RESEARCH PROPOSAL

THE TEACHING OF WEAVING USING ‘STEP BY STEP’ PROCEDURE AMONG YEAR 3

STUDENTS

PREPARED BY:
ROSLINA BINTI JUDI
(2011962977)

LECTURER:
MIS CECILIA BAI A/P RAJENDRAN

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 Introduction
This study is designed to address the problems many teachers are facing in teaching the
visual arts subject in primary schools. Under the new Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah
(KSSR), the visual arts topics consists 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 complete 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 further weave
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 a ‘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 out during
each class with the pupils progress will be recorded and finally a post-test as the final stage.
This data will show the effectiveness of the ‘step by step’ procedure in the teaching of weaving
in the primary school.

Definitions of terms
According to Wikipedia (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
colored paper where the students will interlace the colored paper to make the desired pattern.

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 Problem statement
Nowadays, teachers find teaching visual arts very challenging. There are many 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 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.
Purpose of the Study
There are a few factors that make the teaching of weaving difficult. This study identifies
factors that affect the teaching of weaving in one of the Year 3 class. 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 allocation.

Research Questions
Teachers find the time for teaching weaving is inadequate and the objective of weaving
is unachievable. Students find weaving difficult. Therefore, the approach to which teachers
help students to weave, will be addressed through the following research questions:

1. What are the factors that affect weaving skills?

2. How effective is ‘step by step’ procedure in teaching weaving?

Literature review
In the new KSSR curriculum, the Year 3 visual arts subject covers four main aspects
which are active observations, critical and creative interactions with media and materials,
simple appreciation towards visual arts and lastly, the appreciation of values in real life.
Active observations is the development of the sense of sight including observing a thing as a
whole, focused and detailed to enhance the students’ perceptions. (Panduan Pengajaran

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 Dunia Seni Visual KPM, 2012). The topics in this Year 3 syllabus namely are drawing,
stamping, collage, montage, patterns, mobile, puppets, mask, weaving, self-defense tool
and accessories. Among these topics, weaving is the most difficult topic to be achieved.
Fatin Izzati & Rosnah Mustaffa (2001) find out that students easily get confused when
weaving and they were lack of confidence whether they were weaving correctly or not. This
difficulty resulting the delay of time and make the objective of weaving lesson could not be
achieved.

The effectiveness of teaching and learning art and craft depends on the teachers’ trust,
knowledge, skills and attitudes when delivering the art lesson. According to Muijs and
Reynolds (2000) ‘direct instruction’ type of teaching, the teacher takes an active role, rather
than just ‘facilitating’ pupils’ learning. The use of examples is important, and teachers should
strive to make presentations lively and engaging to maximize gain.

In teaching weaving, students not only using their sense of sight to absorb what is the
pattern like but they also need to use their psychomotor skills when weaving. This makes
the weaving activity difficult to do. Therefore, the teachers’ clear instructions and clear
demonstrations of how to weave is important for the students. Teachers who teach arts and
crafts must be skilful and knowledgeable in planning and implementing the process and
procedures of the subject to be taught (Iberahim Hassan, Md Nasir Ibrahim & Mohd
Zaihidee Arshad, 2006).

Therefore, even though students are encouraged to adapt self-direct learning teachers
still the focal point for the students. Adequate input is very important to stimulate the
learning session. Over one third of art and crafts lessons were good or outstanding, with
teachers often exploiting the visual appeal of the subject. However, in other lessons,
insecure subject knowledge and insufficient differentiation or use of subject-specific
assessment restricted the level of challenge and constrained pupils’ progress and creativity
(Drawing together: art, craft and design in schools, 2005/08)

Theoretical framework
This section describes the theoretical framework to be used in this research.

Theory Constructivism

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Since weaving is the ability to make meaningful product, therefore the constructivism theory is
chosen in this study. Constructivism is a learning theory found in psychology which explains
how people might acquire knowledge and learn. It therefore has direct application to education.
The theory suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. In
the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different
teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use
active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then
to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The
teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the
activity to address them and then build on them. 

