Effect Of Outdoor Activities On Acquisiton Of Counting Skills Among Early Childhood Education Learners In Nyando Sub-County Kisumu County

Abstract

Outdoor activities influence acquisition of counting skills by learners. Effective adoption of outdoor activities in ECE has a positive effect on learner acquisition of skills whereas ineffective use of such activities tend to dwindle the learner‟s efforts to acquire counting skills. Despite the existence of KICD policy on ECE learners‟ activities implementation focusing attention on outdoor learning, a great percentage of ECE learners lack the basic counting skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of outdoor activities on number counting by learners in Nyando Sub County. The study sought to determine the effect of rope skipping on number counting among ECE learners in Nyando Sub County, determine the effect of ball bouncing among learners, and determine the effect of tyre activities among learners and to determine the effect of seesaw swinging on number counting among ECE learners in Nyando Sub County. The limitations of the study were lack of adequate finances and questions which were not properly framed. The population included 38 headteachers, 85 pre school teachers and 1000 pre school learners which is a total of 1123 respondents. The study used questionnaires which were administered on heasdteachers and teachers. The observation checklists were used to collect data on observations to indicate the existence or non existence of outdoor materials. Face validity of instruments was ensured where evidence of validity was used to validate the developed instruments by preparing the instrument and presented to the supervisor who made corrections and took care of omissions. A pilot study was conducted to find out whether the instrument had ambiguous? and if they were accurate and consistent. A10% sample out of the total population took part in the pilot study. The piloted respondents did not participate in the main study. The researcher administered the questionnaire and the respondents returned. However, a few requested for time to answer the questionnaire which was granted. Primary data was checked for completeness, consistency, accuracy coded and then fed into a computer using (SPSS) program for analysis and interpretation of results. There was a positive correlation between skipping rope, ball bouncing, bicycles tyres activities racing activities and sea saw swinging. This indicates that the independent variable and dependent variable move in the same direction. The study concluded that there is a significant effect of outdoor activities on learners‟ ability to acquire counting skills as rope skipping was found to influence acquisition of numbers values, fluency and positioning, ball bouncing influence acquisition of number positioning ,progressive counting and fluency, racing activities influence acquisition of number values ,number identification and number positioning. Sea saw swinging influence number values and number approximation. The study recommended that the county government should encourage teachers to participate in outdoor activities by supply of outdoor play materials as the activities enhanced learners acquisition of progressive counting, number – values number approximation, number positioning, number sequencing and fluency in counting.