Utilization of Instructional Media for Quality Training in Pre-Primary School Teacher Training Colleges in Nairobi County, Kenya.

Abstract

Since teachers play a major role in the education of young children, the quality of their own training is a matter of concern. Among important aspects in pre-primary teacher training is the utilization of instructional media to reinforce learning, motivate learners and make learning real. However, reviewed studies on pre-primary schools have established inadequate use of instructional media by pre-primary school teachers, likely to have resulted from inadequacies during training among other factors. Given the importance of instructional media in any learning outcome there was need to investigate the factors influencing their utilization by pre-primary school college tutors during training, a concern that formed the focus of this study. It was out of this concern that this study was conceived. The objectives of the study were therefore to investigate pre-primary school college tutors‟ utilization of instructional media, the types of instructional media they used and the challenges they encountered in the use of instructional media. The study was carried out in public and private pre-primary school teacher training colleges in Nairobi County. Herzberg‟s two factor theory was used to guide the study. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The key study respondents were all pre-primary school college tutors who taught activity area units in the selected colleges, the programme officers and managers of the selected pre-primary school teacher colleges. A questionnaire for the pre-primary school college tutors, an interview schedule for the programme officers and managers of the selected pre-primary school teacher colleges and an observation checklist were used to gather data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in the analysis of data. Descriptive statistics were calculated and presented in form of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Null hypotheses H01 was tested using t-test while H02 was tested using both t-test and Multiple Regression. All the null hypotheses were tested at alpha value 0.05. The results revealed that variety of instructional media were available and used minimally in teaching by the college tutors. The study also revealed that private college tutors utilized instructional media more than public college tutors. The contribution of availability of instructional media, tutors‟ attitude towards instructional media, and motivation to the utilization of instructional media was highly significant with a p-value of 0.000. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education ensures proper implementation of curriculum which includes effective use of instructional media in teaching. There is also need for Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to review the current diploma programme for pre-school teacher training and pre-primary school college managers to motivate tutors to utilize instructional media in teaching.