Assessment of the Availability and Extent of Use of Locally- Made Learning Resources Ln Early Childhood Education Centres

Assessment of the Availability and Extent of Use of Locally- Made Learning Resources Ln Early Childhood Education Centres

CHAPTER ONE

Objectives of study

The major purpose of this study was therefore to determine the extent to which locally made Learning Resources can be used in enhancing early childhood education.

Specifically, this Study sought to:

Determine the roles of the teachers in implementing and integrating locally made Learning Resources within the early childhood
Identify the Learning Resources that are needed for effective teaching and learning in early childhood education.
Identify the roles of Locally- Made Learning Resources in the teaching and learning environment in early childhood
Identify the challenges of Locally- Made Learning Resources in early childhood

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Early Childhood Care Development and Education

Quality education at early childhood helps children develop their potential, intellectual development and promotes their social, physical, emotional, and cognitive development. UNESCO (2014), stated that early childhood is defined as the period from birth to eight (0-8) years old. It is a time of remarkable brain growth, and these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning and development. To UNCEF (2014), early childhood, which spans the period up to 8 years of age, is critical for cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. During these years, a child‟s newly developing brain is highly plastic and responsive to change as billions of integrated neural circuits are established through the interaction of genetics, environment and experience. Thus, optimal brain development requires a stimulating environment, adequate nutrients and social interaction with attentive caregivers. Cherry (2015), on the other hand, sees early childhood as a time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Infants enter the world with a limited range of skills and abilities. Watching a child develop new motor, cognitive, language and social skills is a source of wonder for parents and caregivers.

Early Childhood Education:Swartout (2015), stated that it consists of activities and/or experiences that are intended to effect developmental changes in children prior to their entry into elementary school. Swartout also stated that early childhood education (ECE) programmes include any type of educational programme that serves children in the early childhood schoolyears and is designed to improve later school performance.
Early Childhood Care and Education: Zafeirakon (2015), stated that 40% of children in the developing world live in extreme poverty and 10.5 million children under 5 years of age die from preventable diseases each year. He argued that investing in quality early childhood care and education can improve their wellbeing and close the education and poverty gap. To Zafeirakon, young children, especially the poorest and most disadvantaged, who benefit from ECCDE services, are more likely to be healthy, ready to learn, and stay longer and perform better in school.

Education.com also posited that the quality of the early childhood education a child receives has a direct impact on positive child development in language and mathematics skills, as well as social and behavioural skills. While this quality can be delivered in a variety of settings, from family child care homes to public school programmes to private early childhood schools, there are certain characteristics that distinguish high quality early learning settings. These are as follows:

Well-educated and caring teachers:Early childhood research draws a direct line between programme qualities, the amount of specialized early childhood training a teacher has received, and adequate compensation (which reduces turnover).
Programme quality standards:They address programme quality, as well as child health and safety.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

The researcher used descriptive research design. The research was conducted in its natural setting. The questionnaires were issued on respondents in their early childhood schools. The researcher conducted the interviews and observations in the same environment where both teachers and children were working from. The researcher was able to observe children as they interacted with ICT. The researcher collected data in the respondents’ natural settings where the behaviour was taking place. The survey research design was used as a methodology because the sample was from several early childhood schools. It was a cross sectional survey where research data was collected at the same time.

Target population of the study

The researcher used simple random sampling technique to the selected population. The teachers and children involved in the study were randomly selected from the early childhood schools identified. The population involves twenty-one early childhood schools, forty two teachers and thirteen head teachers.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT PRESENTATION

Research Question One Table 1:

Mean ratings on the roles of the teachers in implementing and integrating locally made Learning Resources within early childhood education (ECE).

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Conclusion

The findings from this study identified many benefits of using ICT by teachers for enhancing inspiring pupils and increasing the provisional satisfaction. The teachers involved in this study considered that Learning Resources in ECE offered valuable opportunities to make children’s learning visible and contributed to developing and enhancing relationships with children, families and teachers when integrated in meaningful and purposeful ways within the early childhood teaching and learning community.

It is important that teacher’s beliefs, roles and experiences are considered, if changes are to be made to foster and optimize opportunities for young children’s learning, and how these beliefs, roles and experiences influence and shape the ways in which teachers implement and integrate Learning Resources within the early childhood context.

Recommendation

The following recommendations were made, based on the findings of the study

Researchers andeducators should encourage Learning Resources in ECE from the perspectives of children and families. This will help in exploring how early childhood teachers notice, recognize and respond to the impact of Locally- Made Learning Resources on young children, through a series of case
Further researchers should examine early childhood teacher education to incorporateadequate Learning Resources content.
Governmentshould give teachers opportunities to actively engage in dialogue to explore and articulate their pedagogical approach, to Learning Resources in
Teachersshould help to create opportunities for young children to understand and appreciate the benefits of visual images and graphics in knowledge which are part of their everyday
Theteachers should be involved in decision making surrounding the purchasing, implementing and application of Locally- Made Learning Resources and sometimes improvise when necessary rather than being randomly supplied with resources to

References

Alliance for Childhood, (2000). Fool’s gold: A critical look at computers in childhood.
Retrieved April 29 2009.
Boardman, M. (2007). ‘I know how much this child has learned. I have proof!’ Employing digital technologies for documentation processes in kindergarten. Australia Journal of Early Childhood 3(3), 59-66.
Colbert, J. (2006). Storytelling: Keeping it complex, keeping it connected. Computers in New Zealand Schools, 18(1), 1 7-22.
Dale, R., Robertson, S., and Shortis, T. (2002) “You can’t not go with the technological flow, can you? Constructing ‘ICT’ and ‘teaching and learning.” Journal of computer assisted learning 20 456-470
Edwards, S. (2005). The reasoning behind the scene: Why do early childhood educators use computers in their classrooms? Australian Journal of Early childhood, 30(4), 25-33.
Erb, W. (2008). Learning Resources in the early years. Tukutuku Korero New Zealand Education Gazette, 87(4), 4-8.
Fisher, T. (2005) ‘Technology means nothing without humans’ [online] Available form
<http://www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=20829 94> [8 December 2005]
Federal Ministry of Education, (2009). Kei tua o te pae assessment for learning: Early childhood exemplars. Wellington: Learning Media.
Hatherly, A. (2006). The stories we share: Using narrative assessment to build communities of literacy participants in early childhood centres. Australia Journal of Early childhood, 31(1), 27-34.
Haugland, S. (2000). Early childhood classrooms in the 21^st century: Using computers to maximize learning. Young Children, 55(1), 12-18.
Hong, S. & Trepanier-Street, M. (2004). Technology: A fool for knowledge construction in a Reggio Emilia inspired teacher education programme. Early Childhood Education Journal 32, (2), 87-94.
Ikoh, N.F. and Nwankwo, F.M. (2013). Teacher Resourcefulness: A key to improving ICT learning in primary schools pp. 115-121. Journal of OMEP vol. 10, no. 1.
Jones, A. (2002, July) integrating locally made Learning Resources in the early years: Literacy, math and multimedia.
Australian Computers in Education, Conference, Hobart, Australia.
Lydia Plowman and Christine Stephen Children, play, and computers in pre-school education British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 36 No 2 2005 145–157

Other Topics