Diploma Module 2

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Mr. Oyom Joseph Jolly, joswaldlyn@yahoo.com, 0772957506/0701702033

“A GOOD FOUNDATION LAID, A GOOD FUTURE FORESEEN”
DEDICTION
To all my students of Ndejje University, Uganda Martyrs University- Nkozi, St. Joseph
ECD Training Institute-Lira, DOT ECD Centre –Entebbe, Mirembe Girl’s ECD and
Vocational Training Centre- Zana, Sure Prospect Institute, Sonlife ECD Centre –
Nalugala, COSA Institute Wobulezi, MORET Masindi, Hossana NTC, Pearl NTC- Gulu
and St. Daniel Comboni ECD- Pakwach .

PREFACE
Wishing you luck as we journey together in Developing and nurturing the future
generation. Remember when you lay the foundation weakly, you have destroyed the
future of the child, family, community, society, nation or state. For that matter, try to
understand what has been put down in the Study Modules (There are three Modules
breaking down 38 course units of Two Years Diploma in ECE). Do not just read them to
pass your University Examinations but internalize, assimilate and put them in practice or
your day to day life as a parent.
I want to caution you students to value Educational resources. Most of you after
completing University Examinations you throw away the notes; it is like burning the
library. As caregivers, ECD advocates and teachers, more so parents or potential
parents, we need to refresh our knowledge and update ourselves with our fields of
specialization. So let the modules help you now and be your future reference books
from time to time, the modules are informative and instructive.
Do not be convinced that all are contained in the Study Modules, do more research and
consult different books, journals and other information sources on ECD. We are not
masters of our fields because we lack the spirit of research. So, if you want to be a
master of your field and more knowledgeable, do more research and then you will be a
full consultant in the field of study.
Note ECD course units cut across you may find a topic in a unit coinciding with another.
So, they are integrated, when reading confer to other course units’ notes or information
for good understanding. These Study Modules are compiled basing on the Course
Outlines/Contents stipulated in the Training Programme set by Ministry of Education,
Sport and Technology (MoEST), UNICEF and Ndejje University- Faculty of Education
course structure for Diploma in Early Childhood Development and Education.
Success and Good luck!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Greatly I thank the Almighty God for His providence and for giving me good health
during the period of compiling this Educational Resource Book. Further to all the
Religious Leaders and Laity who often offers prayers for us Bishops, Priests, Pastors,
Religious and women and men of God. Special mention my beloved sister Rev. Sr. Dr.
Christine Gabriela Achola (MSMMC), Rev. Fr. Alberto Rienzner Ocen (Baba), Mummy
Cecila Akumu, mummy Ventorina Ameto and Mummy Scovia Alyek .
The officials of Ministry of Education TIET department Dr. Jane Egau Commissioner,
Dr. Mugenyi and all ECD consultants at MoES, NCDC, UNICEF, Madrasa Resource
Centre, Kyambogo University, Ndejje University, Uganda Martyrs University, ECDTIA
Uganda for providing Training Programmes and other resource materials that were of
great help in the writing of these modules.
The subject specialists whose materials contributed towards the writing of these
modules: Dr. Lubwama Henry (Curriculum Consultant Ndejje University), Mr. Semivule
George William, Ms. Claire Tinkamanyire (Exam Coordinator Ndejje University), Mrs.
Semivule Hellen (Head of Dept. ECD Ndejje University), Ms. Bernadette Bukirwa, Mrs.
Nakwagala Agatha (MUK/DOT), Ms. Beatrice Namugalu (Research- UMU), Mr. Okira
Abner (Language Dept. Ndejje University), Dr. Jude (ICT Dept. Ndejje University), Mr
Santo S. Auma Okumu ( Dept. of Psychology Kyambogo University).
Other authors whose Resource Books were of great help in coming up with these
modules: Mary Madudu and Tabitha Akosio, Mary Kibera, Pamela Mawanda, J.C,
Aggawarla, Kanatta Adhul, Catherine etal., Margaret Mwangi, Paulines Publication
Africa’s The Journey of Faith series, Tumusiime Dez and many others whose works
were consulted thank you for all the information you have given on children and family
life.
My colleagues lecturers and tutors in different Universities and ECD Training institutions
thanks for your encouragement and contributions: Bernadette Bukirwa (Ndejje/ UMU),
Beatrice Namugalu (UMU),Micheal Atiku (Ndejje) Lule Simon (Mirembe Girls ECD),
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Francis Kawuma (Nkumba University/Mirembe), Mildred Alice Esaite (DOT), David
Ariko (DOT), Kitaka Mubarak (Sure Prospect), Miria Abonwaku (Son life), Martin Isaac
Abwango (JECD),Tonny Akwanga (St. Joseph), Haggai Okullo (JECD), Ogwang
Richard (JECD), DL Okello (JECD), Joan Amollo (JECD), Mrs. Margret Ekwang
(MORET), Ayena Patrick (Hossana), Opoo Emma (Pearl) and Jackson Ongol (St.
Peters NTC).
The pioneer students of St. Joseph’s ECD Training Institute you gave me a great
backup to write these modules as you were the pilot scheme of the modules: H.M.
Eunice Arim Ogwang Edola, Moses Oryokot, Eunice Ayugi, Lucy Akello, Mummy
Beatrice Akello, Lucy Achola, Neversis Apiyo, Semmy Modester Abua and Rev. Sr.
Brenda Amongi (MSMMC). In the same note also pioneer staffs, Ms. Lillian Babra
Akullo, Dillish Akullo, and Mrs. Sharon Akwanga.
Last but not least great appreciation to my ECD mentors: Mama Mary Ojacor (RIP), Dr.
Ejuu Geoffrey, Mrs. Philda Okello, Hellen Semivule, Ms. Takia Nalwoga, Rev. Sr.
Catherine Aceng (RIP) and Rev. Sr. Dr. Clotida Nalugwa.
Finally, to all my professors and lecturers who taught me during my Graduate Studies in
ECD at Ndejje University and those still giving me more information and knowledge in
Early Childhood Education especially Prof. Samuels Woltyla (University of South Wales
International) and Prof. Mugagga Anthony (MUK).
May the Almighty God through His son Jesus Christ and the intercession of St. Joseph
and the Blessed Virgin Mary bless you all Amen!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICTION.............................................................................................................................................. i
PREFACE................................................................................................................................................ ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... iii
UNIT ONE ............................................................................................................................................... 2
TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES ....................................................... 2
UNIT TWO ............................................................................................................................................. 21
SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION ........................................................................................................ 21
UNIT THREE......................................................................................................................................... 32
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CURRICULAR (3-6 YEARS) ........................................ 32
UNIT FOUR ........................................................................................................................................... 80
ASSESSMENT, MONITORING AND EVALUATION ..................................................................... 80
UNIT FIVE ............................................................................................................................................. 92
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION ....................................................................................................... 92
UNIT SEVEN....................................................................................................................................... 168
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS ...................................................................................... 168
UNIT EIGHT ........................................................................................................................................ 211
ENTREPRENUERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SKILLS ...................................................................... 211
UNIT NINE........................................................................................................................................... 229
SCHOOL PRACTICE ........................................................................................................................ 229

