils’ understanding of the weaving procedure is a surface one and not in
depth. The pupils may be able to answer the questions in the exercises correctly but not
when applying the knowledge in practical. They do not have adequate exposure to the
appropriate methods of weaving in class. In fact, most of the pupils were not able to
choose the correct techniques as they have limited creativity and only stick to the
teacher’s instructions. That is not the proper way of learning as the researcher wants to
encourage the students to be more creative and able to express it in the form of art
products.

This is most probably because of the mode or teaching and learning that focus too
much on rote learning and memorising. The pupils were not introduced to teaching and
learning activities that were interactive and demand more of their interactive participation
in learning grammar.
1.3 Problem statement

Art is concerned with the implication of such choices (Carter and McCarthy,
2006). In Malaysian syllabus, art is a part of the elements that pupils need to master as
they are exposed to it in Year 3 of schooling. They have to pursue their study in arts as
they will be assessed regularly. The products of the artworks would be the indicator
whether the lesson is well executed or not. It will also determine the objectives of the
lesson are achieved or not.

Nowadays, teachers find teaching visual arts as very challenging. There are
numerous factors that must be considered before teaching so that the objectives of the
lesson are achieved by everyone in the class. Teachers also must be fully prepared on
what to do and what to do next after every lesson. A good teaching is when teachers have
good subject knowledge and well-structured lesson (Barber & Mourshed, 2007). In visual
arts, teachers are not only have to prepare the materials for teaching but they also need to
prepare clear instructions to the students so that the outcome of the lesson is achieved. In
teaching weaving, teachers always face timing problem where students could not
complete their weaving within time. This might be due to the complexity of the weaving
and furthermore the students are confused by the general instructions given by teachers.

As what stated by Ur (2007) teachers teach arts to assist pupils understand

creativity of which techniques they prefer to execute. There are numerous ways that arts
can be learned in other ways whether it is direct or indirectly. In teaching arts items,
there are a few criteria to be taken into considerations, such as age and the art ability of
the pupils in their context. As the participants of the action research will be taken among
Year 3 pupils, it should not be a problem as they are in the peak of learning that is
delivered to them. So, it is completely related to the area that the researcher wants to
investigate .
 Teaching arts includes not only learning the rules, but learning how to manipulate
the features used by our skills, to express certain meanings and relationships. If we want
to be creative, we have to be able to produce the art works in the way to be understood.

Other than that, several studies which used explicit instruction and approach
together with the focus of the form have reported better learning outcomes (Norris,
2011). This is because the explicit instruction in teaching arts would allow the pupils to
know the use and functions of weaving steps in context. They will be able to discover the
rules by themselves and apply it correctly. It will also prosper their creativity to the
maximum.

1.4 Purpose of the research

This issue was identified when the researcher carried out practicum in one of the
schools in Johor. Based on researcher’s experiences, the participants had problems in arts
knowledge. Basically, this is the most common problem faced among young learners. In
overall, all of his participants had problems in weaving area. The participants still could
not master the weaving knowledge taught by their teacher in Year 3. The ‘steps’ of
weaving is one of the arts areas (topic) which the participants often make mistakes. This
could be the result of rote learning method used by the teacher. Therefore, “Step by Step
procedure” was introduced as a teaching technique to make participants understand the
use of articles a, an and the correctly.

This study also aims to investigate the effectiveness of ‘step by step’ procedure in
weaving. The ‘step by step’ procedure acts as a guideline that will help the students to
produce the correct weaving pattern and thus to make them complete the weaving within
the time allocated.