JOSEPH OGAR UKASHIA
Department of Early Childhood Care Education,
Federal College of Education,
Obudu, Cross River State.
E-mail: [email protected]
DENNIS UDAMA
Department of Business Education,
Federal College of Education,
Obudu, Cross River State.
ABSTRACT
Learning materials of various types at home enhance teaching and learning. This study therefore, explains the influence of learning materials at home on academic performance of children in early childhood care education. Learning materials at home considered in this study include audio, audio visual and visual. It is shown that all the materials listed above significantly influence the academic performance of children in early childhood care education. Recommendations were made among these that parents should provide learning material in their homes to enhance effective academic performance. With the provision of listed materials at home by parents, children will learn and retain what they learn fasted.
Keywords: Early childhood, visual, audio visual, audio, learning materials
INTRODUCTION
The home which is the first learning environment is the ideal place to begin schooling and the parents are involved in the child’s wellbeing and spends greatest amount of time with him and his early formative years. The home environment, a natural source of learning and discovery for the child. By scaling things to his sense and making things more easily accessible to him greatly provide his learning to help himfunction in his environment. Often, however, this cannot be readily achieved without learning materials in the home.
Learning itself is a process that starts from birth to death. The level of development of the child involves the three domains, cognitive, affective and psychomotor.
The early stage of the child’s learning is mostly in the cognitive and psychomotive. Education being a process, at this level is very technical considering the age range, 0-5 years. Whoever is involved at this stage is made to be extremely careful in handling the children because whatever he or she does will either make or mar the child’s future.
The key factor in the development of the individual from childhood to a well integrated person at adulthood is education, formal or informal. Simply stated, education refers to all the experiences that the individual accumulates from cradle to the grave. The child needs nurturing and changing him in a way from the raw instinctive stage towards cultural life. Isangedighi, (2007) opined that education in the child in the real sense is the mind that makes the person. What is put in a man is what makes him different from another and for a civilized man, the mind makes a difference, of education received at early childhood, basically influenced by availability of instructional materials. Language used and duration of time of the day and the year stated, methods and environment and who is involved in the process, father, mother, siblings and maids at home. This basically depends on how it is handled, may improve or mar academic performance in future.
When a child is at home, he is seen as purely a bundle of instinct. Lock (2004) opined that at birth the child’s mind is an empty state upon which experience writes.
The child learns as he builds up experience or as he grows up in awareness. For effective growth or development, the child acquires a good early education.
The quality of the child’s thought process introspections and speculation depends on his education, past experiences, needs, emotions and values inculcated in him or her in early childhood that forms his or her academic performance later in life (Okobia, 1986).
The civilized societies use the opportunity of children’s education to lay the foundation for more advanced future adult societies.
Therefore, the goal of every childhood education mostly influenced by the availability of materials at home is to acquire the child with intellectual social and physical skills. These skills involve the acquisition and utilization of knowledge. The degree of sophistication of the knowledge acquired and utilized can be described as descriptive analytic and problem solving (Collahan and Clark, 2006)
The purpose of early child education according to the national policy on education (2004) include:
- To effect a smooth transition from the home to the school
- Prepare the child for the primary level of education
- Inculcate social norms and value into the children.
- Inculcate in the child the spirit of enquiry and creativity through the exploration of nature, the environment, art, music, and playing with toys
- Develop a sense of cooperation and team spirit
- Learn good health habits
- Learn the rudiments of numbers, letters, colour, shapes, sizes, forms act through play.
Based on the above, the influence and existence of learning materials at home on the academic performance of pupils of early childhood care education cannot be over emphasized.
AUDIO INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AT HOME AND THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE EDUCATION PUPILS
According to Mathur (2007), audio instructional materials comprise of teaching aids through which learning takes place through hearing, that is through the ears. But Umoren (2005) opined that audio instructional materials are resources that aid learning by appealing to the sense of hearing.
Uneoren (2005) listed the following as some of the audio instructional materials; radio, audiotaped, tape recorder, language laboratories, telephones, public address systems, and phonetics. While Mathur (2007) in his research work postulated that audio instructional materials include phones of various sizes and models.
Mathur (2007) and Umoren (2005) agreed that audio materials facilitate storage, retrieval, replication and channeling of all verbal communication model, music, human, mechanical and environmental sounds of all forms.
However, Moronkola (2003) opined that audio instructional materials in most cases take less than 30% of what is heard can be retained or recalled easily and this helps the child to advance fast in learning in the home where this type of instructional materials are found or available.
