Factors Affecting the Quality of Handwriting among Grade Five Learners in Selected Public Primary Schools of Mongu District, Zambia

Abstract

The study sought to establish factors influencing quality of handwriting among grade 5 learners in six selected public primary schools of Mongu district. Eleven (1 male and 10 females) grade five teachers and 60 grade five learners were purposely sampled for the study. The study employed a qualitative research design and used interviews and document analysis techniques to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data through the process of theme coding. The results revealed that the quality of handwriting among fifth graders was generally poor and below their grade level. The factors that influenced poor quality handwriting were: overcrowded classrooms leading to shortfall of desks, inadequate infrastructure, lack of handwriting teaching and learning resources, insufficient time allocated to handwriting, inadequate pre-service teacher training and lack of in-service orientation or Continuous Professional Development (CPD) opportunities on handwriting, lack of assessment and inadequate remediation policies, inadequate teacher knowledge in teaching handwriting skills and other writing instructional strategies, teachers’ own poor handwriting and teachers’ negative attitude towards teaching handwriting. Other factors included learners’ learning disabilities, learner absenteeism and lack of parental support. The implication of the study is that handwriting needs to be time tabled on official teaching schedule and teachers should use explicit instruction to teach handwriting to learners.