Early Childhood Care and Education in The 21st Century: A Review of the Literature (Published)
Pre-school prepares children with the requisite skills and competencies necessary for formal education. It provides parents with productive time for their work while their children are being cared for in kindergartens, day-care centers, crèches, and pre-schools where children are provided opportunities for stimulation and holistic development using play-based activities. Enhancing the quality of Early Childhood Care and Education has been expressed through research and policy initiatives, development programmes, advocacy, theories, and philosophies that underpin practice in pre-schools. A qualitative approach was employed to look at views related to Early Childhood Care and Education. The purposive sampling method was adopted for the study. The findings however suggest that children in general exhibit relatively different cognitive and social competencies in varied environments. Data collected and analyzed concluded that there was a significant disparity in the experiences of the children, teacher expertise and experience, and academic and play facilities coupled with differences in the social and economic backgrounds of children. It is recommended that further research be conducted in other pre-schools to verify the findings of this research.
Citation: Gyekye-Ampofo M., Opoku-Asare N.A. and Andoh G.B. (2023) Early Childhood Care and Education in The 21st Century: A Review of the Literature, British Journal of Education, Vol.11, Issue 4, 81-95
Keywords: Early Learning, Kindergarten, Pre-School, early childhood care, early schooling
Early Childhood Teachers’ Characteristics and Self-Efficacy Variances: The Case of Kindergarten Teachers in Central Region, Ghana (Published)
The focus of the study was to examine the self-efficacy variances of kindergarten teachers based on their background characteristics in Central Region, Ghana. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was employed. Data were gathered from 1413 KG teachers using a questionnaire adapted from the Ohio Teachers Efficacy Scale. The teachers were randomly selected from ten districts in the Central Region of Ghana. Data were analysed using MANOVA. It came to light that statistically significant differences exist between urban and rural teachers (p =.010); young, middle aged and old teachers (p = .000); professional and non professional teachers (p = .018); novice, experienced and more experienced teachers’ (p = .000) level of combined self-efficacy. However, there was no difference in male and female teachers’ self-efficacy. It was recommended heads of schools should develop peer assessment and mentoring models for teachers to facilitate interaction between less experienced and young KG teachers and the older and more experienced ones; qualified teachers should be posted to teach in kindergartens.
Keywords: Early Childhood, Kindergarten, Self-Efficacy
Curriculum Delivery in Early Childhood Education: Evidence from Selected Public Kindergartens in Ashanti Region, Ghana (Published)
The research sought to review the curriculum of Early Childhood Education in Ghana: a case in public schools in Ashanti region. The purpose of the study was to improve Kindergarten education in Ghana in terms of curriculum, methodology and supervision. This study therefore adopted descriptive research methods with interview and questionnaire administration to investigate the curriculum delivery in early childhood education in Ghana. Respondents for the study were 30 kindergarten (KG) teachers from 15 selected public KG schools, 12 teacher-trainees, eight teacher educators from a College of Education and five KG coordinators. The study revealed that teachers were not doing curriculum-based teaching. The integrative approach methodology was not being followed due to formal examinations conducted by officers from the Ghana Education Service. This suggests that integrative approach to teaching which is intended to fill a gap in promoting quality teaching and learning in early schooling has not been addressed. It was also established that monitoring and supervision has not been the best since implementation of the Early Childhood Education curriculum. Equity in the provision of logistics for special needs children mentioned in the curriculum has not been implemented. Though mentioned in the curriculum, there was no delivery guide for the KG teacher.
Keywords: Early Childhood Development, Early Learning, Kindergarten, Pre-School