Effect of teachers’ feedback on preschool children’s classroom participation in Embu West division

Abstract

The Kenyan government has embarked on achieving middle income status as stipulated in the vision 2030’s blue print by working on five key sectors of the economy namely: Agriculture, ICT, Manufacturing/Industry, Education and Finance. Therefore, provision of education to children in preschools will help Kenya become an industrialized nation by 2030. Teachers’ feedback enhances children’s participation in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of teachers’ feedback on preschool children’s classroom participation in Embu West Division, Embu County. The objectives of the study were to establish how methods of teachers’ feedback influence preschool children’s participation in class, how timeliness of teachers’ feedback affects preschool children’s participation in class, how the content of teachers’ feedback influences preschool children’s participation in class and the effect of preschool children’s attitude towards teachers’ feedback on their participation in class. The study used a quasi experimental design and the theoretical framework of this study was Vygotsky’s theory of learning. The target population of the study was 530 children and teachers and a sample of 159 was picked. This sample was picked using stratified sampling and purposeful sampling. Open ended questionnaire, interview schedule, observation schedule and documentary analysis were used to collect data and ten (10) respondents were used for Pilot testing before the commencement of the study and errors in the data collection instruments corrected. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, descriptive statistics computed and data presented using tables. The study shows that verbal method of feedback is the mostly used feedback method used by teachers in preschools as indicated by both preschool teachers and children while written feedback is used in preschools on examinations or after examinations on report books. The content of teachers’ feedback influence preschool children’s participation in class and preschool teachers use words like excellent, very good, good or good attempt as the content of feedback on task accomplishment. Immediate feedback promotes proactive interference once participants commit themselves to an incorrect response and it is mostly used during class work at questions and answer sessions, oral presentation, peer tutoring and discussion. If a child is disorderly in the work he or she warrants oral criticism which should be placed side by side with comments of encouragement.The study findings will be useful to future scholars as it will add to the existing body of knowledge and this will improve provision of education in preschools and hence achieve the vision 2030.