UNIT ONE
TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

Introduction
This unit exposes you to ways and systematic procedures of carrying out activities that
lead to intended learning outcomes. As a student, you might have known and interacted
with some excellent teachers, who helped you to enjoy their lessons. What was so
special about the ways they taught the lessons you enjoyed? What teaching methods,
strategies or approaches did they use to make lessons enjoyable and understandable?
Did such teachers inspire you to become an excellent teacher? Why? Throughout this
unit, you will learn a lot about the importance of teaching methods in education. The
teaching methods discussed in this unit include play way, role-play, storytelling, co-
operative learning, group work, project method, demonstration, discussion and
fieldwork. The Approaches discussed in this unit include the following: Child-to-child,
Teacher-centered, Participatory, Integrated, Mass Media and Child-centred.
Aims
1. To introduce you to various methods, strategies, techniques and skills of
teaching in primary school.
2. To enable you to select and appropriately apply, the methods and skills of
teaching in the teaching/learning process of primary school pupils.
3. To enable you to make appropriate plans and develop a rich store of skills and
techniques of teaching.
Specific goals
 To help the student to learn how to use various motivational strategies.
 To help the student to develop the ability to choose appropriate methods and
approaches during the learning/teaching process.
 To help the student to built his/her confidence in directing, teaching and
instructing learners.
 To help the student to become skilful in making choices of materials according to
learners‟ age and abilities during the teaching/learning process.
Course outline
1. General Methods of teaching
2. General approaches to teaching
3. Schemes of work and lesson plan

Subject Orientation
Successful teaching/learning requires that the learners are able to understand,
internalize and apply what they learn. We therefore, need to acquire a number of
methods and approaches to make teaching/learning effective.
Study Requirements
You should have a pen and piece of paper to note the main points and discuss them
with friends, classmates and tutors/ lecturers.
THE CONCEPTS OF TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

Methods:
understand and use knowledge, skills and promote values.
Approaches: These are general ways of organizing or carrying out teaching.

Strategies: Strategies are different ways/techniques that are structured (ordered)
towards the achievement of a particular goal or are plans with a set of procedures to a
targeted objective.
TOPIC 1: GENERAL METHODS OF TEACHING

i) Play way method:
This is a method of teaching where learning is through play form. According to Jean
Piaget, play is a demonstration of children’s intelligence.
Advantages of play way method

 It motivates learners to learn.
 It promotes learners‟ creativity.
 It aids learners‟ memory.
 It improves learners‟ imagination.
 It facilitates learners‟ physical development.
 It makes learners appreciate their surroundings/environment.
 It promotes learners‟ skills.
 It promotes social skills in learners, i.e. sharing, co-operation, turn taking
and patience.
Disadvantages of play way method
 It can result into accidents if not well organized.
 It leads to poor classroom control if not well planned.
 It does not cater for weak learners.
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 It is tiresome on the side of a teacher, especially in making play materials.
ii) Role-play:
It is teaching/learning strategy in which learners act out a situation, pretend to be in
a particular situation or play the roles of (imitate) other people in order to aid and
enhance their learning. It involves both imagination and imitation.
Advantages of role-play
 It promotes creativity and critical thinking.
 It improves memory and observation skills.
 It improves knowledge, skills and attitudes.
 It provides room for modification of concepts and replaying.
 It develops a sense of responsibility in the learner.
 It promotes active learning because learners are actively involved in the
activity.
 It promotes socialization.
 It reflects the real situation.
Disadvantages of role-play
 The played roles may be misinterpreted by the learners observing the
role-play.
 Role-play may not provide an interesting situation for learning purposes.
 Learners can develop negative attitudes towards different roles played by
adults.
Teachers’ role during role-play
 Create or prepare a place for role-play.
 Make enough play materials and organize them.
 Plan and prepare the activity for role-play according to the number of
learners and their developmental stages.
 Set up the learners to participate regardless of sex.
 Guide and supervise the learners.
iii) Story telling method
It is a method, which a teacher can develop and use to enhance learners‟ language
development. Story telling develops the skills of listening, speaking, reading and
writing. The activities are; role-playing, dramatization, drawing and answering written
and oral questions based on the stories.
Consideration for story telling

