EVALUATION OF QUALITY OF BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMME IN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA, GHANA
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Date
2018
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UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Abstract
Early Childhood Education (ECE) is a major component that provides solid foundation for basic, secondary and higher education. Well trained and professionally competent teachers are needed to achieve quality in ECE. The extent to which degree programmes in ECE equip pre-service teachers with knowledge, pedagogy and related skills need to be regularly ascertained. Therefore, this study assessed the quality of Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Programme (BEDECP) in the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. The study was designed to find out the: (i) extent of coverage of ECE objectives by BEDECP; (ii) adequacy of course contents; (iii) quality and adequacy of human resources; (iv) quality and adequacy of learning resources; (v) appropriateness of instructional methods; (vi) quality of assessment methods; and (vii) quality of graduates.
The study employed convergent parallel design within the mixed methods research paradigm based on the Context, Input, Process and Product evaluation model developed by Stufflebeam. Purposive and stratified sampling techniques were used to select 1085 participants comprising 420 students, 461 graduates, 9 lecturers, 120 Primary School Head Teachers (PSHT) and 75 ECE Coordinators. Questionnaire on ECE Resources, Graduate Appraisal Scale, Lecturer Observational Scale and Focus Group Discussion Guide were used for data collection. The instruments were content-validated through expert judgement. Reliabilities of the first three instruments were respectively 0.89, 0.85 and 0.87 using test-retest method. Data collected were analysed using the mean, standard deviation and percentage statistics and narrative approach.
The findings of the study were that BEDECP:
adequately covered the objectives of ECE in Ghana (x ̅=16,SD=0.85);
course contents were fairly adequate for achieving stated objectives by sampled stakeholders (x ̅=26.33,SD=2.25);
has moderate quality human resources (x ̅=23.45,SD=5.12);
human resources were not adequate for its implementation by sampled stakeholders (x ̅=15.83,SD=2.13);
learning resources for attaining the intended objectives were seen as having moderate quality (x ̅=25.63,SD=7.75);
learning resources were not adequate for instructional purposes (x ̅=17.68,SD=4.74);
lecturers employed fairly appropriate instructional methods (x ̅=28.58,SD=6.64);
assessment methods for evaluating students' learning were poor (x ̅=17.31,SD=4.41); and
graduates were qualitatively moderate in terms of content knowledge, instructional delivery, communication skills and job performance but poor in assessment methods.
The study concluded that the quality of BEDECP was generally moderate. However, human and learning resources were inadequate and assessment of BEDECP pre-service teachers was poorly executed. The observed inadequate input and process components of the BEDECP may lower the quality of graduates of the programme. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that resources, instructional and assessment methods be adequately improved with a view of improving the quality of graduates to effectively and efficiently implement ECE in Ghana.
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Keywords
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION, EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMME, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA, GHANA, Early Childhood Education (ECE)