THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOALS OF EDUCATION

Teaching and Learning Resources refer to the materials that the classroom teacher uses to help the learners to acquire and understand knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes that he/she introduces during his/her lesson. Teaching and learning resources include but are not limited to structural facilities like properly ventilated classrooms, furniture, kitchen, safe clean water, playground, toilets, and play grounds. Teaching and learning resources entail also instructional materials including text books (course books and supplementary books), charts, wall maps, picture books, flash cards, and real objects(realia), to name but a few. The general aim of this study was to examine the influence of the teaching and learning resources on the integration on the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE). Since this objective was about the relationship between the teaching/learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education, the researcher used the Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient to determine whether there was a relationship between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education, and the strength of the relationship if it existed. The N=158 including 28 head teachers and 130 preschool teachers. The n=66 including 14 head teachers and 52 preschool teachers. The head teachers were interviewed following the guide with the following questions in the interview guide: What is the influence of the teaching and learning resources on the integration of the national goals of education? The head teachers interviewed indicated that the correlation coefficient between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education rates at 0.85. This shows that there is a very strong positive (relationship) correlation between teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education. The preschool teachers responded to questions in the questionnaires. (a) The closed questions required the respondents to indicate the extent to which they agreed/disagreed on the statements given on a scale of 5-1. (b) The open ended questions required the respondents to state, on their opinion how teaching and learning resources influenced the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education. The respondents indicated that the teaching and learning resources’ prevalence presented a very strong positive correlation between the teaching and learning resources and the integration of the national goals of education in Early Childhood Development and Education, which is statistically significant (p<0.05). The study established that teaching and learning resources influence effective implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education programmes in preschools. A unit increase of the teaching and learning resources would lead to an increase in effective Early Childhood Development and Education by a factor of 0.702. This study recommends that Early Childhood Development and Education centers should be provided with the age appropriate, relevant, and adequate teaching and learning resources. These resources will go a long way in enhancing effective curriculum content delivery as they create a conducive learner friendly environment fully equipped with structural and instructional resources that learners can freely, actively, interestingly, variably, and creatively manipulate to generate, create and acquire knowledge, concepts, skills, and attitudes with minimal teacher guidance.  Article visualizations

PARENTING STYLES AS PREDICTORS OF DRUG ABUSE AMONG SELECTED PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EMBU COUNTY, KENYA

The role of parents in helping their children to face the adolescence challenges and specifically the challenge of drug abuse cannot be underestimated; however, the extent to which parenting styles predetermine secondary school students’ involvement in drugs is not well understood. This study investigated parenting styles, as predictors of drug abuse among public secondary school students in Embu County, Kenya. A population of 8820 (4886 girls and 3934 boys) form two and three students distributed in 132 public secondary schools in Embu County was targeted. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 15 schools which had reported more cases of drug abuse for the last three years in the county. Stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling were used to select 399 participants (221 girls and 178 boys). Purposive sampling was used to select 15 Guidance and counseling teachers and 70 secondary school dropouts from the 15 schools. Reliability for the parenting styles questionnaires and risky behaviours were calculated an average Cronbach alpha (α) of α = 0.82 for parenting styles questionnaires was reported and for risky behaviours α = 0.78. Multiple linear regression showed that parenting styles significantly predict drug abuse among secondary school students, and that parenting styles accounts for, 64.4% (R2=0.644, p< 0.05) of students’ drug abuse, The study, therefore, recommends that the government through the Ministry of Education should   train   the teacher counselor, to identify and counsel drug abusing students and train parents on how to handle drug abusive children   Article visualizations

Influence of Molding Numbers on Developing Mathematical Competence Among Pre-School Learners in Mutha Zone, Kitui County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of molding numbers on developing mathematical competence among pre-school learners. The study  was guided  by the following  objectives: to establish  the influence of type of  numbers modeled on  developing  mathematical  competence among  pre-school  learners and to determine the influence  of materials used on modeling numbers on developing  mathematical  competence  among pre-school in Mutha Zone, Kitui County. The target population comprised of 60 pre-school teachers in Mutha Zone, 60 pre-school teachers and 450 learners. A sample of 18 head teachers, 18 pre-school teachers and 150 pre-school learners participated in the study. This was done  through  simple  random  sampling  procedure  where each  respondent  had  equal  chances  of being selected  for the study. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires and observation checklist. Data analysis was done using the statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) software. The findings of the study were; there is a statistically significant association between type of numbers moldedand Mathematical competence among pre-school learner (χ2 (1, 4) = 41.429, p = .000) and that there is a strong positive relationship, r (15) = 0.646, p<0.05 between modeling material and Mathematical competence among pre-school learner. The recommendations of the study were; the Ministry of Education must sensitize all the pre- school teachers to teach mathematics using modelings should provide plasticice to their learners since it was established that most schools were using clay which was making the learners to be dirty. The parents can also be encouraged by head teachers to buy plasticine for the learners so that they can also continue molding at home. Keywords: Molding, pre-school learners, Mathematical Competence, type of numbers, molding material, Clay, Platicine. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-12-06 Publication date: April 30th 202