Factors affecting performance of preschool children in psychomotor and creative activities in public ECDE centres in Imenti South Sub County, Meru, Kenya

Abstract

Psychomotor and Creative activities are very important in promoting children learning and development, besides improving their emotional, intellectual and social skills. Thus having knowledge of the need to use Psychomotor and creative activities to promote the development and learning of every child, should be a priority activity in preschools. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting performance of preschool children psychomotor and creative activities in public ECDE Centres in Imenti South subCounty, Meru County, Kenya. Specifically, the researcher sought to establish the effect of physical facilities, academic qualification of teachers and provision of financial support in Imenti South sub-County, Meru County, Kenya. The study was based on Bronfenbrenner’s theory of development. The researcher employed a descriptive survey design. The study population comprised of 116 primary school head teachers and 210 ECDE teachers. Head teachers and ECDE teachers were sampled using the Krejcie and Morgan formula, where a sample size of 176 was used. Data was collected using questionnaires for ECDE teachers and interview schedules for the head teachers. The observation schedule was also used by the researcher to check the conditions of the availability of teaching/learning resources and general performance of the preschools children in regard to psychomotor and creative activities. The researcher first did a pilot study before data collection, using 10% of the sample size. During piloting, the researcher scrutinized the information on the data collection instruments to check for content validity and reliability. The researcher checked for reliability by use of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient while the researcher checked for validity by giving the instruments to the supervisors as well as use of content validity index. Data was analyzed through use of descriptive statistics such as percentages, means, and frequencies. Simple regression analysis was used to devise the relationships that existed between the independent and the dependent variables, based on the specific objectives of the study. The researcher found that the availability of physical facilities had a statistical and significant positive effect on performance of preschool children in psychomotor and creative activities in Imenti South sub-County (𝛽 = .834,𝑡(89) = 8.106,𝑝 < .05). In addition, the level of training of ECDE teachers had a statistical and significant positive effect on performance of preschool children in creative activities in Imenti South subCounty (𝛽 = .615,𝑡(89) = 9.744,𝑝 < .05), and institutional financial support also had a statistical and significant positive effect on performance of preschool children in creative activities in Imenti South sub-County (𝛽 = .899,𝑡(89) = 8.834,𝑝 < .05). The researcher concluded that some of the physical facilities were present and others were not there. The researcher also concluded that there was lack of support by the Ministry of Education and county government through failing to provide finances for textbooks and writing materials in ECDE centres and also lack of commitment in releasing funds for acquisition of required psychomotor and creative activities materials. The researcher recommends that the county government should provide enough indoor items for regular lesson attendance and working areas for creative activities, in line with the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) requirements. The government, through the Ministry of Education Early Childhood Education department should also release funds for acquisition of required creative activities materials and provide finances for learning materials.