Effect Of Reflective Teaching On The Performance Of Pre-School Children In Creative Activities In Kikuyu Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reflective teaching on the performance of pre-school children in creative activities in Kikuyu sub-county, Kiambu County. The study method used was experimental design. The focus was on five (5) pre-schools with 146 children and 11 pre-school teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires for the pre-school teachers. The children were tested in creative activities before the study and again after two weeks of teaching. A documentary analysis was used to establish the status of the teachers‟ schemes of work and lesson plans for creative activities and also if the children had creative activities workbooks. An observation schedule was used to find out the delivery of the creative activity lesson. The mean scores, standard deviations, t-scores and p-values were computed using Statistical Package for Social Studies. A paired sample t-test was used to find out whether there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of children‟s performance in creative activities in classes where teachers use reflective teaching and the ones where they do not. The results show that the experimental group had a statistically significant difference at (p < 0.0001). This suggests that pre-school children learn creative activities better when they are allowed to reflect on what they have been taught and allowed to ask the teacher questions. Based on the findings, it is recommended that pre-school teachers should be trained to use reflective teaching as a method of teaching creative activities while those that are already teaching should have in-service training to equip them with this skill.