TITLE:
Parent Play Beliefs, Play as a Teaching Technique, and Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge, and Children’s Early Numeracy and Literacy Skills: Evidence from Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia
AUTHORS:
Elka Zebdewos Zekarias, Wei Zhao
KEYWORDS:
Literacy, Numeracy, Parent Play Beliefs, Pedagogical Knowledge, Play
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
29,
2023
ABSTRACT: This study examined the associations between parent play beliefs, play as
a teaching technique, teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, and early numeracy and
literacy skills in six-year-old children who attend preschool education. A
correlation study design, under a quantitative approach, was used. Participants
included 216 children (106 male and 110 female), 215 teachers (99 male and 116
female), and 210 parents (135 male and 75 female). The Parent Play Beliefs
Scale, preschool teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge scale, and literacy
and numeracy test were used. Hierarchical linear modeling results showed that the
parent play beliefs, play as a teaching technique, and teachers’ pedagogical
knowledge of ΔR2 value of 0.020 revealed a 0.2% change in the variance of
models 1, 2 and 3 with ΔF (1, 213)
= 17.679, p 0.001. Analyses revealed that the combined effects of
the independent variables explained a 76.4% variance in children’s early literacy
and numeracy. These findings indicate that the variables significantly and
positively predicted children’s literacy and numeracy skills. Eventually, in conclusion, areas of further research and
implications for policy and practice were forwarded based on the major
findings.