JOURNAL OF LIAONING TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

TEACHERS COMPETENCE AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES AS PREDICTOR OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN’S WRITING SKILLS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Ruth Morenike ODEWUMI, Gladys Tinuola SEGUN-DIPE

Abstract

The study determined the influence of teacher competence on pre-school children’s writing skills and assessed the composite contribution of classroom literacy practices to pre-school children’s writing skills in the study area. It investigated the relative contribution of teacher competence and preschool children’s writing skills and examined the relationship between relationship between classroom literacy activities and preschool children’s writing skills. in the study area. These were with a view to providing information on the influence of teacher competence and classroom practices on pre-school children’s writing skills in Southwestern Nigeria. The study used a mixed methodology that combined correlational and observational design. For this investigation, three self-designed instruments were used. All of the preschoolers and their teachers in Southwest Nigeria made up the study's population. 120 preschool teachers and 600 preschoolers made up the study's sample population. The investigation used a multi-stage sampling technique. Through a voting process, three states were chosen at random from a total of six in the southwest of Nigeria. The basic random sample technique was used to choose one senatorial district from each state and one LGA. Then, using a stratified sample technique based on school ownership, 20 preschools were chosen from local governments. Ten preschools were chosen at random from both private and public schools. Depending on whether pre-primary classrooms were available, two pre-primary school teachers from each chosen school were chosen. Based on the requirements that they are between the ages of 3 and 5 and enrolled in preschool, 20 children were chosen. The instruments used were: “Teacher Writing Competence Rubric” (TWCR), “Engagement in Prewriting Activities Checklist” (EPAC), “Classroom Literacy Activities Checklist” (CLAC) and “Preschool Children Writing Skill Rubric” (PCWSR). Data were subjected to reliability test using intra class Correlation Coefficient and reliability index yielded 0.80, 0.73, 0.80 and 0.72 respectively. Multiple linear regressions, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used as inferential statistics to analyze the data. The result revealed positive medium-to-moderate relationship between teacher writing competence and preschool children’s writing skills (r =.356). It also indicated the composite contribution of classroom practice to pre-school children’s writing skills of 6.3% and statistically significant (_{F (2,597)} = 19.975; p = 0.05). The classroom literacy activities had the relative contribution to the pre-school children’s (= -.251; t = -6.288; < 0.05) while engagement in pre-writing activities had the contribution of (=.053; t = 1.334; p > 0.05). Meanwhile, the relative contribution of engagement in pre-writing activities to the pre-school children’s writing skills was not statistically significant (t = 1.334; p = 0.18), while that of the classroom literacy activities was found to be statistically significant (t = -6.288; p < 0.05). The study concluded that teacher competency and classroom literacy practices have been found to be the factors that could influence the writing skills of preschool children. Therefore, it was recommended that training and retraining programs on writing skills for preschool teachers are needed to keep them in touch with effective teaching strategies that could enhance the writing skills of preschoolers.