Pre-School Teachers’ Attitude Influencing their Preparation of Teaching Instruments in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Teaching instruments are an essential component of teacher preparedness, lesson development, curriculum implementation and evaluation of instructional outcomes However, although studies reviewed showed there was a relationship between teachers’ attitude and their instructional practices, there was little information about any link between their attitude and preparation of teaching instruments and hence the focus of this study. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the attitude of pre-school teachers’ influencing their preparation of teaching instruments (PTI) in Kesses Sub-county, Uasin Gishu, Kenya using the descriptive survey research design. A sample of 17 (25%) public pre-schools/ headteachers out of 68 of them and 34 (25%) out of 136 pre-school teachers were selected. Piloting was done in four pre-schools and data collected using questionnaires for teachers and oral interviews for head teachers. To enhance the validity of the instruments, the study content covered all the study objectives while the split half technique was used to determine reliability at a correlation coefficient of 0.76. Data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques while chi-square test was computed to establish the significant influence of teachers’ attitude on the preparation of teaching instruments. Although a number of teachers had problems with preparation of teaching instruments, the chi-test did not find a significant relationship between the two variables. The study recommended that a working partnership between teachers and stakeholders should be developed in order to establish a support system to help pre-school teachers in preparation of teaching instruments.