Title: Improving the skill of making balanced face mask by using stamping skill to

Year 2 pupils

1.0 Introduction

Malaysia is a country full of diversity. This diversity brings a wide margin of

differences into the classroom where language learning is concerned. Leki (2007)
stipulated that arrt learning is related to various social factors as learners interact in
human activities. Hence, due to the great diversities of student demographic in our
local classrooms, teachers need to understand these differences in order to be able to
teach the art more effectively. This research will focus on the learning difficulties
faced by the students in the researcher’s class namely in the context of face mask
process..

1.1 Background of the research

In 2011, the Education Ministry of Malaysia had introduced KSSR

(Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah) in place of the old KBSR (Kurikulum
Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah). This new curriculum aims to resolve the
shortcomings of the previous curriculum which was dubbed too much spoon-
feeding and lack of critical thinking skills.

In an effort to restructure and improve the current curriculum, KSSR brings

in the standards formula to ensure the students who achieved these standards are
well-equipped with the relevant knowledge, skills and values to face the
challenges present in this modern age of the 21 st century. The standards are
divided into two main categories namely the content standards and the learning
standards where students, across the schooling years, will be required to achieve
these standards.

This fresh breath into our education curriculum creates a more progressive
learning environment for the students. This shift towards continuous learning
substantiates Adler’s (1982) opinion where all genuine learning is active, not
passive. It is a process of discovery in which the student is the main agent, not
the teacher. This new learning approach comes together with a new way of
evaluation known as School-Based Assessment (SBA) where after each
standards were taught, students will be evaluated formatively instead of monthly
test or any other form of summative evaluation. This ensures an effective and
active learning process for students in the classroom.

In the context of this research, the researcher will be exploring the area
of making mask by using a specific technique. The skill of producing art allows
individuals to communicate knowledge and engage in life activities such as
learning and work (Graham, Struck, Santoro & Berninger, 2006). According to
Clark (2010), only a few studies exist on art skill compared on reading which
was vast.

In the international scene, American employers regard art to be a

necessary skill (National Commission on Writing, 2004), yet employees are
often not prepared when they enter the working force. In a survey on employers
by Casner-Lotto and Barrington (2006), 81% of high school graduates were
deficient in art and creativity. Therefore, the value of art has been highlighted by
the World Health Organization’s (2002) inclusion of art difficulties as an
obstruction to school participation. In conclusion, art skills are critical for future
success and schools need to prepare effective art instruction to produce better
student.
1.2 Reflection on teaching experience

The researcher had undergone practicum phase at least twice and is

currently in his third phase practicum. The researcher was placed in a Malay
medium school for a period of 3 months in phases for Practicum 1 and
Practicum 2.

During Practicum 1 and Practicum 2, the researcher had taught Year 4

and Year 3 class of different abilities and proficiency level. The researcher’s
Year 4 class consists of students with very low art proficiency. The students
were interested in the researcher’s lesson because the researcher used various
teaching strategies such as ICT, reader’s theatre, puppets and so on. In regards
to the context of this research, the researcher realised that his Year 2 students
were weak when it comes to making mask. Students were unable to produce a
balanced face mask although the teacher had given a clear instruction. Students
could understand the content on how to make a mask but they are still confuse
on how to produce a right balanced mask. This lead the researcher to believe
that pictures and stamping technique were very essential to the students as it acts
as a stimulus for their eyes and mind. Hence, throughout his practicum with his
Year 2 students, the researcher used a lot of pictures in her lesson.

The researcher also encountered the same situations in her Year 2 class
during his Practicum phase 3 where his students would be her participants for
her action research. When the researcher was teaching about directions with a
map shown to the students, some of the students could orally tell the directions
but when it comes to art work, majority of the students were not able to do
anything. This worries the researcher a lot as she had already presented the
language but the students were not able to achieve the learning outcomes that
she had planned. The researcher soon realised that the lesson even though had a
big map for the students, it was still lacking visuals for art product.
1.3 Reflection based on related literature, theories and beliefs

The researcher knows that making a mask is a complicated task. Thus,

the researcher began to look up for information regarding the difficulties that her
participants are facing. Firstly to understand the problem, the researcher went to
the basics which is the child’s development in terms of motor functions.

