Quality And Knowledge of Best Practices in Early Childhood Programmes : Perceptions of Parents And Teachers

ABSTRACT

Developmental and Educational psychologists continually set research-based quality standards in Early Childhood Education. However, not much is known on the level of quality and the practices in the early childhood centers in Ghana. This research explored the concepts of quality and best practices, internationally known as Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP), in four (4) early childhood settings in Haatso, a cosmopolitan suburb in the Ga-East District of Greater Accra, Ghana. A quantitative study was carried out with a sample of hundred (100) parents, fifty (50) teachers and four (4) head teachers. Data collection was carried out using 3 versions of structured questionnaires and an observation checklist. The data obtained from the structured questionnaire was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 21.0) to generate frequency and percentage distributions. The Pearson chi-square statistic and the independent sample t-test were used to test three hypotheses at 5% level of significance (p = 0.05). The presentation of results were descriptive using charts and tables to present highlights. Parents had a mean age of 35.5 ± 4.98 years while teachers had a mean age of 31.4 ± 10.66. The study results indicated that about half of the teachers had received professional training in early childhood education. However, both parents and teachers had only fair knowledge on best practices in early childhood settings. Both parents and teachers had similar views with regard to the indicators of quality. There was no statistically significant difference between the level of knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices of parents and teachers. Both trained and untrained teachers had similar level of knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices. Statistically significant difference existed in the mean ratings of parents and teachers in terms of children's health and safety xiii (p = 0.004); and staff qualification and training (0.050) as parents had slightly higher mean ratings in both cases. The study results imply that with regards to the dissemination of research-based findings to practitioners, there is a knowledge gap and much need to be done within the fields of developmental and educational psychology. It is therefore recommended that policy makers and the Ministry of Education organize workshops to educate teachers on best practices in child care. Again there should be a means by which research-based findings could be disseminated to practitioners/professional in the childcare centres so as to enrich their knowledge and skills.