Development of an outdoor learning activity: enhancing social skills with local wisdom content for early childhood

Introduction and Objective. Early childhood education in Indonesia predominantly focuses on cognitive aspects, neglecting the development of social skills. Traditional classroom-based approaches limit children's opportunities for authentic social interactions and cultural identity formation. This study aims to develop and evaluate an outdoor learning model that integrates the values of the Kato Nan Ampek local wisdom to improve social skills in early childhood education. Methodology. A Research and Development (R&D) approach was employed using the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model. The study involved 186 children aged 4–6 years from three Early Childhood Education institutions in the city of Padang, along with 12 teachers. Data collection utilized surveys, interviews, and observations, with both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. Results. The developed model demonstrated high validity scores (4.29–4.41), indicating strong content adequacy and design quality. Effectiveness testing revealed a significant improvement of 57.4% in children's social skills, with an N-Gain of 0.58 (moderate effectiveness). The model achieved a practicality rating of 82.5% from teachers, confirming its feasibility for real-world implementation. Conclusions. The integration of local Kato Nan Ampek wisdom into outdoor learning successfully improves early childhood social skills while preserving cultural values. This culturally responsive educational approach provides a sustainable framework for developing contextual and effective early childhood education that strengthens both social competencies and cultural identity.