Teachers' Creativity In Developing Kamishibai Media To Enhance Disaster Awareness Among Elementary School Students

Both Indonesia and Japan are situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, characterized by high vulnerability to natural disasters. However, the implementation of disaster education in Indonesian elementary schools continues to face challenges, including the scarcity of contextual visual aids and the prevalence of one-way lecture methods. Kamishibai, a traditional Japanese visual storytelling art, offers substantial potential as an alternative instructional medium that synthesizes visual power, oral narration, and interactive theatrical expression to concretize abstract hazard concepts for young learners. This study aims to analyze teachers' creativity in designing Kamishibai media and to evaluate its effectiveness in disaster mitigation instruction. This research employed a quantitative descriptive evaluative survey approach. The study involved 36 educators across various educational levels, including elementary schools, kindergartens, junior high schools, and special education schools in West Java. Data collection utilized a Kamishibai media evaluation questionnaire comprising 12 items on a 1–5 Likert scale, open-ended questions regarding prior mitigation teaching practices, and visual documentation of the Kamishibai media produced by the teachers. Data were analyzed using univariate descriptive statistics to determine frequency distributions, satisfaction percentages, and mean scores. Results: The evaluation of Kamishibai media implementation yielded an overall grand mean score of 4.54 out of 5.00 (90.7% satisfaction rate). The highest ratings were achieved for the medium's capacity to concretize abstract disaster concepts (mean = 4.78; 100% positive response) and to facilitate structured content delivery (mean = 4.72; 100% positive response). The instructional materials developed by teachers during the workshop demonstrated diverse contextual mitigation themes, such as a flood scenario entitled "When the Flood Comes," earthquake simulations emphasizing the "drop, cover, and hold on" technique, as well as landslide mitigation and hillside environmental conservation. Furthermore, 97.2% of teachers deemed Kamishibai significantly more effective than conventional lectures, capable of fostering active classroom discussion (mean = 4.67), and recommended its sustained implementation in disaster-resilient school programs (mean = 4.61). Kamishibai media grounded in teacher creativity has proven to be highly effective, communicative, and accommodating of diverse student learning styles, making it an exemplary instructional aid for early disaster preparedness education in elementary schools.