Homeschool Journey's Affordances in Children's Performances within Rural Environment

Abstract

The study investigated children’s performances during homeschool journey in a rural environment through their actualized affordances at a village in Johor, Malaysia. The study was conducted with fifty-four middle childhood children through drawings, interviews and participant observation.  The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Children engaged more with natural elements rather than manmade elements and positively perceived, utilized and shaped the affordances. Therefore there is evidence to suggest that children recognized homeschool journey as their play spaces allowing them to interact with nature and developed their physical, social and cognitive skills, especially for children with high independent mobility.

Keywords: Children performances; natural environment; independent mobility; homeschool journey

eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.