Kindergarten teachers’ use of classroom management strategies within Ekumfi District, Ghana

Abstract

The study examined the preschool facilitators’ perceptions of classroom management strategies used in preschool classrooms in the Ekumfi District, Central Region of Ghana. Convergent mixed method design was employed where Census and purposive sampling techniques were used to sample 35 participants (11 males, 24 females). Questionnaire, semi-structured interview guide and observation checklist were used to collect data for the study. The study revealed that teachers can control some pupils’ disruptive behaviour in the classroom; teachers were able to motivate themselves and guide their actions anticipated by the exercise of forethought; they set themselves challenging goals and maintain a strong commitment to them. It was also revealed that, children are not well nurtured at home and model bad behaviours they see at home and in school and seeking teacher’s attention. It was concluded that with regard to facilitators’ self-efficacy beliefs about their classroom management practices, an important finding of this research is that most of the sampled facilitators use a combined approach of reactive and proactive classroom management strategies which is most appropriate as endorsed by several researchers. However, based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that both the pre-service and in-service levels, early childhood teacher education programmes in Ghana should emphasize teacher trainees’ ability to: (1) manage the peculiar behaviour of individual pupils; and (2) establish classroom management systems appropriate for each group of learners.