TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION OF THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AMONG EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS IN GHANA

Samuel Oppong Frimpong, Rebecca Tetteh, Justina Adu, Esther Safoaa

Abstract


This study examined teachers' professional backgrounds, teaching experience, and understanding of classroom environmental principles and how they are applied in Early Childhood Education (ECE) settings in Ghana's Asuogyaman District. Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory and Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory were used to elicit environmental factors, teacher expertise, and contextual conditions that might be useful in influencing learners' attention. 122 ECE teachers completed a structured questionnaire as part of the study's quantitative descriptive survey design. Three hypotheses about the knowledge, professional qualifications, and classroom environment application of teachers were tested using descriptive statistics, Welch ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that although teachers' understanding of classroom environmental principles was generally between moderate and high, there were no statistically significant differences in knowledge or application based on teaching experience or professional qualification in areas like classroom layout, lighting, ventilation, learning centres, and teacher-learner interactions. These findings could imply that the district's classroom environmental practices are primarily shaped by systemic and infrastructure limitations rather than individual teacher-level factors. The study comes to the conclusion that systemic interventions, such as improved infrastructure, focused professional development, and resource support, are necessary to improve ECE classroom environments rather than depending only on teaching experience or academic credentials.

 

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teaching experience, teacher pedagogical knowledge, classroom environment, learner attentiveness, early childhood education

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v12i12.6416

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