Teacher preparedness and use of instructional resources in implementing early childhood development education curriculum in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper reports finding of a study that sought to analyze the teacher preparedness and use of the instructional resources in ECDE centers in Bungoma County in Kenya. The study sought to establish the attitude of teachers and its influence on the use of instructional resources, assess the influence of availability and use of instructional materials on the teaching and learning in ECDE, find out the relationship between teacher training and use of instructional resources and ascertain the challenges facing teachers in the selection and use of instructional resources in ECDE. The research was based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and involved use of purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques to select a sample size of 81 respondents from the target population of educational officers, head teachers and teachers of the selected ECDE centers. Data was collected using questionnaire, observation and interview schedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages and the chi-square which was used to determine the relationship between the variables. The findings of the study showed that there exist significant relationships between teacher attitude, training, availability and use of instructional resources in early childhood education. There are also challenges associated with the attitude towards the use of instructional resources, instructional methods used, availability and use of instructional materials in ECDE. The study is envisaged to provide useful information for the education policy makers to produce relevant learning resources and course books for the ECDE teachers. Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and County governments may consider employing the pre-school teachers on permanent terms to increase the quality of services.