The Effects of Training on Pre-school Teachers Practices in Oyo State, Nigeria

The survey of daycare and nursery schools in Nigeria conducted by National Commission for Colleges of Education in 2004 revealed that teachers are not trained for this level of education and most early years programmes are managed by people who have never been in the classroom. Because of this, Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), organized series of training for teachers of pre-schools to improve their quality on child development curriculum interpretation, teaching method and evaluation techniques. This study therefore investigated the teaching practices of those preschool teachers exposed to the training in Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo State. It adopted the descriptive survey research design. Thirty two pre-school teachers participated in the study. Two instruments titled “Pre-school Teachers Teaching Practices Questionnaire” (PTTPQ) and “Pre-school Teachers Observation Schedule” (PTOS) were used to gather relevant data. Findings of the study revealed the pre-school teachers used teacher-centred method of teaching with few materials provided. It was also revealed that the pre-school teachers used the new curriculum but did not encourage hands-on activities in learning the content of the curriculum. Among others, it was recommended that trained pre-school teachers should be recruited to teach in the pre-schools and workshops should be organized to train and re-train those on the job regularly on pedagogy.