 Select the story related to the content.
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 Modify the story to suit the situation.
 Narrate story in a particular sequence.
 Vary your voice to the story.
 Use support materials or aids.
 Process the story.
Advantages of story telling
 It stimulates learners‟ thinking and imagination.
 It develops learners‟ listening abilities and concentration.
 It develops learners‟ oral skills (expression).
 It helps learners to develop creativity.
 It increases learners‟ curiosity and interest in learning.
 It enriches the lesson content.
Disadvantages of story telling
 Learners may shy away from active story telling.
 Learners may misinterpret the story message if not told systematically.
 It requires a variety of stories.
 Learners may get bored by a storyteller who is not good.
iv) Cooperative learning
This is a method where learners work together with their peers or classmates
towards a common objective. Competition as an approach is not emphasized
because everyone takes part, i.e. every person plays a role towards achieving the
objective. There is team spirit achieved through the participation of each learner,
however; you, the teacher, have to create a conducive learning environment.
v) Group work
These are activities where learners work together in a group or groups under the
guidance of a teacher. The group should comprise of learners mixed abilities and it
should be small in size.
How to implement group work!

i. Plan for the group activities, materials to be used, the number of learners and
groups.
ii. Materials should encourage learners to interact.
iii. The teacher should give clear and precise instructions about the activity to be
done in groups using objects.
iv. Distribute the materials and activities to the groups and let learners work. Allow
learners to choose their group leaders.

v. Let learners discuss and work out the solutions by themselves in their groups as
they interact with each other. The teacher goes around guiding the learners.
vi. The teacher should praise the group that does good work.
After the activities
 Let learners collect the materials with the help of a teacher.
 Let them talk about the activity they have done.
 Give them exercises.
Advantages of group work

 It creates a spirit of teamwork.
 It promotes interaction in learners.
 It aids learners‟ memory.
 It develops mental capabilities e.g. reasoning, creativity and problem
solving.
 Social skills are developed, such as sharing, cooperation, patience and
turn taking.
 Leadership skills are developed.
 It calls for active participation of all learners, hence active learning.
 It stimulates learners to complete a given task in time.
Disadvantages of group work
 It is demanding on the side of a teacher, which needs commitment.
 It needs many materials, which needs a teacher to be innovative, creative
and resourceful.
 It can create indiscipline if not well planned, for example, poor classroom
control.
 It is not effective for a large number of learners.
vi) Project method
It encourages learners to work and express themselves in whatever they are doing.
Learners do not have to wait for the teacher because they have the opportunity to
share knowledge and experience on the task at hand
Teachers’ role in project learning

 Monitoring learners‟ progress
 Guiding learners through the project exercise
 Encouraging learners throughout the project period
Learners’ role in project learning
 Explaining to one another new ideas
 Sharing information on the activity using their own experiences
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 Supporting each other to learn
 Learning by doing the task
Advantages of project learning
 Makes learning meaningful
 Motivates learners
 Develops responsibility in learners
 Learners develop a spirit of teamwork
 Learners develop new skills and ideas
vii) Demonstration method
This is a step-by-step (systematic) explanation of what goes on in order to complete
a particular task. As you demonstrate, the learner observes, answers oral questions
and may at times, take part in the demonstration.
Advantages of demonstration method
 It arouses learners‟ curiosity and cultivates interest
 It captures learners‟ attention
 It aids learners‟ memory
 It calls for active participation of learners because learners will be
practicing the skills demonstrated.
 It facilitates physical development of the learners.
Disadvantages of demonstration
 It demands a teacher to prepare enough materials, which are large and
clear in order to maintain learners‟ interests during the demonstration.
 It limits learners‟ creativity. It leads to poor mastery of skills if not well
demonstrated.
 It demands a teacher to prepare in advance the skills to be demonstrated
to learners.
 It is not effective in a large class of learners.
For effective use of demonstration, you should:

 Have the apparatus ready before the lesson.
 Have correct sequence before demonstration.
 Rehearse the demonstration first to ascertain success and make
adjustment where necessary.
 Discuss the safety measures with the learners before the demonstration
 Ask learners to attempt the demonstration. This will enable you to know
whether learners have understood the lesson.

viii) Discussion Method
It is one of the most common methods used in teaching. It can be done by a whole
class and a group of learners seeking to put across ideas, facts and opinions about
a subject in an effort to learn from each other. While implementing this method of
teaching/learning, the teacher provides a problem for discussion to the learners.
His/her role is to steer learners towards the desired direction and discourage them
from deviating from the topic. The teacher goes around the groups while assisting
the participants. How effectively can discussion method be used in a lesson?
When using discussion method in a lesson, you should

 Make a general introduction of the subject for discussion, and then ask
abroad questions as a way of opening up the discussion.
 Direct each group while maintaining control of the entire discussion,
otherwise, the discussion can be chaotic.
 Pose questions as the discussion continues so as to clarify some issues.
 Time factor is a concern to the discussion, for if poorly managed, it may
take more time than what is provided.
ix) Fieldwork or field visits

