Kindergarten Children’ Possession of Life Skills from Teachers’ Viewpoints

Abstract

This study investigated kindergarten children’s possession of life skills from their teachers’ viewpoints. The researchers observed a clear discrepancy between kindergarten children’s possession and their real practice of these skills. Thus, the study aimed to shed a light on this phenomenon. The study sample consisted of (200) kindergarten teachers who were selected randomly. A questionnaire including (34) items distributed on four domains, namely, learning, social and environmental communication and hygiene skills was used to collect data from the teachers.  The findings of the study showed that the degree of life skills among children came to a moderate degree, with learning skills ranked first, social and environmental communication skills second, and hygiene skills came third. The findings also indicated that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) for the domains “social and environmental communication skills” and “hygiene skills” due to gender but there were statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) for the domain “learning skills” which was in favor of males. In light of the findings, the study recommended to hold training courses for kindergarten teachers and supervisors to make them aware of the importance of the practical aspects in children’s activities as well as cognitive activities, especially with regard to developing the life skills of the kindergarten children.