BLENDED LEARNING COUPLED WITH FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN EARLY

CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN UGANDA

(A CASE STUDY OF PEAK KINDERGARTEN)

Description of project
Education is one of the hardest hit sectors by Corona virus disease of 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), COVID-19 has affected 1.6 billion and 209 million learners word over and in Africa
respectively. In Uganda, COVID-19 has affected 5,471,405 children (United Nations Education
Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2020). The resultant lockdown has caused interruptions to
the education sector. The prolonged lock down and hesitant re-opening measures taken by
countries means that early childhood education centers with younger children who are least
likely to observe social distancing will be among the last sectors to be reopened by government.

To mitigate the effect of COVID 19 on learning, educators, have resorted to various forms of
information and communication technology (ICT) related teaching(Home, n.d.; Nurul Mostafa
Kamal, 2020). Several researches report that ICT enhances children’s learning (Giannousi et al.,
2014) and play experience and strengthens communication and relationships between parents ,
ECD centres and the other stakeholders(McClure & Sweeny, 2015).

In Uganda, the Ministry of Education has fostered e learning for all primary and secondary
school students through weekly handouts in newspapers, lectures aired on radios and televisions.
Unfortunately, the government has not catered for early childhood learners. This has left these
young learners idle with no sense of direction in their formal education. Additionally, the
duration of the national school lockdown is very unpredictable hence, learners may return to
school when they have outgrown the Early Childhood Development age and are unprepared for
primary level. Furthermore, reduced incomes and un-employment associated with the pandemic
means families may struggle to prepare balanced nutritious meals for the children. Further still,
the school environment also provides opportunities for play, social interaction and physical
exercise, which may not be available at home.

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The combination of all the above is probably hampering cognitive, physical, social and
psychomotor development of the child. To address these challenges in early childhood education
in Uganda, we propose to develop, implement and evaluate impact of blended learning on
children’s learning outcomes using Peak Kindergarten as a case study.

Blended learning
Blended learning refers to a formal education program where a student learns through online
delivery of content and face to face instruction or other modalities with some component of
student control over place, time and path and has to be supervised in a brick and mortar location
away from home (Staker & Horn, 2012). On a broader sense, it entails combination of
instructional modalities, instruction methods or combining online and face to face (Bonk &
Graham, 2012). The idea of bended learning is entrenched in the fact that learning is a
continuous process not a one-time event. Blended learning is implemented using four models
that is rotation, flex, self-blend and enriched virtual models(Christensen et al., 2013, p. 12).
Blending offers several benefits over using a single learning modality. For the students, it
enables personalized pedagogy where student use preferred modalities, learn at their own pace
and receive timely feedback(Christensen et al., 2013, p. 12; Staker & Horn, 2012). For the
schools, blended learning enables recruitment of fewer staff, proper utilization of space and
improves student to teacher and parent interactions(Mahaye, n.d.).

Family involvement
Families play a critical role in the educational achievement of their children(LaRocque et al.,
2011). Family involvement refers to parent’s investment in their children’s education. This
includes helping children with their homework, visiting the child’s classroom, attending school
functions, volunteering at school, taking on leadership, sharing expertise in class through guest
speaking and participating in decision-making. Parental involvement in early childhood
education is associated with improved behavioral, academic and social outcomes(Bower &
Griffin, 2011; Castro et al., 2015; Fan & Williams, 2010; Jeynes, 2012; Wilder, 2014).
Regardless of the evidence that parent involvement improves children learning outcomes, there
is limited participation by parents in Africa(Tandon et al., 2017). An exploratory model
elaborating the barriers of parental involvement reported parents beliefs and perceptions, gender