These refer to lessons that take place out of the classrooms or school environment. The
teacher schedules an educational trip or tour with the class. Remember that educational
trips must be age-appropriate. Why? It is also important to examine the suitability of the
trip you are planning. The visit may be to a selected facility to reinforce the subject
matter learnt in the classroom. Qn. What are the advantages of educational field trip
and Who should be involved in the planning of educational fieldwork?
TOPIC 2: GENERAL APPROACHES

i) Child-centred approach
This takes into account the active role of the learner in the learning process.
Learners‟ active participation is emphasized. The classroom/learning-centre or
atmosphere is characterized by:
 Relaxed and happy learners with a buzz of interested conversation about
the subject content.
 Plenty of individual learner-activities in their self-directed learning.
 Learners are asking questions, they are carrying out discussion and
exploration.
 Use of a variety of appropriate instructional materials and displays.

 Creation of conducive learning environment for learners‟ self-motivation
and responsibility.
 Grouping and re-grouping when tasks are in progress to cater for
uniqueness (special education needs) of individual learners.
 Children’s rights and responsibilities are promoted.
 There are many learning centres in the classroom.
 The teacher considers learners‟ needs, difficulties and potential.
 Child-to-child approach is encouraged.
Child-centered means that it is not the teacher or the curriculum which is the
most important thing in the school, but the children themselves. It means to
believe in the children’s ability to communicate their needs and wants, to make
choices, think, experience, explore, ask and search for answers. This makes
children not only receivers of our education, but enables and empowers them to
be active participants in their education and development, whether it be social,
emotional, intellectual, physical or linguistic development.
It is very important to reinforce self-esteem, self-confidence, empowerment and

the development of a positive and realistic self-concept.
The child is the agent in his own learning, out of the three components of a
learning situation; the child, the teacher and the environment, pride of place is to
be given to the child. He must become the most important agent in his learning.
Children learn best when they are active. When we consider the child an agent in
his own learning, we must provide for him to be active.
Knowledge or information is not the goal. Self-realization is the goal. Personality

and character are more importance than the subject matter. to possesses all the
knowledge of the world and los
Advantages of learner-centred approach

 Individual learning is encouraged.
 Learners‟ interests are fulfilled.
 It promotes development of concepts and mastery of skills.
 It promotes learners‟ usage of imagination.
 It promotes long-term memory among learners.
 It promotes the sharing of ideas, feelings and experiences among
learners.
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 Creativity is promoted, thus making many discoveries as the pupils learn.
 Learners are active participants in the learning process.
Disadvantages of learner-centred approach

 Weak learners may continue to lag behind.
 Learners may fail to distinguish between right and wrong.
 It is time consuming on the part of the learners.
ii) Teacher-centred approach

The teacher-centred approach is also known as talk-and-chalk on lecture method. In
this approach, the teacher stands or sits in front of his/her class and speaks to
his/her learners. Learners may take down some notes or just sit and listen to the
teacher. Occasionally, the teacher may pose questions to the learners. This
approach can enable the teacher to cover much content, but learners with diverse
needs will not be able to actively participate at the normal classroom teachers‟ pace.
The following characteristics are evident in the teacher-centred approach:

 The teacher is more active than the learners.
 Very little use of learning and teaching resources.
 In most cases, learners just copy notes.
 Learners are passive listeners (They depend mainly on what the teacher
tells).
 The teacher does not allow challenges from learners.
 The teacher does not allow learners to initiate anything during lessons.
 The teacher criticizes the learners.
iii) Integrated approach
Integration is one of the most recommended approaches of teaching emphasized
today. This is an approach where ideas or facts from other subjects are linked or
referred to so as to make the lesson in progress richer in content and application.
This approach involves borrowing knowledge and experiences from different
subjects and topics to make learners understand the concept under discussion..
Advantages of integrated approach

 Concepts are better understood.
 It creates a balanced learner in all subjects.
 It leads to development of various skills.
 It makes learning a real life experience.
 It creates the culture of research in the teacher.
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 It improves learners‟ memory of content learnt.
 It widens the understanding of both learners and teachers.
Disadvantages of integrated approach
 It demands a lot from the teacher in terms of reading and research.
 Requires a variety of study books for reference.
 Learners may be misled if not guided properly.
iv) Participatory approach

Participatory approach is also called experimental approach. It is a learner-centred
approach in which students are active participants in the learning process (they ask
questions and answer them, they identify and solve problems, they identify and
discuss issues, carry out experiments and feel responsible about their own learning)
while their teachers become active listeners and focus on organizing instructional or
learning activities and goals, facilitating student discussions and encouraging
learners to academically perform well.
Participation is an important democratic principle and essential part of being human.

