AN APPRAISAL OF TEACHING STYLES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN EDO STATE.

ABSTRACT

The research work investigated the appraisal of teaching styles in early childhood education in private preschool in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State. In order to effectively carryout this study four research questions were raised  The study adopted the descriptive survey design and the population of the study consists of preschool teachers in private nursery schools jn Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State. The sample size for the study was 60 teachers.10 each from the 6(six) schools visited in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State. The research instrument was a questionnaire which was validated by the researcher's supervisor and two others at the Institute of Education, and the reliability was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha statistics and gave the value 0.84. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and ranking for research question one, while research question two,three and four were answered using regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings that emerged revealed the predominant teaching styles employed by nursery school teachers in Oredo Local Government Area which include: child centered method, grouping method, project based method, teacher centered method, experimental method, authoritative method, lecture method, play method, demonstration method and research method with child centered method being the most predominant while research method being the less predominant. In addition, there was a significant influence of the classroom environment and teacher’s training on the choice of teaching style. However, teachers sex and experience do not significantly influence the choice of teaching  style. Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers should make use of the appropriate teaching methods when teaching a particular subject and combination of two or more teaching styles will be very effective. Teachers should also attend seminars training symposium etc to increase their knowledge in choice and effectiveness of a teaching style.