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ethnicity, children’s age, learning difficulties and disabilities and teacher’s age and perceptions
affect parent involvement (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). Innovations like the use of incentives and
ICT increases parental participation (9) however; this has not been fully utilized for early
childhood education in Uganda. This study sets out to develop, implement and evaluate impact
of blended learning on children’s learning outcomes and assess perceptions of children and
parents towards blended learning using Peak Kindergarten as a case study.
Justification
Children in Kindergarten schools in Uganda are unable to continue with their studies due to the
COVID 19 lockdown. This is a period of rapid development in children; lack of care (education)
during this period has long lasting impact on the children’s cognitive, physical, social and
psychomotor development. Promoting and implementing e-learning at the kindergarten level
improves children’s learning experience and allows them to find an unlimited supply of
resources. Furthermore, e-learning and blended learning acts as a stop-gap in circumstances
where education is interrupted by epidemics, wars and sickness especially for those children with
chronic illnesses which often interrupt school like sickle-cell anemia and common childhood
infections like cough and flu, measles ,chickenpox , mumps. Parent or guardian involvement
enables the parents to fortify and enhance the child’s learning through home activities and to
integrate the learned concepts into home experiences. Children may probably learn better when
they see their parents show interest and are also involved in their learning.
The results of this study will add to the existing body of knowledge in early childhood learning,
help to change early childhood education policy and facilitate application of e-learning as an
acceptable education methodology in the early childhood age group in Uganda and other
countries.

Rationale
Adapting the proposed technology blended learning, printed and family involvement concepts in
order to transcend the usual identified barriers to early childhood online teaching and
experiences and to mitigate the effects of the covid -19 closure on the early childhood learners,
will guide in selecting a feasible and suitable model that allows social distancing and promote
continued learning.

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The results will help the administrators at Peak Kindergarten and similar kindergartens in
Uganda to adopt blended learning.
The involvement of the parents and guardians in their children’s learning will help them to better
understand their role towards the education of their children.

Study objectives
General Objective
To develop, implement and evaluate impact of blended learning on children’s learning outcomes
and assess perceptions of children and parents towards blended learning, with an overall aim of
improving early childhood education in Uganda.
Specific Objectives
1. To develop a blended learning interactive teaching package for early childhood parent
and child.
2. To implement the blended learning teaching package at Peak Kindergarten using an
experimental and control group.
3. To assess the impact of blended learning on the children’s learning
outcomes(competences) as set out in the teaching curriculum.
4. To explore the children’s and parents perceptions towards blended learning.

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METHODS

Study design
This study will be a mixed method study employing both qualitative and quantitative data
collection methods.

Study setting
The study will be conducted at Peak Kindergarten Ntinda, Kampala, Uganda. Peak kindergarten
is a registered early childhood training center with a student population of over 200 children.
Peak has during the pandemic lockdown tried to follow their leaners through regular provision of
work to the pupils in order to ensure some degree of continuity to their education development.

Study population
The study will enroll all Peak kindergarten pupils in top class whose parents give consent to
participate in the study.

Sampling strategy
The study will use purposive sampling technique to select the pupils and assign them to the
experimental and control groups. We will assign parents and pupils who have access to online
learning to the experimental group while the other parents and pupils who cannot access online
learning will be assigned to the control group.

Study variables

The independent variable will be two types of teaching methods that is blended learning and
physical packaged resources.

The dependent variable will be children’s learning outcomes (competences) as set out in the
teaching curriculum and parents/children’s perceptions to blended learning.

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Study procedures

A team of early childhood teachers will develop classical lesson plans for the children using their
normal school curriculum. This study will use a blended learning and physical schoolwork
packages to teach the children. Additionally, it will involve parents by integrating nutrition and
physical education within the proposed blended learning package. Educators will be able to
communicate to the parents and guardians, through e-learning innovative ways of utilizing food
resources available in the home, to ensure a balanced diet for the child, and will demonstrate to
the child and parent or guardian physical exercises, creative art, plays and games appropriate to
the child.

To plan for the transition from a traditional to blended learning program, we will employ the
community of inquiry (CoI) framework because it is associated with learning outcomes
(Garrison et al., 1999). This framework assumes that learning occurs in the community through
the interaction of three core elements including social, cognitive and teaching presence.
We will employ a quasi-experimental study design to deliver the teaching modules. Children in
both groups will attempt a test before starting the lessons.

In the experimental group, we will teach children using blended learning while in the control
group children will be taught using physical packages for four months.

After the completion of the teaching process in both groups, we will administer a post the
achievement test.
Finally, we will conduct a survey assessing the perceptions of the children and parents regarding
blended learning.

Data analysis
To determine the impact of blended learning on children’s learning outcomes we will employ,
means, standard deviations and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). To explore the children’s
experience using blended learning we will use thematic analysis to summarize the qualitative
data. Emerging themes will then be defined and illustrated using direct quotations from
participants.
References

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