Integrating Social Skills in Traditional Games with Physical Education Interventions

This study was based on the previous research which found that traditional games given at the elementary level were significantly effective for the improvement of students' socialization in the classroom and the improvement of the quality of students' relationships between classes. This study aimed to examine whether traditional games could affect social skills. The design used in this research was a 3x2 factorial study with the randomized pretest-posttest control group design, while 90 samples were divided into three groups. The result of this research revealed that: 1) there were differences in social skills between groups given traditional games with social elements and groups given traditional games without any social elements. 2) Students with Dayak ethnic/cultural background showed better social skills and social behaviour than students with Malay and Javanese ethnic/cultural backgrounds. 3) Traditional games that contain social elements with Dayak cultural background had a better influence on elementary school students' skills and social behaviour than other groups. 4) There was an interaction between the types of traditional games with cultural/ethnic backgrounds of social skills, while for social behavior; there was no interactional relationship between the two.