Scholars emphasized to believe that age 3-5 is the most optimal for the children formation of learning enthusiasm. This age will allow children to succeed at the next levels of the educational system as well as enjoy lifelong benefits. The early education is the cornerstone to children to establish the first Socio-emotional development contact. Furthermore, there are cultural, parental, and environmental factors, corporate the kindergarten institution that could affect the quality and feasibility of early education. Yet some positive economic and parental factors can help kindergartens in its educational endeavors. The study found that the elements of family, school and community factors, as well as play, relationships, and environments, work in synergy to support children’s Socio-emotional development. The present research emphasized that to help the educational institutions to improve its image that is preferred, it is necessary to address issues that minimize the quality of education and render kindergartens irrelevant.
Assessing Young Children’s Social Competence: The Greek Version of the Social Competence Scale for Preschoolers-Parent Version (Published)
Successful social functioning in the kindergarten is related to future academic success and is regarded as one of the basic goals of the curriculum. Assessment of social competence is therefore critical to identify children at risk for poor outcomes and to provide evidence for the effectiveness of relevant activities and programs. Parents are considered quite reliable informants regarding children’s social competence and measurements should include relevant behaviors that may develop regardless context and situation. The purpose of present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Social Competence Scale-Parent version (SCS-P), taking into account that relevant robust measures of social competence are lacking with reference to the Greek context. Mothers of 913 children attending public kindergartens, aged 4-6 years, participated in the study, from 33 prefectures of Greece. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two robust and reliable factors. Only two items did not load onto the expected factor showing the value-laden and culture specific nature of social competence.
Early Childhood Teachers’ Characteristics and Self-Efficacy Variances: The Case of Kindergarten Teachers in Central Region, Ghana (Published)
The focus of the study was to examine the self-efficacy variances of kindergarten teachers based on their background characteristics in Central Region, Ghana. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was employed. Data were gathered from 1413 KG teachers using a questionnaire adapted from the Ohio Teachers Efficacy Scale. The teachers were randomly selected from ten districts in the Central Region of Ghana. Data were analysed using MANOVA. It came to light that statistically significant differences exist between urban and rural teachers (p =.010); young, middle aged and old teachers (p = .000); professional and non professional teachers (p = .018); novice, experienced and more experienced teachers’ (p = .000) level of combined self-efficacy. However, there was no difference in male and female teachers’ self-efficacy. It was recommended heads of schools should develop peer assessment and mentoring models for teachers to facilitate interaction between less experienced and young KG teachers and the older and more experienced ones; qualified teachers should be posted to teach in kindergartens.
Curriculum Delivery in Early Childhood Education: Evidence from Selected Public Kindergartens in Ashanti Region, Ghana (Published)
The research sought to review the curriculum of Early Childhood Education in Ghana: a case in public schools in Ashanti region. The purpose of the study was to improve Kindergarten education in Ghana in terms of curriculum, methodology and supervision. This study therefore adopted descriptive research methods with interview and questionnaire administration to investigate the curriculum delivery in early childhood education in Ghana. Respondents for the study were 30 kindergarten (KG) teachers from 15 selected public KG schools, 12 teacher-trainees, eight teacher educators from a College of Education and five KG coordinators. The study revealed that teachers were not doing curriculum-based teaching. The integrative approach methodology was not being followed due to formal examinations conducted by officers from the Ghana Education Service. This suggests that integrative approach to teaching which is intended to fill a gap in promoting quality teaching and learning in early schooling has not been addressed. It was also established that monitoring and supervision has not been the best since implementation of the Early Childhood Education curriculum. Equity in the provision of logistics for special needs children mentioned in the curriculum has not been implemented. Though mentioned in the curriculum, there was no delivery guide for the KG teacher.