This does not only apply to adults or grown citizens of a country, but also to children
attending school. In school, participation is focused not on political education, but
rather on the following attitudes and competencies:
 Taking and sharing responsibilities
 Developing opinions and interests and representing them (and being able to
bear the fact that they cannot always be realized or acted upon).
 Resolving conflicts peacefully and constructively
 Listening carefully and respectfully to others
 Engaging in a critical yet open-minded way with their surroundings
 Creating empathy and solidarity with their peers
Participation should become an automatic principle in your daily work. There are
various ways to involve children in the daily routine. For example we can use
‘morning meetings’, ‘children conferences’ or ‘children parliaments’, but also include
them in housekeeping or gardening activities.
Forms of participation
There are different levels and forms of participation:
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Non-Formal
Participation can be based on a certain project with a clear time-frame and topic.
The impulse for this topic can come from the children themselves or from the
educator. Examples include the preparation for an excursion, redecoration of a room
or exploration of a certain topic of interest to the children.
Formal
Here the use of ‘morning circles’ where everyone is able to express their wants or
problems, or share experiences. This is a great way to find out what the children are
really interested in and to formulate your projects and activities according to that. For
group mediation or decision-making, you can use a variety of methods, from simple
feedback or discussion rounds, to ‘children parliaments’ or ‘children conferences’
where you ask children to discuss the matter and then take a vote (for example by
raising hands or putting stones in a bowl). If there appears to be a major conflict,
create your own.
 Children parliaments: A children parliament takes the child serious as expert
of his or her own life. Additionally it provides children with possibilities such as
acquiring competencies in peaceful and democratic conflict resolutions,
promoting one’s interests or creating solidarity.
Within a children parliament, children for example can come together and discuss
the matter of interest. Afterwards they take a vote by raising hands or putting stones
in a bowl. Another form of children parliament is to vote for a child-president, who
acts like the leader of the discussion and provides different parties (or chosen
representatives) with the possibilities to present their interests and arguments.
Afterwards, the children will again be asked to take a vote.
 Children Conference: A children conference is similar to a children’s

parliament. But instead of urgent matters or matters of conflicts, here basic
rules, but also possible contents for projects or today’s activities will be
discussed. Every child should be able to make him- or herself heard. You can
use for example a “speaking ball” or “speaking wand” which is given to the
child that has something to say. After he or she is done and someone else
wants to add something, the ball or wand or whatsoever will be handed over.
The children conference can also use voting for finalizing the discussion and
implementing solutions, but does not necessarily include voting. It can be
more used as a way of providing children with orientation of what is
happening and integrating their own thoughts and wishes.
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PRINCIPLES OF PARTICIPATION
When participation is used as a strategy to promote friendly learning environment for
children the following needs to be considered:
Participation requires adults to accompany children.

Participation does not mean leaving children alone with responsibilities and decision-
making.
In fact, participation is a process, which needs the practice, experience and active
support of the educators. Children need role models, information, alternative
experiences and modes for acting, as well as spaces for negotiation.
Participation requires interaction based on equality and partnership.

This means teacher and child being engaged in a dialogue, where both can be
teachers and learners. The educator has to acknowledge the expertise the child has
about their own living environment, their emotions and perspectives towards
themselves, others and the world.
This means, as an educator you have to be open-minded and interested in what
children have to say. Regarding the process of participation, the educator is
responsible for supporting the development of peaceful and constructive conflict
resolution and negotiation of interests.
Participation cannot happen without any consequences or rewards.

If children participate in something, there should be a real chance that their ideas
and wants can be realized within a certain amount of time. Therefore, it is very
important to think about the spaces and questions, where children can actually co-
decide, and build these into the learning environment.
Participation should be based on the children’s living environment.

If children are to participate, the topics and contents of their learning have to have an
impact on, or connection to, their real life. This can be direct or indirect. If topics are
abstract, it is important to carefully prepare lessons and activities to make the topics
comprehensible and relatable for the children
Qn. What do you think are the characteristics/qualities of participatory approach?
v) Child-to-child approach Child-to-child approach is a process by which a child

spreads ideas and practices to other children and community at large.
Advantages of child-to-child approach
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 The child develops self-esteem and expression since the child is the one to give
instructions and explanations.
 The child develops an attitude of concern, commitment and participation among
learners.
 It motivates learners to learn without fear.
 It promotes active learning and experiences.
 It aids learners‟ memory (Learners do not forget what they do themselves).
 It promotes the use of knowledge and skills.
 Disadvantages of child-to-child approach
 Explanations may not be clear compared to those of the teacher.
 It can lead to the spread of wrong information.
 t leads to indiscipline if not well prepared. As a teacher, you need to be around
when the activity is going on.
vi) Mass media approach It is the use of newspapers, television, radio,

computers/internet and magazines to communicate to different learners or
different situations at the same time. Mass media communication is mostly
used for the purposes of giving information, sensitization and mobilization.
What are the advantages of mass media?

 It is cost effective, in that, resources are used to cover a wide area.
 Quality learning is assumed because of adequate preparation.
 It promotes good classroom control.
 Learners become more attentive than the ordinary lesson, hence
concentration is enhanced.
 There is the possibility of recording lessons through tapes, video and CDs
for future reference.
 It is good for teaching vocabulary.
 It makes learning interesting.
TOPIC 3: STRATEGIES OR SKILLS OF TEACHING

Teaching is a complex phenomenon, comprising of several teaching skills. Through
micro-teaching, complexities of classroom teaching are simplified and reduced.
However, micro-teaching provides the rational and systematic way of identifying
teaching skills.
14

Teaching skills are specific instructional activities and procedures that a teacher may
use in a classroom. There are several sets of component teaching skills, the common
teaching skills are the following:
 Questioning- fluency and structuring
 Illustration with examples
 Lecturing/explaining
 Reinforcement
 Set induction ( introducing a lesson)
 Stimulus variation
 Planned repetition
 Silence and non-verbal cues
 Recognizing attending behavior
 Completeness of communication
 Encouraging pupil participating
 Remedial measures
 Using audio- visual aids
 Writing instructional objectives
 using blackboard
 organization of content
 evaluation
CORE TEACHING SKILLS AND THEIR COMPONENTS

