Research
ECD TEACHER MOTIVATION ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Presented under this chapter is the background to the study, problem statement, general objectives, specific objectives, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, definition of key words and conceptual frame work.
Background of the study
In Europe the introduction of compulsory education in 1870, led to the demand by the government in recruiting teachers to train the large numbers of children who needed to be trained in formal education so as in the future they can provide labour to the industries that were growing. This ultimately led to the demand by the teachers to be motivated and key facilities like accommodation and the teaching resources therefore developed by the government like in Britain and France to enhance teacher motivation so that they can enhance academic achievement by the children (Eyles, & Machin, 2019).
After the second world war the government of Britain realized that in order to motivate teachers in the Early childhood classes to perform their duties and enhance the academic achievement of young children who are very critical for the future of the country there was need by the government in providing the teachers with the necessary teaching resources (Mertala, 2019).
American psychologist Abraham maslow in 1943 had written extensively in the need for employers to motivate their staff and this includes even teachers. Maslow theory of hierarchy (1943), first and foremost need of every employee is physical need and this physical need can only be fulfilled by money, So, in the start of the career, only money can motivate the teachers to work (Maslow, 1943).
Duflo, Hanna, & Ryan, (2012) notes that teacher motivation in Early child hood schools in developed countries is due to the fact that teachers are provided with good quality teacher training, given teaching resources, and paying decent salary with good non salary benefits. Zafarullah, & Pertti, (2017) also indicates that there is a wide range of views about teacher motivation in Africa and South Asia, most of which are country specific, However Kakar, & Pathan, (2017) notes that in Pakistan there is poor teacher motivation a factor which has affected the academic achievement of children in the lower levels of education this can also be attributed that the government of Pakistan doesnot put much emphasis on the teachers in early child hood education.
According to Javaid, (2009) in Ghana the issue of teacher motivation is important because of its correlation with the academic achievement of children. Provision of quality education is essential for spearheading the socio-economic development. Indeed, many writers have observed that quality Early child hood education is the most effective way to shape the values, attitudes, behaviours and skills which are important for children to be in position to progress in the classes of the upper levels. Teacher motivation is very important because it improves the skills and knowledge of teachers because it directly influences the children academic achievement (Mustafa & Othman, 2010).
If in schools, the teachers do not have sufficient motivation then they are less competent which directly influence the children’s learning in Early child hood schools. While teacher motivation is fundamental to the teaching and learning process, several teachers in Early child hood education institutions in Nigeria are not highly motivated Abdullahi, Clement, & Sunusi, (2017). In Kenya, information about the motivation of teachers in the early childhood is not well emphasized by the government when compared to other classes like primary secondary and tertiary institutions, (Wangila, 2017).
According to Isabelo & Silao,(2018) indicated that the relationship between motivation of teachers and achievement in class among ECD children has not been fully consented by most scholars while Olarewaju (2010) academic achievement in schools has been very poor since children in early child hood schools are the ones who progress to other high levels of education. In Uganda ECD centers include: Day care centres; Home based ECD Centres; Community based ECD Centre and Nursery schools (MOES, 2007 & ECD Policy, 2005).
Officially, in Uganda children aged three to five years are expected to be enrolled in pre-school such that by the age of six they proceed to primary one. Early child hood are mainly managed by the private individuals in Uganda and as a result motivation of teachers is purely in the interest of the private individuals.
The supervision of Early childhood schools is done by the government of Uganda through the ministry of education who provides the license for the private individuals to operate however the level of academic achievement of children in Early childhood schools has not been up to the standards since these child proceed to primary schools their level of academic achievement is found to be wanting.
Theoretical Frame Work
Maslow (1943) cited in Kasenene (2016) argues that physiological needs such as food and water are the primary drives which need to be satisfied before a person can realize any need for a secondary desire. According to Kasenene (2016), Maslow advanced a theory of Motivation in 2012 which argued that teachers will always have the need to teacher after all the physiological needs are gratified.
Maslow therefore concluded that teachers involved in teaching is an attempt by the them to satisfy their basic needs of food and water and therefore if these needs are not meant whatever type of activity that a teacher is doing becomes meaningless.
In this study the ECD teachers since they are not provided with salaries like other employees in the teaching provision, this therefore raises questions on how they satisfy their basic needs which is their first primary motive to working.
This theory also indicates that a human being works very hard to fulfill the basic primary needs of life and unless those needs are satisfied the human being will find it hard to sustain their life and this will generally have an influence to how they conduct them selves in the society and to other human beings.
Further studies by Maslow in human motivation led him to advance the theory of needs based on a hierarchical model as covered by Okumbe (2012). According to Okumbe (2012), there are psychological needs that include hunger, thirst and sleep; the safety needs that include desire for peace, smooth running of the state and stable environment; the love needs that include belonging and affection/social needs; the esteem needs that include power, achievement, recognition, status and self-actualization where one achieves what he wants.
This theory therefore is relevant to this study since the ECD teachers in Uganda donot receive monthly salary and yet the government expects them to deliver and be able to enable the children learn and have good academic achievement. It is therefore important to base on this theory to understand how the inability to fulfill the basic needs by the ECD teachers affects their ability to deliver quality teaching and in return influencing academic achievement of the ECD children.
This theory can be illustrated diagrammatically as seen in figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1: Maslow’s Hierarchical Model of Basic Needs
Source: Okumbe (1998) Educational Management Theory and Practice
All the above needs are summarized into a ECD teachers living conditions which include feeding, sanitation and accommodation basically covering the physiological needs of man. Marslow’s theory of needs based on hierarchical model can be applied in an ECD teachers’ life setting where by hunger, thirst and sleep could have an impact on the wellbeing of a teacher and there by affecting his motivation to teach and later on influencing the children’s academic achievement.