The brain is an enchanting thing. This piqued Piaget’s interests to

observe his own three children- Laurent, Lucienne and Jacqueline-and also other
children that he began to unfold the way children thinks about the world. True to
Nelson’s (2011) findings, the brain has considerable plasticity, or the ability to
change, and its development depends on experience. Piaget has outlined several
processes the child undergoes as they construct their knowledge of the world. As
the child seeks to construct an understanding of the world, the developing brain
creates schemata. These are actions that organize knowledge. Piaget also found
out that behavioural schemes characterize infancy while mental schemes
develop in childhood (Lamb, Bornstein & Tein, 2002). This means that a baby
creates schemata by physically interacting with objects such as sucking, looking
or grasping into it. Older children creates their schemata by sorting out or
classifying the information they receive for example, according to size, colour
or shape. As we grew older, we have constructed myriads of schemata to help us
process how we carry out our daily life such as driving a car and parenting.

Besides creating schemata, children also undergo assimilation and

accommodation. The act of incorporating new information into existing
schemata is known as assimilation whereas accommodation occurs when
children modify their schema to fit new information and experiences. Santrock
(2011) explains this process by explaining how a toddler learns about a car in
the excerpt below:
 “Think about a toddler who has learned the word car to identify the
family’s car. The toddler might call all moving vehicles on roads ‘cars,’
including motorcycles and trucks; the child has assimilated these objects into his
or her existing schema. But the child soon learns that motorcycles and trucks are
not cars and then fine-tunes the category to exclude motorcycles and trucks,
accommodating the schema.”

Thus, the researcher, concludes based on this theory that she wants to
enhance his participants schemata so that they can learn art better and in a way
more efficiently. The researcher plans to enrich the participants with stamping
technique as pictures are more vivid and direct for the participants. With correct
exposure to good technique, her participants produce a balanced mask due to it
becoming a part of their art skill in schema. With pictures also, the researcher
hopes that her participants can improve their eye-hand coordination.

The researcher was enticed by Harmer’s (2011) opinion that visual

things make learning process easier. The researcher had always used pictures in
his lesson as pictures are accurate representation of language and his students
always liked to look at the pictures that the researcher showed. Pictures indeed
help in creating schemas for young learners. With more pictures, they will be
able to acquire more knowledge such as vocabulary acquisition, reading
comprehension, discussing on certain topics and a lot more. The phrase, a
picture is worth a thousand words is definitely right in the context of writing as
pictures help generate ideas and trigger imagination which makes learning
easier. In short, the use of pictures is beneficial for the second language learner
classroom as it is an important resource for learning art especially by using
stamping technique.

Harmer’s view is supported by Hill (1990) who also mentioned that

besides making pictures the main focus, they might be used as a stimulus for
appreciation part. The researcher discovered this link between pictures and art
production and therefore determined to research on this matter.
 Underwood (1989) also stressed on the importance of visuals by
bringing in the context of visual memory. It is possible for learners to store in
memory what they have seen through visual memory. Pictures help learners
contextualize the correct technique and engage themselves in learning
affectively and cognitively. These are some highlights of using pictures in
stamping technique in the art classroom consisting of young children. Hence,
the researcher picked this area for his research as she is interested in making
mask more fun and concrete with pictures.

From the researcher’s experience, students like to look at the pictures she
presented during various stages mainly the set induction stage. The researcher
agrees to Wright’s (1989) opinion that pictures give contribution to students’
interest and motivation, sense of language in context and stimulate students’
idea. Supported by Stokes (2002), she felt that pictures attract students for better
learning. Thus, the researcher will be using pictures as a part of his planned
intervention for its various benefits towards the learning process for young
children.

2.0 Focus of Investigation

The researcher wants to conduct a research on how stamping technique

can help students in improving their mask making skill by targeting their eye-
hand coordination.
2.1 Preliminary Investigation of the Issue

Borrowing the words of Kemmis (1988), “Can existing research throw any
light on your situation and help you see it more clearly?” That is why the
researcher made an initial foray into a lot of subject matters including the mask
making skill and its processes, learning difficulties, visual perception and motor
development in children.

The researcher had conducted a diagnostic text during one of her lesson in
class where she asked the participants to make a face mask from the picture
given. After examining their work, the researcher found out that indeed her
participants has poor art skill and thus selected them to be his participants in the
research. There were two main problems with their art problem namely blancing
skill and drawing. Thus, the researcher planned out her research to intervene on
her participants’ art skill

2.2 Issue of Concern

This research intends to find out how the researcher can enrich the
students’ skill to help them automate creativity so that they can be better in art.
Seeing as the participants are young, the researcher agrees to Lenneberg’s
(1967) hypothesis of critical period for language learning. He said,

“Between the ages of three and the early teens the possibility for primary
art skill constitutes to be good; the individual appears to be most sensitive to
stimuli at this time and to preserve some innate flexibility for the
organization of brain functions to carry out the complex integration of sub-
processes necessary for the smooth elaboration of balancing and creative
work. After puberty, the ability for self-organization and adjustment to the
physiological demands of verbal behavior quickly declines. The brain
behaves as if it had become set in its ways and primary, basic skills not
acquired by that time usually remain deficient for life.”