1. Writing instructional objectives Clarity, relevance to the content, adequacy
with reference to the domains and levels of
objectives, attainability in terms of pupil
outcomes
2. Organizing the content Logical organization according to content

and psychological organization as per
needs of the pupils
3. Creating set for introducing the Greeting, accepting greeting, securing,

lesson attention and giving instructions,
establishing rapport, ensuring facilities like
chalk, duster, aids, apparatus
4. Introducing the lesson Linking with past experiences, link

between introduction and main parts, use
15

of appropriate devices/techniques like
questioning, examples, exhibits
5. Structuring classroom question Structuring questions at different levels

which are grammatically correct, precise
and relevant to content
6. Questions delivery and distribution Questions delivered with appropriate

speed with proper intonation and pitch,
allowing pause for thinking and questions
well distributed covering even non-
volunteers
7. Response management Management of pupil response using

techniques like prompting eliciting further
information, refocusing and asking critical
awareness questions accepting, reflecting
and redirection
8. Explaining Clarity, continuity, relevance to the

content, using beginning and concluding
statements, covering essential points.
9. Illustrating with examples Simple, interesting and relevant to the

point being explained
10. Using teaching aids Relevant to content, appropriate to the

pupils’ level, proper display and
appropriate use.
11. Stimulus variation Body movements, gestures, change in

intonation and pitch, change in interaction
pattern and pausing
12. Pacing of the lesson Adjusting the speed of the lesson to the
level of the pupils and difficulty level of the
content
16

13. Promoting pupil participation Providing opportunity to pupils to increase
participation through asking questions,
creating climate of participation, use of
silence and non-verbal cues calling upon
pupil’s physical participation.
14. Use of blackboard Legible, neat, adequate with reference to

the content covered
15. Achieving closure of the lesson Summarization, establishing link between

the present learning with earlier as well as
future learning, creating a sense of
achievement in pupils.
16. Giving assignments Relevant to the content and level of pupils
17. Evaluating the pupils progress Relevant to the instructional objectives,

use of appropriate questions and
observations
18. Diagnosing pupil learning difficulties Identifying learning difficulties along with
and taking remedial measures causes, remedial measures suited to the
type of learning difficulties and level of
pupils
19. Management of the class Attention behavior reinforced and

directions given to eliminate non-attending
behavior, clarity of directions, appropriate
handling of pupils’ disruptive behaviour
TOPIC 4: SCHEME OF WORK
It helps the teacher to organize topics into smaller units for easier teaching and learning.
A scheme of work must give a suggested allocation of time for the teaching of the
syllabus and textbook you would use. It is your personal plan. Therefore, for effective
teaching and learning to take place, you need to have a plan of what you are going to
teach for a period of time. You should use these steps when preparing lessons later as
a qualified teacher. These are the following contents of the scheme of work:
 Particulars of the class.
 Number and duration of lessons.
17

 The objectives and outline of subject matter/content.
 Some indication of organization factors.
 Means of evaluation and equipment to be used.
Preparing a Scheme of Work

1. Time allocation: You have to consider how many periods you have in a particular
subject in a week and time duration for each period. You have to judge whether
the work you have prepared for that period can be completed in that period or
not.
2. Pupils‟ ability levels: You have to prepare your schemes of work according to the
ability level of your pupils. Do not prepare very difficult work, which is above the
standard of your pupils. If the work is too difficult, pupils will loose interest and fail
to learn the content.
3. Pupils‟ previous work/experience: When preparing the scheme of work, try to
consider the pupils‟ experience first. This will help them to relate contents taught
with previous experience/work. You proceed from the known to the unknown.
Start with pupils‟ own environment and go on to the distant environment.
4. Available resources: When preparing a scheme of work, try to serve your
environment and use it fully. For example, in Art, you can use colours for art
materials, flash cards and mats for putting on your displays. You can also use
discovery corners, pupils‟ work, materials for counting, etc. Try to be creative and
resourceful. In your scheme, do not include resources, which you are not sure
that you can get. When preparing scheme of work, you follow these steps:
 Select a topic from the syllabus and divide it into two sub-topics.
 Try to formulate specific objectives as discussed above. The
objectives should represent what the pupils will learn about the
topic.
 Write the contents, which should be covered in the topic.
 Decide on any major activity or other assignment for each lesson.
 Prepare assignments to test the pupils‟ progress.
The layout of the Scheme of Work There are two types of scheme of work, namely:
a. The column scheme of work
b. The unit scheme of work
The column Scheme of Work In this type of scheme, you write the heading on the
paper horizontally at the top of the edge. You draw vertical lines after every heading.
You write down what is to be taught for each period according to your weekly timetable.
18

N.B.: The headings differ from subject to subject. Remember, making a scheme of work
will make your work easy when preparing a lesson plan. You should know what you are
supposed to teach in a particular lesson on a particular day then you can prepare ahead
of time.
Lesson planning
In order for you to teach meaningful lessons, you have to make lesson plans. Lesson
plan should have clear objectives. Lessons should be interesting, logically presented
and prepared. This enables pupils to develop a clear understanding of knowledge, skills
and concepts.
A well-planned lesson should have the following

1. It brings about the basic conditions for learning.
2. It gives you more confidence when teaching.
3. It helps you to prepare instructional materials for teaching.
4. It helps in lesson evaluation.
5. It enables another teacher to take the place if you are absent because of difficulties.
You can send your lesson plan to another teacher who can then teach it.
6. It provides a programme for the lesson.
When you make a lesson plan, you should be able to read each section, but you should
not bury your head in your lesson notes while teaching . Lesson notes should be
arranged in such a way that it makes each step easy for you to read. Once you have
prepared your topics in a scheme of work, logically you will be able to plan and organize
individual lessons with ease.
What to consider in lesson preparation!

