| dc.description.abstract | This study was concerned with factors influencing learners’ transition from Preschool to primary school in Thika-west District-Kiambu County. Teachers play a big role in enhancing the transition of learners from Preschool to primary school. The study was guided by the following objectives, to determine the extent to which physical environmental factors influence learners’ transition from preschool to primary school, to establish the extent to which language of instruction influence learners’ transition from preschool to primary school, to assess the extent to which teachers’ capacity influence learners’ transition from preschool to primary school and to determine the extent to which teaching methods influence learners’ transition from preschool to primary school. The literature reviewed was under the following sub heading: Overview of ECDE and primary education in Kenya, concept of transition from preschool to primary school, physical environmental factors on learners’ transition from preschool to primary school, teachers’ capacity on learners’ transition from preschool to primary school, language of instruction on learners’ transition from preschool to primary school, teaching methods on learners transition from preschool to primary school, Conceptual framework, Gaps in literature and the summary of the literature reviewed.
The data was collected through the use of descriptive survey design in Thika-West, Kiambu County; the target population of 234 included teachers of public primary schools with a preschool attached. The sampling techniques that were used included; stratified sampling and simple random sampling for selecting teachers and census sampling technique in selecting public primary schools with a preschool attached. From the public primary schools with preschool centers attached a total of 153 teachers, 118 lower primary teachers and 35 preschool teachers were selected. The research instruments that were used included questionnaires and a pilot test was done to test reliability of the instruments using a school in the nearby district. The information collected was analyzed through descriptive analysis that involved ANOVA statistics. Descriptive statistical methods were used in analyzing the results. SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences) was used in tabulation of variables and generation of appropriate frequency percentages. Tables were used in presentation of the result. The study established that teachers’ level of training, physical environment, language of instruction and teaching methods were the major factors influencing learners’ transition from pre-school to lower primary. It was found out that overpopulation in the classroom had a negative impact on learners’ transition from pre-school to lower primary, whereby teachers with large class size recorded higher drop out cases compared to teachers with small class size. The study further revealed that the choice of the teaching methods has a lot of impact on children’s learning and transition from one class to another. The study recommends that teacher to child ratio should be reduced to ensure there is intensive and interactive class activities, capacity building for teachers should be enhanced to improve on their teaching methods ,teachers are encouraged to have a firm continuity of language of instruction as they introduce other foreign languages, the government is encouraged to invest more on the lower primary school as well as preschool since they give firm foundation for education and further studies can be done to find out how parental involvement can influence learners transition from preschool to primary school. | en |
