Structured Teacher–Child Questioning for Oral Language Participation in Rural Indonesian Early Childhood Education: Baseline Findings and an Action-Research Protocol
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70211/wesw.3064-2469.658Keywords:
Early Childhood Education, Equitable Participation, Oral Language, Rural Education, Structured QuestioningAbstract
Oral language is central to young children’s participation, learning, and later educational opportunity. This study reports the baseline stage of a planned classroom action research project examining structured teacher–child questioning in a rural Indonesian early childhood education and care (ECEC) center. Aggregate baseline records for 15 children aged 5–6 years were analyzed descriptively. Seven children (46.7%) were classified as Not Yet Developing, six (40.0%) as Emerging, two (13.3%) as Developing as Expected, and none as Very Well Developed in the center’s existing language-development framework. Eight children were reported to experience participation barriers, including delayed responses to educator questions (n = 5), unclear speech articulation (n = 2), and limited spontaneous verbal initiation (n = 1). The manuscript translates these findings into a two-cycle questioning protocol that prioritizes open prompts, wait time, contingent expansion, peer uptake, and brief observation records. The contribution is an equity-oriented framework for widening oral-language participation in rural ECEC, rather than a claim of intervention efficacy. Because no Cycle I or Cycle II outcome data were available in the source records, causal improvement is not inferred. Future implementation should report child-level, de-identified trajectories, intervention fidelity, and safeguarding procedures.
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