Abstract
One of the most important factors in realizing reading as a subject in pre-primary schools is teacher working conditions. Literature suggests that working conditions are crucial in teaching of reading and pupils’ reading ability. However, empirical studies that have examined pupils’ reading ability have not focused on the relationship between teacher working conditions and reading ability. Further, the few empirical studies that have examined the relationships have been conducted in primary and secondary schools. Whereas most pre-primary school teachers in Kenya work under unfavourable conditions, past studies have not examined the relationship between working conditions and reading ability of pre-primary school pupils in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher working conditions and pupils’ reading ability. The study was based on Herzberg’s two factor theory. The study adopted a correlational research design. The target population for the study was 79 head teachers and 79 pre-primary 2 class teachers in public schools in Rongai Sub-County Nakuru. A stratified sample of pre-primary schools in the four zones in Rongai Sub-county was used for the study. The sample size comprised of 66 head teachers and 66 pre-primary 2 teachers. The questionnaires were used to collect data from respondents.. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and standard deviations. To test the hypotheses, Pearson’s Product-moment correlation coefficient was used. The results revealed that there was a relationship between teacher workload, school leadership and pupils’ reading ability. The study concludes that teacher workload and school leadership affect the reading ability of pre-primary school pupils. The study recommends that to improve reading ability, school management should provide effective school leadership and ensure that pre-primary school classes are of reasonable sizes so that teachers do not have a heavy workload. Keywords : Working Conditions, Teacher Workload, School Leadership, Reading Ability; Pre-primary School Pupils DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-18-23 Publication date :June 30 th 2019
Highlights
Reading ability from early childhood years serves as an essential foundation in a child’s future academic achievement
The overall means for the dimensions of teacher working conditions were: teacher workload is 3.62 and school leadership is 3.67. These results indicate that often the teachers had heavy teacher workload and school leadership often recognized teachers
Discussions This study examined the relationship between teacher workload and pupils’ reading ability
Summary
Reading ability from early childhood years serves as an essential foundation in a child’s future academic achievement. It is an active process of understanding print and graphic text (Grabe, 1991; Van, 2002). Reading is an important means of acquiring knowledge, skills and self expression in the modern world of expansion of technology. It is vital in providing the information needed to fully understand how things happen (Aina, Taiwo, Okusaga, & Ogundipe, 2011). This means that readers are not passive during the reading process but instead, understand and construct meaning in the reading process
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