Inyanya (2009). In his research on early childhood education and environment, opined that audio instructional materials refer to those materials that appeal to the sense of hearing (the ear). He said that when these are provided, it will facilitate the child’s learning ability. He however mentioned that audio instructional materials that can facilitate learning at home as audio receiver, the record/dice player and the tape recorder. He also maintained that in communication arts, the programmes on the audio to be lively and as natural as possible to hold the listener (the child) attention must be made to the understanding of the child and related to the child’s need and age i.e. his cognitive level.
Radio production is basically an audio production where the receiver of the message (the child) has to share the producers own ideas without any visual accompaniment. Thus, radio productions are often referred to as theatre of the mind.
VISUAL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AT HOME AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF EARLY CHILD CARE EDUCATION PUPILS
According to Umoren (2005) Ekpo and Udosen (2009), visual instructional materials are resources that aid learning through appealing to sense of vision (sight or eye to cognitive domain)
Visual instructional materials arouse and sustain interest in what is presented for learning. They facilitate the learning process since they provide condensed alternative of the real world in more concrete terms. Visual instructional materials provide better retention of what is taught to the children. Visual instructional materials present direct experiences and give rise to a deeper understanding of the issues or concept involved. Visual instructional materials comprise of illustrated materials, books, pictures, diagrams, photographs flash coned strip books, bulletin board, flannel board, models, specimens, textbooks, slides, film and field trips.
AUDIO-VISUAL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AT HOME AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE EDUCATION PUPILS
According to Moronkola (2003) audio-visual instructional materials are materials that catch the visual and hearing attention of learners during instructional programme, making learning to be more meaningful, interesting and rewarding. He stressed that the learner (the child) learns more when they have materials to feel and smell. Also, children are said to learn less from what they hear, more from what they see and hear. He also believes that audio visual instructional materials aid in making ideas or concepts clearer in instructional programmes.
Uche (2005) observed that audio visual instructional materials are resources that aid learning through the simultaneous stimulation of both the sight and the hearing. He said there are effective ways of presenting problems to learn because they can recall at least 50% of what they have learnt by seeing and hearing.
Mathur (2007) and Moronkola (2003) put audio visual instructional materials as television, video-tape, audio strip (transparency) audio pictorial (printed materials with recorded sounds). Audio-slides, study-strip and demonstrations, films, computer, cartoons. They acknowledge that audio-visual materials stimulate learner’s interest make learning concepts permanent in the lips of learners. Also, learners are made to have similar objects which aid conceptual thinking.
Audio-visual help the learners in knowing correct spellings and pronunciation of technical words, provide set activity out let for the learner thereby developing their psychomotor skills and ensure variety of learning opportunities
CONCLUSION
It is concluded therefore that the early childhood care education pupils academic performance is influenced by pertinent factors among which bordered on the issues of audio, visual, and audio visual instructional materials at home. Audio materials has a crucial contribution to make in the vital educational achievement of children. Through it one can put forward various concepts of learning to a child. Visual instructional materials actually influence the academic performance of children since it appears to their sight.
Finally, audio-visual materials influence the academic achievement of children since it improves their hearing and sight. Audio-visual materials really aid learning because it simultaneously stimulates both the sight and hearing. They are effective ways of presenting problems to learners because at least 50% of what is leant can be recalled by seeing and hearing.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the presentation above the following recommendations were made.
- Parents should be encouraged to provide learning materials in their homes to enhance effective academic performance.
- With the provision of the mentioned instructional and learning materials at home, children will learn and retain what they learn faster.
- Parents that are not literate can employ the services of a teachers or teacher to use the visual, audio and audio materials to enhance learning at home.
REFERENCES
Inyanga, A. E. (2009) Home and academic performance of youth. Uyo. Etitee (Nigeria) LTD
Isangedighi, A. J. (2007). Child Psychology development and education. Calabar: Eti Nwa Associates
Lock, J. (2004). Some thoughts concerning education. 1960, London: Cambridge University Press.
Mathur, J. S. (2007) Preventive and social medicine, comprehensive text: new Delhi: CRS Publishers and contributors Pp.150-152.
Moronkola, O. A. (2003) School health programme. Ibadan: Royal people (Nigeria) LTD
National Policy on Education (2004). Lagos: NERDC press
Okobiah, S.(1986). Foundations of Education. Owerri: Totan Publishers.
Umoren, G. U. (2005) Fundamentals of integrated Science teaching. Calabar: University of Calabar Press.