Effects of Teachers Level of Education and Experience on Teacher-Child Interactions in Early Childhood Institutions

Abstract

Early childhood care and development (ECCD) in Ghana have received attention in the last decade. To ensure quality of instruction and build capacity of early childhood teachers and caregivers, the National Nursery Teachers’ Training Centre was set up by the government to offer specialized training in nursery education for teachers and nursery attendants. Universities and the Colleges of Education have been mandated to train teachers for early childhood education. This study therefore sought to find out the effects of level of education and years of experience of teachers on their interactions with children (3 - 5) in early-childhood institutions in Ghana using the Caregiver Child Interaction Scale (r = 0.77). The sample (N = 103; Female 99%): made up of teachers from thirty-one preschools in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana were observed during their normal classroom routine. There appeared not to be any statistically significant difference between the teachers’ level of education and years of experience on the interaction scores.