Thus, the researcher wants to resolve this issue by making students

aware of their visual perception for making mask. Hence, the researcher plans to
facilitate the students’ eye-hand coordination by associating art skill and the
visuals to aid their creativity. It is worrying at this 21 st century, that art skill is
no more considered as important element in teaching in comparison to
keyboarding skill (Berninger, 2008).
2.3 Problem Statement
 The main cause that the researcher wants to solve is the students’ own
lack of attention towards their art perception that inhibits their art skill. The
researcher agrees with Kephart’s (1971) findings on the foundational
prerequisites for efficient, legible face making which were generally assumed to
be visual-perceptual-motor components, which is the integration of gross motor,
fine motor and eye tracking.

Amundson (1992) states that a good base of support in sitting, with hips
at 90 degrees and feet grounded on the floor, good pelvic and spinal alignment,
cervical control for downward visual gaze and shoulder integrity for arm and
hand control contributes to better art coordination. Hence, this is why before
students are to produce artwork or do any other motor activities such as
exercising, playing football or badminton, the body need to be warmed up in
other words stretched to be ready for controlled movements. Christiansen’s
(2000) research also showed that deficits in motor control and perception are
commonly diagnosed between 5 and 8 years old, more frequently in boys and
they show persisting problems affecting many everyday activities such as sports
even in their teenage years. The researcher needs to make her participants aware
that proficient art skill comes from correct seating position.

Fine motor skills refers to the collective skills and activities that involve
using the hands and fingers (Amundson & Weil, 2001). The small muscles
around our hands and fingers are used to manipulate, control and use tools and
materials. This form the basis for many of the skills that children will develop
and enhance as they move through childhood. When performing fine motor
skills, we also use our vision to control the movements and actions of our small
muscles and this is what we called hand-eye coordination. The researcher had
already corrected some of the participants’ grip and this problem is at a
worrying level as a majority of the students had almost illegible writing. Most of
their writing were all over the place and this shows that they only had little
 control over their fine muscles.

It is often at the stage when formal art instruction has commenced that
children are identified as having fine motor weakness (Amundson & Weil,
2001). Relating to the researcher’s experiences in marking his participants’
artworks among his participants. Their daily life will be affected if little
attention is given on the development of fine motor skills as they could not
perform tasks accurately such as playing football or carrying their plate to the
dinner table. Furthermore, the students were not able to have a balanced face
mask production. This is indicated by all the works produced during the
researcher’s class. In general, most all of the students were able to produce a
mask but there are many more aspects could be improved by executing this
research.
2.4 Analysis of the Preliminary Investigation of the Issue

2.4.2 Criteria of Selection

a) Workability
The intervention involves the use of stamping outline with can be
created manually or taken from numerous resources on the internet. The use of
stamping outline is also workable in a sense of its portability. It can be used
anywhere and storage is also easy. The cost to create these stamping outline is
reasonable and affordable. It also allows teachers to be creative in coming up
with their own face mask stamping..
b) Significance

Proficient art skill is one of the scholastic skills that children need to
acquire to meet the common demands in classroom work at primary school
(Weintraub & Graham, 1998). Thus, the researcher chooses to improve on this
context of problem so that her participants can be a better artist due to the fact
that art skill is an integral part of school and also in the working world.
c) Practicality
 In terms of practicality, the researcher thinks that solving the problem is
practical for the participants. Once remedied, the participants will be more
attuned to face mask production, making them more proficient and faster when
performing art tasks. Using stamping technique is like part and parcel in
everyday lessons. It provides meaningful context in learning, the researcher
believes it is practical to carry out this research using said intervention. This is
because students will learn more meaningfully with stamping which enriches
their schema. The researcher will be exploiting the vast seas of the internet in
search of appropriate illustrations to stimulate students’ mind.
d) Control
This research can handle the issue stated in the allotted time. Within the
four weeks, the researcher managed to identify common errors in art skill
among the participants, use stamping technique to overcome the problem. Thus,
the research went smoothly as planned by the researcher.
e) Collaboration
This issue needs to be overcome with collaboration from the Art teacher.
Therefore, the researcher worked together with the teachers to ensure that the
participants receive continuous practice and supervision to improve their art
performance. The researcher also hoped that the teachers can use stamping
outline when they teach in class.
f) Relevance to school

This research is relevant in the context of the school setting as it tries to

eliminate the bias between high performers and slow achievers. Traditional
drilling are also ineffective in the era of KSSR so the researcher wanted to show
a fresh and more meaningful learning to his participants. The researcher will
allow all his participants to join in the intervention and at the same time
improving on their art skill. This will facilitate students’ learning and gives out a
vibe that anyone can be good at art with proper guidance.

