Factors influencing pre-school teachers’ classroom performance in ecd centers in public schools in Kwanza sub county, Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

Early childhood development centers comprise one of the immediate social and physical environments influencing children’s development made up of personal qualities of people therein, teachers and physical environment. The purpose of this study was to establish factors influencing pre-school teacher’s classroom performance in Kwanza Sub County, Trans-Nzoia County. The objectives of the study were to; identify the social factors Influencing pre-school teachers’ classroom performance, establish economic factors Influencing classroom performance of pre-school teachers in Kwanza Sub County, investigate the school factors that affect pre-school teacher’s classroom performance in Kwanza Sub County and identify individual factors Influencing pre-school teacher’s classroom performance in Kwanza Sub County. The study was guided by the Two-Factor Theory advanced by F. Herzberg (1966) who postulates that there are two sets of factors influencing motivation thus high performance. The study adopted a survey design. The target population consisted of all the seventy (70) ECD centres in Kwanza Sub County with 140 Early Childhood and Development (ECD) teachers, 70 managers of ECD centres and four DICECE officers thus a target population of two hundred and fourteen (214) The sample size was 42 pre-school teachers, twenty one (21) managers, one DICECE officer, a total of sixty four (64) respondents. Simple random sampling was used to get the four divisions out of five in the Sub Countys. Stratified sampling was used to get the ECD centres and purposive sampling to pick DICECE officers. The research instruments were questionnaires and document analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha was used to establish reliability. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive analysis which was presented in form of tables. The mean enrolment of boys was found to be slightly higher than that of girls especially with those pupils below 3 years. The social factors influencing teachers’ classroom performance were the relationship between teacher and children, community and school administration, high expectations from society, the culture of a community and gender. The teacher academic qualification, professional qualification and teaching experience influence their classroom performance. The teacher’s attitude, health and age influence the pre-school classroom performance. Individual teacher characteristics can also adversely impact on motivation levels and performance. The amount of salary received compared to others, employment status, rewards and incentives influence pre-school classroom performance. The provision of retirement benefits and house allowance rarely affected the pre-school classroom performance. The ECD enrolment, the physical conditions of classrooms and school, supply of teaching/ learning materials, the number of children and hours worked as well as the parent’s expectation, type of school, size of class handled, examination stress and library resources influenced performance in class. Teachers are the backbone of the educational institutions and the future of our nation lies in their hands. In order to improve the quality of education, there is dire need to spend on the teacher training, which in return may provide quality education.