Model
The model to be used in this study is the CIPP Evaluation Model (by Stufflebeam, 1971). See
Diagram 1.

Diagram 1: CIPP Evaluation Model (by Stufflebeam, 1971)

CIPP is based on providing information for decisions (Stufflebeam, 1971b). Moreover, Boulmetis
and Dutwin (2005) named the CIPP model as the best decision-making model. According to
Eseryel’s categorization (2002), CIPP is considered a system-based model, while in Hew et al.’s
categorization (2004), CIPP is considered a macro model. Each of the four different types of
evaluation that comprise CIPP has an important role to play in a larger whole (Williams, 2000;
Smith and Freeman, 2002), with the functions of each described by Stufflebeam (1971a) as
follows:

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 1. Context evaluation serves planning decisions by identifying unmet needs, unused
opportunities and underlying problems that prevent the meeting of needs or the use of
opportunities
2. Input evaluation serves structuring decisions by projecting and analyzing alternative
procedural designs;
3. Process evaluation serves implementing decisions by monitoring project operations;
4. Product evaluation serves recycling decisions by determining the degree to which
objectives have been achieved and by determining the cause of the obtained results.
(p. 268)

The focus in this study is how the input process which is the delivering of the weaving lesson be
done and does the result is what the researcher has expected to be.

Methodology
This study is using a descriptive research design. The descriptive research used to
identify and obtain information on the characteristic of a particular issue. The data collected are
often quantitative, and statistical techniques are usually used to summarize the information.

Participants
The participants in this research are thirty-six pupils (n =36) of one of Year 3 class in a
primary school in Kulaijaya. This school is chosen in this research as this is where the
researcher currently teaching and for the data collection conveniences. Researcher is also the
arts teacher for the chosen class.

Procedure
In this study, the intention is to provide a ‘step by step’ procedure for the pupils so that
they can produce the correct pattern of weaving. This type of procedure gives the pupils cues
on what to do and how to do it. Cues could be from pictures or three-dimensional objects from
digital media, books and television (Hwang, 2014). Therefore, in this study the ‘step by step’
procedure consists of instructions (with pictures) to guide the pupils while weaving so that the
objectives of weaving lesson could be achieved. The time allocated for the visual art subject in
this class is two periods (30 minutes + 30 minutes) a week. The study will be a 10 week study.
Pupils will be given a pre-test and post-test to measure the pupils understanding and skill in
weaving. It also measure the effectiveness of the ‘step by step’ procedure used in this research.

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Data Collection
The Year 3 students will be given a survey based on the CIPP Model. The students will
also undergo a pre-test and post-test at the end of study. Within the 10 week study, researcher
will record the number of pupils who can complete their weaving within the lesson in a table.
The data from the survey, pre-test and post-test also will be recorded.

Data Analysis
Since this is a quantitative research, therefore the data will be analyzed in the form of
statistical measures. According to Creswell, J.W (2013) quantitative data is usually subjected to
statistical procedures such as calculating the mean or average number of times an event or
behavior occurs (per day, month, and year). In this study, percentage and mean will be used to
analyze the data from the survey, the pre-test and the post-test.

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Reference

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition (2011), Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company.

Boulmetis, J., & Dutwin, P. (2005). The ABCs of evaluation: Timeless techniques for program
and project managers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Creswell, J.W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods

approaches, 4thedition. New York, NY: SAGE.

Hew, K. F., Liu, S., Martinez, R., Bonk, C., & Lee, J-Y. (2004). Online education evaluation:
What should we evaluate? Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 27th,
Chicago, IL, October, 19-23.

Stufflebeam, D. L. (1971a). The use of experimental design in educational evaluation. Journal

of Educational Measurement, 8(4), 267-274.

Stufflebeam, D. L. (1971b). An EEPA interview with Daniel L. Stufflebeam. Educational

Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2(4), 85-90.

Stufflebeam, D. L. (2007). CIPP evaluation model checklist (2nd ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/archive_checklists/cippchecklist_mar07.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving retrieved at 20 May 2015

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/weaving retrieved at 20 May 2015