Effectiveness of the Rural Early Childhood Education Quality Assurance Clinic Model (KP-Jamupedes) in Strengthening Educator Competence in Resource-Constrained Rural Settings

Abstract

The study employed a Research and Development (R&D) approach, with the operational implementation of the model evaluated using a one-group pretest-posttest design. The KP-Jamupedes model integrates collaborative learning, peer learning, experience sharing, mentoring, and stakeholder involvement at the village level. The implementation was conducted in rural ECE settings in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Data were collected using competency assessment instruments administered before and after the implementation and analyzed using descriptive statistics, a paired-samples t-test, and N-Gain analysis. The results showed an increase in the mean competency score from 53.33 in the pretest to 79.33 in the posttest. The paired-samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference between the two measurements, t(9) = −10.778, p < .001. N-Gain analysis showed that all participants experienced improvement, with 20% categorized as high gain and 80% as medium gain. These findings provide preliminary empirical evidence of improved PTK competence following the implementation of KP-Jamupedes and indicate the potential of a village-based collaborative learning mechanism to support ECE quality assurance in resource-constrained rural settings. However, the findings should be interpreted within the limitations of the one-group pretest-posttest design without a comparison group.