These are the reasons why the researcher selected this research to
investigate on. The researcher will explore and carry out the necessities in order
 for his research to be successful.

3.0 Research Objectives/ Research Questions

3.1 Research Objectives

This research is carried out to improve the mask making skill and the
eye-hand coordination of the participants. This research also aims to find out
whether stamping technique can motivate participants in producing face mask.
3.2 Research Questions

Based on the objectives of the research, the following questions were raised.
1. Does the use of stamping technique improve participants’ art skill?
2. Does the use of stamping technique motivate students to improve their
 balanced face mask making?

4.0 Target Group

This research involved 10 participants from the researcher’s Year 2 class. Five
of the participants are boys and 5 are girls. These 10 participants were chosen based
on the results of the diagnostic test. Based on the test, it was found that these ten
participants exhibited the main problem in making balanced face mask artwork. All
of the participants are of 8 years of age. The researcher’s participants are made up
of different learning styles, attitudes, behaviors and attention span. Furthermore, the
researcher realised that his participants were highly active children. The researcher
had to get their attention using a lot of methods especially during the set induction
stage. Ironically, the researcher read Thomas’s (1972) statement regarding young
learners’ attention span. He said the amount of information retained by students
decline substantially after ten minutes. The researcher seconded to that as he always
reminded the students the instructions while the participants were doing the task.
The researcher had the opportunity to observe her mentor in conducting LINUS
streaming on some of his participants. The researcher learnt that her participants
who could not pass the constructs even though the participants were guided by the
teacher. Thus, the researcher concludes that the range of abilities and proficiency of
the participants were varied enough so the research can produce a variety of data
that can be analysed later.

5.0 Action

5.1.1 Procedure of Action

Meyer (2000) forwarded that action research’s strength lies in its focus on
generating solutions to practical problems and its ability to empower researchers, by
 getting them to engage with research and the subsequent development or
implementation activities. In other words, to ensure the outcome of the research
answers the research questions stated earlier, the researcher needs to plan the
procedure that will be carried out in his research. This research models the
Kemmis’s Model of Action Research.

Figure 2 Flowchart of Kemmis’s Model of Action Research

As shown in Figure 5.1, this research will cover 4 main steps namely, planning,
implementing, observing and lastly reflecting. This research will be carried out in a
single cycle meaning the researcher will only implement, collect and analyse the data
after the intervention has been carried out. Then the researcher will be suggesting ideas
for future research.

In the planning stage, the researcher conducted the diagnostic test to identify her
participants. After identifying his participants, the researcher began the reconnaissance
stage where the researcher looked up the literature regarding art skill. The researcher
also planned on how she would carry out the intervention stage using the stamping
technique. The instruments to collect data were planned out and prepared in this stage
as well. Instruments to gather data are planned at this stage as well.

After the proposal was verified, the researcher prepared for the next stage which is
the implementation stage. During the implementation stage, the researcher conducted
the three stages of his intervention at this stage. The stages of the intervention is
detailed in the next section.

The next stage is the observation stage where the researcher observed the effects of
the intervention on his participants. Instruments that were planned beforehand will be
used here to collect data. The researcher took pictures as evidence that she carried out
the intervention with her participants.

Finally, the researcher undergo the reflection stage where the gathered data will be
analysed and triangulated. All the evidence collected during the implementation and
observation stage will be documented into a report where the researcher can present her
findings.

5.1.2 Intervention
The suggested intervention to improve on the students’ art skill will be the use
of stamping technique. As the researcher aims to improve the balancing skill as well as
the eye-hand coordination of the students, stamping will be used as a part of the art
instruction.
As the main reason to show this stamping outline to the students is to enrich
their schemata, it will tell to the participants’ eyes that that is how they should produce
the art work. When the participants could process the information needed to the art
work, their eye-hand coordination will come into play. By having an awareness of what
they see, they can control their hands into art work correctly. With these in mind, three
stages of the intervention were planned.
 5.1.2.1 Intervention procedure

The intervention was done in three main stages which reflects the procedure of a
lesson starting from presentation, practice and finally production.

The first stage began with the introduction to the stamping technique. The
researcher will show it to the participants. As said before, using stamping can pull the
attention towards the subject matter. The researcher will prompt the participants to
name the subject of the stamping shown. This stage is geared towards getting the
participants to activate their visual perception. With enough interaction, they can
remember what it looked like and also the artwork.

