CHILDHOOD EDUCATION TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHING OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIAN TEACHER EDUCATION
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Early Childhood Association of Nigeria
Abstract
The National Policy on Education recommended that teachers be trained in
Early Childhood and Primary Education (Childhood Education) to ensure
that pupils are handled by the specialists in the field. The expectation here
is that every teacher who is specially trained for this purpose should be able
to teach all subjects. successfully. Can this be totally realised .if the
teachers' competence in teaching of Science and Mathematics is to be
measured? Can we boldly say the trainee teachers do receive a substantive
content knowledge of the subjects with their pedagogical knowledge which
is the dominant feature of most of ECE and primary curriculum the authors
reviewed? Is taking the courses as minors/teaching subjects sufficient to
train teachers in Science and Mathematics needed to lay a solid foundation
for science and technology at elementary level? Are curriculums of teacher
education in ECE and primary education rich in Science and Mathematics
content? Answers to these pertinent questions all have implications for
teacher education. Therefore, this paper highlights the role of Teacher
Education (TE), discusses the importance of teaching Science and
Mathematics in childhood education and the competence of teachers of
these subjects. It also identifies some problems related to the training of
childhood teachers and the teaching of Science and Mathematics and offers
suggestions on how teacher preparation for early childhood and primary
education can be improved for effective teaching and learning of Science
and Mathematics at early years and basic education.
Description
Keywords
Childhood Teachers' Training, Teaching of Science and Mathematics, Teacher Education, Teachers' Competences