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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 11 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1067792 THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOALS OF EDUCATION Jonathan M. Mwania1, Tiberius Murithi2 1 Dr., Department of Educational Psychology South Eastern Kenya University, Kenya 2 Department of Educational Psychology, South Eastern Kenya University, Kenya Abstract: Teaching and Learning Resources refer to the materials that the classroom teacher uses to help the learners to acquire and understand knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes that he/she introduces during his/her lesson. Teaching and learning resources include but are not limited to structural facilities like properly ventilated classrooms, furniture, kitchen, safe clean water, playground, toilets, and play grounds. Teaching and learning resources entail also instructional materials including text books (course books and supplementary books), charts, wall maps, picture books, flash cards, and real objects(realia), to name but a few. The general aim of this study was to examine the influence of the teaching and learning resources on the integration on the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE). Since this objective was about the relationship between the teaching/learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education, the researcher used the Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient to determine whether there was a relationship between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education, and the strength of the relationship if it existed. The N=158 including 28 head teachers and 130 preschool teachers. The n=66 including 14 head teachers and 52 preschool teachers. The head teachers were interviewed following the guide with the following questions in the interview guide: What is the influence of the teaching and learning resources on the integration of the national goals of education? The head teachers interviewed indicated that the correlation coefficient between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education rates at 0.85. This shows that there is a very strong Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 542 Jonathan M. Mwania, Tiberius Murithi THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOALS OF EDUCATION positive (relationship) correlation between teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education. The preschool teachers responded to questions in the questionnaires. (a) The closed questions required the respondents to indicate the extent to which they agreed/disagreed on the statements given on a scale of 5-1. (b) The open ended questions required the respondents to state, on their opinion how teaching and learning resources influenced the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education. The respondents indicated that the teaching and learning resources’ prevalence presented a very strong positive correlation between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education, which is statistically significant (p<0.05). The study established that teaching and learning resources influence effective implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education programmes in preschools. A unit increase of the teaching and learning resources would lead to an increase in effective Early Childhood Development and Education by a factor of 0.702. This study recommends that Early Childhood Development and Education centers should be provided with the age appropriate, relevant, and adequate teaching and learning resources. These resources will go a long way in enhancing effective curriculum content delivery as they create a conducive learner friendly environment fully equipped with structural and instructional resources that learners can freely, actively, interestingly, variably, and creatively manipulate to generate, create and acquire knowledge, concepts, skills, and attitudes with minimal teacher guidance. Keywords: learning resources, teaching resources, national goals of education, Kenya 1. Introduction Early Childhood Development and Education refers to the education catering for children aged 3-6 years. Early childhood is a critical period to lay the foundation for success in education and beyond and thus early childhood care and education should be at the center of Education for All and broader Sustainable Development Goals, EFA Global Monitoring Report. The experiences during this period are known to enhance or inhibit realization of one’s potentials in life (Mutinda, 2010). The way a child is nurtured spiritually, morally, socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically creates a long life learning process (United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization, 2004). Therefore, children who are nurtured well can live and create better societies for themselves and for all. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 11│ 2017 543 Jonathan M. Mwania, Tiberius Murithi THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOALS OF EDUCATION Many ECDE centers lack adequate teaching and learning resources and facilities suitable for ECDE in their learning environment. These include lack of properly ventilated classrooms, furniture suitable for children, kitchen, safe clean water, playground, toilets and play materials all which are necessities advocated for by the International Association for the Education of Young Children. This implies that teachers do not have adequate teaching and learning resources to enable them to implement ECDE Curriculum effectively. This affects implementation of ECDE Curriculum negatively as the creation of an unsustainable learning environment helps deprive children to improve their academic performance (Offenheiser & Holcombe, 2003). According to Kasim (2008), instructional resources are very vital in the acquisition of knowledge, concepts and skills in pre-schools. Children learn by doing. They learn better by manipulating materials (hands on activities) and making sense out of them. For a long time, there has been a debate on the best time to introduce instructional resources in number work in the life of a learner. The pre-school curriculum is thus designed to include learning of number work since it has emerged that the best time to introduce instructional resources in number work to a learner is at the pre-school age ECDE Policy Guidelines (2006). Guthrie (2012) notes that instructional materials, if used efficiently and actively facilitate the learning process in classrooms. However, the situation is not good in most pre-schools. Firstly, only the lower quality and the less quantity of instructional resources are provided to pre-schools. In this way, the availability of instructional resources is strained and very limited. Secondly, pre-school teachers are not trained for using instructional resources. Teachers do not take interest in using the instructional resources as observed by Waithaka (2005). Kate (2012) postulates that learning of number work as a result of experience and active learner involvement in the routine use of different types of instructional resources continues to be sensual because it helps learners to connect real things and events with their abstract representations. The ability to picture and do things in their minds would be enhanced by frequent reference to real world application. It is true to say that long term use of concrete materials with pre-scholars is positively related to increase in the learner’s number work achievement and improved attitudes of learners towards number work. Farrant (2011) suggests that good instructional resources need little or no explanation, stimulate ideas and demand active responses from the learners. Waithaka (2005) emphasizes the importance of training ECDE teachers as he observes that most ECDE centers in Kenya lay emphases on academic work, giving little or no time at all for learners to interact with instructional materials. He further European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 11│ 2017 544 Jonathan M. Mwania, Tiberius Murithi THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOALS OF EDUCATION observes that in Kenya pre-school children are subjected to academic work due to pressure from parents who would like to see their children read and write within weeks upon joining pre-school. The ECDE curriculum developed by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has the provision for learners to interact with instructional materials but this is overlooked by parents and some private schools managers who insist that the pre-school children have to be taught numeracy and literacy to have the ability to read and write. This fact is compounded by the fact that the primary school head teachers subject the ECDE children to oral and written interviews they have to pass for them to be admitted to standard one, hence giving no room for learners to interact freely with instructional resources depending on their ability and at their level of development. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1233 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 11│ 2017 545