There are four components to consider in lesson preparation:
1. The level of ability of pupils.
2. The teaching methods, teaching/learning aids, learning experiences, exercises and
the organization.
3. The evaluative procedure.
4. The learning environment: When you set out to prepare a lesson plan, you first ask
yourself, “Who is to be taught?” The lesson, which you prepare for children of six years
of age, would not be suitable for children of three years old. The content and approach
would be different in each case. Therefore, when preparing your lessons, you should
consider:
a. The age of the pupils.
b. Children’s ability.
19

END OF UNIT EXERCISE
1. Give the methods of teaching that would promote socialization and co-operation
among learners.
2. Mention five (5) shortcomings of using the Demonstration method of teaching.
3. Discuss the importance of “play-way” method of teaching to learners.
4. To which group of people is child-to-child approach more influential?
5. Why is it necessary for a teacher to make schemes of work and lesson plans before
teaching?
20

UNIT TWO
SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
The Unit has the following aspects among others:
 The concept of Special Needs Education
 Categories of special needs
 Identification of children with special needs.
 Identification of gifted and talented children.
 Causes of mental retardation (M.R)
 Different types of disabilities
This unit introduces you to concepts of special Needs Education and interventions used
to integrate it with Ugandan education system.
It also explains inclusive education barriers to learning, development and participation
types of special needs learners.
OBJECTIVES….
 Learners will be introduced to meaning of SNE
 Categories of special needs
 Identification of children with special needs
 Causes effects and management of special needs among children
 Ways of supporting children with special needs
 Roles of teachers and other stakeholders in supporting children with special

needs
LEARNING OUTCOME
It is expected that after carefully studying this unit you will be a teacher who utilizes the
knowledge and concepts of special needs education to enhance and promote these
children’s learning growth and holistic development
21

CONTENT OUTLINE:
Topic 1: Special Needs Education:
Topic 2: Categories of special needs
Topic 3: Identification of children with special needs.
Topic 4: Causes of mental retardation (M.R)
TOPIC I: SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION:

This is the type of education intended to provide appropriate modifications in order to
meet special educational needs in an individual. It is learner centred, flexible and
adjustable to individual needs and potentials. It includes preventive compulsory
therapeutic and educational measures. For example; sign language should be used for
communicating with learners who are deaf and Braille should be used by the blind.
TOPIC 2: CATEGORIES OF SPECIAL NEEDS
 Children with disabilities

 Children with chronic illnesses
 Children with specific learning difficulties
 Children living under difficult circumstances
 Mentally exceptional children i.e gifted or talented backward and retarded

children
i) Children with disabilities
A disabled child is one who suffers from some defect of the body mind or senses
because of the defects, a disabled child is unable to do things which other
children of their age can normally do.
 Sensory impairments hearing impartment

Visual impartment
Deaf and blind
 Physical or motor impartment----crippled children

ii) Chronic illnesses among children include those with:
Epilepsy, Asthma, Sickle Cells, HIV and AIDS.
22

iii) Children living under difficult circumstances include:
 Street children
 working children with hard labour
 Refugee/displaced children
 orphaned children
 Children heading families
 parenting children
 Children in conflict areas/families
 Children who are abused
 Children who are culturally or geographically disadvantaged or
isolated
 Children of nomadic groups
iv) Mentally exceptional children
 Gifted/talented children-the gifted and talented children are those who show or
have the potential for showing an exceptional level of performance in one or
more areas of expression.
Giftedness goes with academic achievement where as talentedness goes with
skills development and in creative arts
 Backward /retarded children

A backward child is one who when compared with others of the same
chronological age shows marked educational deficiency.
A retarded child is a slow learning child whose capacity for learning is limited by
some deficit and in intellectual capacity.
TOPIC 3: IDENTIFICATION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS.
Educationally our concern is the functioning of the learner in the
teaching/learning Environment and processes, hence functional assessment.
i) Indicators for sensory difficulties:
Visual impairment:
 There are a number of ways by which learners with visual impairment can be
identified like:
 rubbing of eyes
 reading at an angle
 holding a book too close or too far
 stumbling and jumping into objects
23

 difficulty in reading some letters
 finding difficulty in moving up and down stairs
 writing off lines
 tilting of the head as the child reads or writes
 confusing of similar words
 repeating of words
 failing to read pencil or faint words
 breaking of pencils frequently
 reluctance to draw or write
Hearing impairment
 missing some sounds

 unclear spoken language
 poor vocabulary in relation to age and culture
 withdrawal from the rest of the learners
 not responding to instructions ie when called
ii) Indicators for physically/motor disabled children
 difficulty in manipulating learning materials

 limitation in body coordination
 poor balance and posture
 body deformities
 poor head/neck control
 missing body parts
 stiff or weak muscles
 some have speech problems
 problems in carrying out activities of daily living, feeding toileting,
washing etc
iii) Indicators for health problems
 feeling sick more often

 lack of interest in maintaining an activity
 short attention term/span
 emotional and behavioral problems which maybe side effects of medication
 breathing problems
 restlessness
 irregular school attendance
iv) Indicators for cognitive difficulties
Mentally retardation:
24

