| dc.description.abstract | The place of mathematics in the curriculum and the achievement of the children
studying it have been identified as needing special attention. Mathematics is widely
recognized by pupils, parents and teachers to be the important qualification for
employment or for further studies. Many teachers teach mathematics without knowing
enough about the subject or about the current ideas of teaching it. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the influence of interactive teaching methods on pre-school
children’s achievement in mathematics in Nyang’oma zone, Muhoroni District. An expost
facto research design was used in the study. The study targeted a population of 18
preschools, 54 teachers, and 720 children. The instruments for the study were
questionnaires, interview for teachers and document analysis guide. Data were analyzed
using descriptive statistics. The statistics calculated were frequencies, means and
percentages. The findings of the study established that Interactive methods greatly
promote the achievement of the child in mathematics activities. Most children who were
involved in using interactive methods in learning recorded high mean scores in number
work activities. Therefore the study recommends the use of interactive methods in preschools
to promote children’s achievement in mathematics. Teacher’s qualification,
workload and participation of children are among other challenges that tend to affect the
achievement of mathematics in the zone. The study further recommends that more
teachers be recruited since this would have a direct impact on children’s achievement
through a change in teaching methods, and teachers with high experience in
mathematics teaching be designated as baby and middle class instructors. The ministry
of education to in-cooperate SMASSE programmes in ECDE to increase competence in
handling the methods used in mathematics instruction, and a uniform test as a measure
of learners ability on qualification to join standard one. Further research to be carried
out to compare the most method used with learner’s general feelings, and advanced
research be carried out to verify how long it would take with in progress preschool to
use interactive teaching methods | en_US |
