From Digital Literacy to Deep Learning: Mentoring Kindergarten Teachers for Community-Oriented Early Childhood Learning

Digital transformation requires kindergarten teachers not only to operate digital devices but also to design safe, ethical, contextual, and meaningful learning experiences. This community service program aimed to strengthen IGTKI kindergarten teachers' conceptual mastery in Indramayu Regency in integrating digital literacy and deep learning through a community-oriented mentoring approach. The program employed participatory, andragogical, and practice-based mentoring through needs mapping, conceptual training, RPPM/RPPH design workshops, simple digital media development, follow-up mentoring, evaluation, and reflection. The program incorporated local Indramayu contexts as learning resources, while the IGTKI professional community supported potential knowledge sharing and sustainability. The evaluation involved 31 pre-test and 31 post-test participants, of whom 27 were reliably matched for paired analysis. The overall mean score increased from 79.68 to 99.48, whereas the mean score of the matched participants increased from 80.00 to 99.41, a mean gain of 19.41 points. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a significant difference (W = 3.00, p < .001), with a rank-biserial correlation of 0.978. The verified outcome was improved conceptual mastery; classroom implementation, product quality, and broader community impacts remain to be evaluated.