The second stage would be the stage where the researcher elicits the art
knowledge of the participants. This stage focuses on making the participants aware of
how to produce a balanced face mask. After getting the prior knowledge from the
participants, the researcher asked the participants to move their hands in the air. Thus,
this stage is where the researcher let the participants recall art knowledge of what they
see in the picture cards and draw them on air to enhance their eye-hand coordination.

Finally, the third stage is where they practice their art production. The researcher
began implementing this stage by demonstrating the correct method to copy from the
stamping technique to all his participants. The researcher also showed the picture cards
and the participants draw the arts on their drawing block. The researcher helped the
participants to correct any wrongly visual created. At this stage, the participants would
be utilizing their eye-hand coordination even more because they need to draw
accurately on the lines.
On a final note, each phase will be carried out in three levels. The first level
refers to the researcher’s role as a presenter of the knowledge. The teacher will be
giving examples in order to build the schemata of the task within the participants. The
next level will involve the participants but with the researcher as a guidance. This can
be likened to a practice before the participants independently perform by giving the
correct demonstration. Lastly, the final level is where the participants performs
individually so the researcher could assess their performance in each stage of the
intervention.

5.2 Data Collection Methods

The decision about what data are collected for an action research area of focus is
largely determined by the nature of the problem (Mills, 2011). Following this, the
researcher had determined to use the pre and post intervention tests, questionnaires and
field notes to gather data for his research.
5.2.1 Pre-ArtIntervention Test and Post-Handwriting Intervention Test
In answering Research Question 1 regarding whether the use stamping can help
to improve participants’ art skill by enhancing eye-hand coordination, the researcher
uses the pre-art Intervention Test and Post-art Intervention Test.

These test are in the form of filling in the blanks where participants will have to
look at the picture stimulus and write down the answers on the line in the space
provided. A total of 10 items is prepared in each test. The Pre-Intervention Handwriting
Test consists of cartoon picture stimulus. This is to allow participants to remember what
the words for the pictures are. The use of cartoon visual also grabs their attention so
they would not lose focus on the task. This test was implemented in the pre-intervention
stage where the words for each items has already been introduced with their spellings.
This is to ensure that the test can gauge whether the participants were able to use their
eye-hand coordination to write out the words legibly.

The Post-Handwriting Intervention Test would be of the same format and

number of items. The only difference is that the Post-Handwriting Intervention test uses
real pictures instead of cartoon visuals. Harmer (2001) stipulated that real objects make
the learning process easier. Hence, my intervention was created using real pictures as
well as the Post-Handwriting Intervention Test. The test contains the same items as in
the Pre-Handwriting Intervention Test to measure whether they could perceive the
visuals to write neatly on the space provided. The same rubric will be used to collect the
marks and grades.

5.2.2 Questionnaires

The researcher aims to collect the participants’ responses on whether the use of
picture cards motivate them to improve their handwriting. This instrument is used to
answer Research Question number 2. The reason why the researcher wants to use
questionnaires is because questionnaires are a quick and relatively cheap method to
collect certain type of information or data (Nur Awanis Rosni et al., 2013). The
questionnaires are in a closed-ended question format (Yes or No) in order to make it
easier for the students to pick the right answer. The researcher had decided on that
format as his participants are young learners and open-ended question might leave them
with more questions.

A sample of the questionnaire is appended in Appendix 1. The questionnaire

items were created based on the characteristics of a motivated learner as brought upon
by Tuan, Chin and Shieh (2005). These characteristics are eagerness, interests,
participation and confidence. With these characteristics in mind, the researcher created
the items to gauge their motivation in using the picture cards to improve on their
handwriting.

5.2.3 Field notes

Field notes are accounts describing experiences and observations done by the
researcher while participating in the research (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 1995). The
researcher chose this data gathering instrument to answer the second Research
Question, which is whether the use of picture cards could motivate the participants to
improve on their handwriting. The researcher noted on each interaction with the
participants in a formatted field note attached in Appendix 3.

The researcher jotted down each occurrences based on the characteristics of a

motivated learner as motioned by Tuan, Chin and Shieh (2005). These characteristics,
namely, eagerness, interests, participation and confidence were constantly reflected
from the pre-intervention stage until the post-intervention stage. This is to identify
whether the participants exhibit these qualities in order to conclude whether they were
motivated to improve their handwriting with the presence of the picture cards.

Therefore, these are the instruments that the researcher will use in order to
collect data and ultimately answer the Research Questions formulated in this research.