Abstract:
The purposes of this study were to 1) develop a package of classical dance activities based on the creative movement approach aimed at enhancing executive function skills, specifically self-regulation, in early primary school students, and 2) study the effects of using this activity package. The sample consisted of 19 2rd grade students who studied at schools under the Samut Prakan Primary Educational Service Area Office 1 in the second semester of the 2023 academic year. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. The data collection tools were using a measure of self-regulation skills in classical dance activities. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The research findings were as follows: 1. The developed classical dance activity package based on creative movement approach focused on 3 EF skills of early Primary students: 1) Focused Attention, 2) Emotional Control, and 3) Self-Monitoring. The activity package included 5 main activities and 10 sub-activities, incorporating the four principles of creative movement: 1) The body aspect, 2) The space aspect, 3) The effort aspect, and 4) The relationships aspect to make students develop a self-regulation skill of executive functions. Step-by-step movement was used, progressing from simple movements involving specific body parts to more complex whole-body movements. Each activity included 4 steps: 1) Preparing the body, 2) Practicing movement, 3) Performing, and 4) Reflecting. 2. Students had a higher mean post-test score on self-regulation skills of executive functions than pre-test at the .05 level of significance. When analyzed by individual components of self-regulation skills of executive functions, it was found that all components showed a significant increase in mean scores at the .05 level. According to the quality level of score interpretation, it was found that every student showed improvement in all targeted skills, including Focused Attention, Emotional Control, and Self-Monitoring, by at least one quality level.