How Teaching method Can Influence Early Childhood Education
Teaching is a universal human experience: parents teach their children; brothers and sisters teach each other; friends teach friends; employers teach employees; and colleagues teach each other. These examples of teaching usually involve a few students at the most and occur in the setting where the learning is used.
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For example, young children learn about collecting water with their mother at a stream or well, or a child learns a new game from a group of friends in a playground.
TEACHING METHOD
The most successful teaching methods are those who have proven track record of success in employ the maximum number of the above criteria’s, while each of them engages students in different ways, each has its advantages depending on the information they teach. Knowing the differences between these methods will help to select the technique that is best for particular class of study, and to define a particular teaching style.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early childhood/pre-primary education is referred to as education given in an educational institution to children prior to their entering the primary school. It includes the crèche; kindergarten and the nursery. It can also be said that early childhood education is the overall development of the child socially, physically and intellectually. Since it is seen as the first phrase in a life-time of continuous learning and experience from birth to old age. As from conception to six years old the child undergoes rapid mental and physical development, demanding for encouragement from all and sundry. The concept of pre-primary education like most other concepts in education cannot be pinned down to only one definition. Early childhood education or pre-primary school education can be seen as a semi-formal education arrangement usually outside the home whereby children from about the age of three are exposed through play like activities in a group setting to mental, social and physical learning suited to them under developmental age until the mandatory age of government approved formal schooling.
PURPOSE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood Education assists in early monitoring and sustenance of the intellectual, moral and physical abilities of the children. Therefore, the objectives of early childhood education are as follows: — (a) effect a smooth transition from the home to the school. (b) prepare the child for primary level of education © provide adequate care and supervision for the children while their parents are at work (on the forms, in the markets, offices, etc) (d) inculcate social norms (e) inculcate in the child the spirit of enquiry and creativity through the exploration of nature, the environment, art, music and playing with toys etc. (f) develop a sense of co-operation and team spirit. (g) Learn good habits, especially good health habits, and (h) teach the rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms etc through play. It is interesting to note that to achieve the above, government has a role to play which are as follow: (i) establish pre-primary sections in existing public schools and encourage both community/private efforts in the provisions of pre-primary education. (ii) make provision in teacher education programmes for specialization in early childhood education. (iii) ensure that the medium of instruction is principally the mother-tongue or the language of the immediate community. (iv) develop the orthography of many more Nigerian languages and (v) produce textbooks in Nigerian languages (vi) ensure that the main method of teaching at this level shall be through play and that the curriculum of teacher education is oriented to achieve this; regulate and control the operation of pre-primary education. (vii) Set and monitor minimum standard for early childcare centre in the country and (viii) Ensure full participation of government, communities and teachers associations in the running and maintenance of early childhood education facilities.
TEACHING METHODS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
There are different teaching methods employed in science education in Nigerian tertiary institutions. It is expected of a teacher to implement a range of instructional strategies. That will bring academic success to all the science students. For any method to be able to bring good result in the present age, it should be a method that promotes maximum social interaction. Social interaction between students and between teacher and student plays a crucial role in learning. These authors further stressed the need for the students to be provided with a supportive, open and interactive environment as this could help them discover knowledge. The teaching methods commonly used in science education classes are lecture and demonstration method. These methods shall be briefly discussed.
Lecture method is often used to deliver a large amount of information to the students in a short period. Lectures are designed to deliver new information to a large group of students. This method is known to be effective in dealing with a large class. However, it could also be used for a small class. Research indicates that this method dominates most of the tertiary institutions. Research shows that students’ retention in a lecture-based science courses is weak. An average student only retains 42% of what he or she learned after the end of the lecture and 20% one week later. Research shows that teaching method like the lecture method commonly used does not help the students to acquire sufficient functional understanding. Lecture method lacks the effectiveness of an active learning approach. Lecture method causes the bad reading habit among the students. Students taught in lecture-based classes learn less than those taught with activity-based reformed methods. Lecture method is frequently a one –way process unaccompanied by discussion, questioning or immediate practice that makes it a poor teaching method. Lecture method concentrates on information rather than learners. In the lecture method the teacher tells the students what to do instead of activating them to discover for themselves.
Demonstration teaching method is a useful method of teaching because it improves students’ understanding and retention. The demonstration is effective in teaching skills of using tools and laboratory experiment in science. However, the time available to perform this demonstration is very limited in a classroom setting.
Therefore, a demonstration often designed to allow students to make observations rather than through hands-on laboratory.
