Abstract:

A society of good and noble character is one of the keys to the progress and development of a nation. Therefore, character education has a very important role in early childhood education. One of the characters implemented in early childhood is independence. Independence can be identified by a variety of indicators including physical ability, self-confidence, responsibility, discipline, sociability, sharing and controlling emotions. These indicators will be seen when children learn, move, and socialize. This is the reason for the importance of implementing independent character education from an early age, in order to form strong and confident children who are able to complete all their tasks and obligations without relying on help from others. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a change in the learning system, which began with face-to-face learning that became Learning from Home (LFH), so that the role of parents and family environment became a more dominant element in learning. This study aims to find a model of character education in the implementation of independence character education in PAUD during the COVID-19 pandemic. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with data collection using interview, observation and documentation study. The validity of the data used the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

The data that has been collected is then analyzed using stages as stated by Miles and Huberman, namely:
(a) data reduction
(b) data presentation and
(c) drawing conclusions or verification.

From this research, it is known that the character education model that can empower independence is a daily activity habituation program at home. The role of parents and family environment is a model of independence with its implementation through the method of assignment, direction, modeling, environmental conditioning and habituation and support of infrastructure.

Keywords:

Character Education, Independence, PAUD Sabilal Muhtadin, Covid-19.