Conceptual background
According to Schmidt, (2017) children academic achievement, sometimes called learning outcomes, is defined as the learning standards which are determined according to high-quality education requirements. These quality-learning standards include both content standards which describe what children should know, understand and be able to do, and the performance standards which define levels of children achievement pertaining to content.
Achievement is the act of accomplishing attaining or finishing something that has been accomplished successfully, especially by means of skill, practice or preference. Faught, (2017), defines academic Achievement as how the student performs in the examination and how much marks secured from the examination. The total marks earned by the students are considered as academic achievement of student.
According to Reiss (2014) motivation means a feeling of enthusiasm, interest or commitment that makes somebody want to work, a reason for doing something or behaving in a certain way. Psychologically, it means the forces determining behaviour, the biological, emotional, cognitive or social forces that activate and direct behaviour. Robinson (2012) motivation is the force that energizes behaviour, gives direction to behaviour and underlines the propensity for perseverance.
According to Heryanto, (2019), motivation is the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained. At Early childhood education level children need guidance and counseling, motivation and supervision to enhance their performance and to compete with their peers. Head teachers and teachers‟ motivation has strong effect on the educational attainments of pupils. Motivation has strong effect on educational attainments of the children and helps shape their further improvement.
Statement of the problem
Officially, in Uganda children aged three to five years are expected to be enrolled in pre-school such that by the age of six they proceed to primary one. Over the years, there has been a question on the academic achievement of children in Early childhood schools.
Though ECD schools are usually established in areas whose population earns a high income since this tends to attract the ECD proprietors with an assumption that the parents and guardians will afford fees, the academic achievement of the children in these schools is very low as their level of cognitive skills is still poor. ESSAPR, 2015 further indicates that both ECD enrolment and academic achievement of children is poor in Uganda. Of an estimated 433,258 children who enroll for ECD centers in Uganda their level of academic children does not meet the expected standard
Black, (2017) indicates that the development of children in the first five years is fundamental for brain development, otherwise they’ll never reach their full potential, this indicates that early childhood education is critical for the mental and academic development of the children, however the academic achievement of children in early childhood schools in Uganda is still very poor and the private proprietors since they are profit oriented they have not paid attention to the academic achievement of the children.
Mwaura, (2008) indicates that a good number of day-care centers and nursery schools are privately owned and since they are driven by profits very little attention is paid on the areas of teacher motivation and more so the academic achievement of children it’s against this background that this study intends to investigate into the influence of ECD teacher motivation on academic achievement of children in early childhood development.
Objectives of the study
- To determine the influence of ECD teachers’ intrinsic motivation on the academic achievement of children.
- To examine the effects of ECD teachers’ extrinsic motivation on the academic achievement of children?
- To investigate the relationship between availability of ECD teaching resources and academic achievement of children.
Research questions
- What is the influence of ECD teachers’ intrinsic motivation on the academic achievement of children?
- What are the effects of ECD teachers’ extrinsic motivation on the academic achievement of children?
- What is the relationship between availability of ECD teaching resources and academic achievement of children?
Hypothesis
Ho There is a significant relationship between availability of ECD teaching resources and academic achievement of children.
Scope of the study
This section includes the content, geographical, time scope.
The study will concentrate on two variables; Teacher motivation as independent variable and academic achievement as dependent variable. It will further expound on Teacher motivation in a areas of; Teachers Accommodation, Salary of teachers and Teaching resource, while on the dimension of academic achievement will include; Promotion to the next class, Writing well and Having good spelling ability.
Geographical scope
The study will be carried out in Nakasongola district. Nakasongola District is bordered by apac district to the north-west, Amolatar-district to the north-east, Kayunga-district to the east, Luwero district to the south, Nakaseke district to the south-west, and Masindi district to the north-west. Nakasongola, the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of the district, is approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi), by road, north of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda.
Time scope
The period of data to be considered for the study will be from 2010 to 2019.
Significance of the study
It is hoped that the findings of this study may be of benefit to different categories of people:
The study is likely to help policy makers to alleviate these disparities of poor academic achievement of children in ECD learning centers. The study will try to suggest possible ways of improving academic achievement of children in ECD centers.
Secondly, the study may avail information which enables management committees and key officials in ministry of education and sports to develop policies which ensures that ECD learning centers provide teachers with the necessary facilities needed to foster better academic achievement for children.
Furthermore, the government can establish a supportive policy framework that creates an environment in which private sector and community ECD initiatives can provide good education to the children to enhance better academic achievement.
More to the above, the findings may be used and adapted for a variety of settings to help educators and programme designers overcome the numerous challenges faced in supporting Community ECD programmes. In other words it will act as reference and resource for those who would like to learn more about issues and methods for supporting ECD programming in communities; thus providing a greater depth about the need for providing the ECD teachers with the necessary facilities to enable them provide a quality education that enhance better academic achievement for the children.
Finally, this study may prove significant in contributing to the underdeveloped area of research related to the sustainability of ECD in Uganda, and in posing numerous pertinent questions to guide future research; since there is no existing study on ECD teacher motivation on academic achievement of children in early child hood.
Definition of key terms
Academic achievement: Refers to performance outcomes in intellectual domains taught at school, college, and university.
Child: is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty
Conceptual frame work
Statement of the problem
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