 being slow at acquiring and developing skills such as speaking, walking
 being unnecessarily slow in carrying out tasks
 not able to transfer the same activities and situations
 unable to understand what is said or follow instructions
 failure to acquire, understand and use language to express needs
 difficulty in remembering experiences or things learnt
 excessive purposeless movements in class home or playfields
 difficulty in judging consequences of their actions
 difficulty in one or more of the following academic areas:
 basic reading and writing
 number concepts
 spelling
 listening comprehension
 expressing themselves
Gifted and talented children:
 learn easily and rapidly

 retain what the learn without much drill
 have much vocabulary marked by originality
 show interest in ideas or words
 show much curiosity and questioning
 enjoy reading
 reason things out
 possess greater ability to generalize
 know and appreciate things of which normal children are unaware
 take interest in the nature of man and universe at an early stage
 seek older companions
 possess a good sense of humor
 have desire to excel
 showing leadership abilities
 showing special or superior ability in manipulating materials from
the environment in making
 unique models
 asking unusual questions for their age which at that time may not
have ready answers
 showing special talents in music and arts
 restless disturbing and inattentive
 careless in handwriting
 indifferent to class work
 critically outspoken
 easily bored by what they perceive as routine tasks
25

 confused about their development and why they are behaving as
they are
 manipulate their environments to make themselves feel better
 find inadequency in others in things in systems to excuse their own
behaviours
 have low self esteem.
Identification of gifted and talented children
- Teacher nomination---this is where the teacher as a result of continuous

assessment and the child’s general presentation identifies the child as gifted and
talented
 Checklists:--checklists are made to identify who is gifted and talented. This will
help one to identify the learners behaviour in different developmental areas
 Testing:--used to measure their ability
 Children with mental retardation could further be identified by showing the

following characteristics;
- Poor memory skills
- Poor use of learning abilities
- Poor perceptual motor skills
- Poor motor skills
-poor social skills e.g aggressiveness
-poor self care skills
-high tempers
-poor language development
-restlessness
-Self-injurious tendencies
-uncontrolled dripping saliva
--poor toilet skills despite appropriate age level
d) Causes of Mental Retardation (M.R)
M.R can occur before, during or after birth
26

i) Causes before birth
 Chromosome Disorders
The human body is made of billions of cells and each cell contains 46chromosomes.But
because of a biological error by the time of conception like in the case of down
syndrome the cells come to have an extra chromosome. The extra chromosome in the
cells interferes with the normal development of the brain leading to mental retardation of
the brain, leading to mental retardation. This result into a condition called the Down
syndrome.
 Single Gene Disorders

These are inherited metabolic (turning food particles in the body into new cells)
disorders. Chromosomes in the human cells contain genes which control growth and
maturation of the brain some of these cells are responsible for chemical reaction which
are essential for brain growth. If such a gene is at normal, it can lead to an unusual
metabolic reactions thereby causing mental retardation known as phenyl-ketonuria
(having light coloured hair and skin a small head and prone to convulsions)
 Maternal Rubella Syndrome

Rubella or German measles is generally a harmless viral infection in adults producing
symptoms of mild fever rash and enlargement of lymph nodes
But when it occurs to the first time during pregnancy, the virus spreads to the body
growing in the mothers’ womb and causes extensive damage. Babies with this problem
have mental retardation and visual impairment
 Iodine Deficiency Disorder (Cretinism)

Iodine is essential for normal development of unborn babies. Lack of adequate supply of
iodine from the mother restricts growth of the brain of the foetus and leads to a condition
called hypothyrocdism. Babies with this problem have mental retardation hearing
impairments and dwarfism
ii) Causes during Birth (Neonatal)
These are caused due to difficult /complicated delivery some of the common examples
are anoxia/lack of adequate supply of oxygen) low birth weight and infections like
syphilis and herpes simplex
Iii) Causes after birth (post natal)
 Brain infection(brain fever)

An important cause of mental retardation after birth is brain infections caused by
bacteria or virus. In this condition, children who otherwise normal, suddenly develop
27

fever headache convulsions and loss of consciousness. If this infection is severe there
may be irreversible brain damage leading to mental retardation. Such children when
they recover from acute illness are noticed to have lost many skills which they had
learnt earlier. This condition is called Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
 Poor nutrition:
A balanced diet rich in calories, protein, vitamins and minerals is required for
pregnant women and young children for normal brain development.
Lack of adequate diet can have direct and indirect effects on the brain
development and there by increase the risk of subnormal development.
 Low birth weight:

A baby with low birth weight is more likely to have problems in mental
development. The height and weight of would-be mothers and the extent of
weight gain in pregnancy one important factors determining.
 Cultural –familial mental retardation

A term used to refer to mild mental retardation due to a stimulating environment
ii) other common health problems associated with mental retardation
 Behaviour problems:
Symptoms like restlessness (continuously moving around; unable to sit in one place)
poor concentration, impulsiveness temper tantrums (sudden short period of
anger),irritability and crying are common. Other disturbing behaviour like aggression,
self-injurious behaviour (such as head banging) and repetitive rocking may also be
seen. When such behaviour is severe and persistent it can become a major source
of stress for families. Therefore attention should be paid to reduce such behaviours
while providing treatment and care.
 Convulsions
About 25% of people with mental retardation get convulsions. Many types of
convulsions can occur involving the whole body or only part of the body or
sudden single jerks leading to a fall.
Convulsions, although alarming to watch can be easily controlled by proper
medication
 Sensory impairments’
28

 Difficulties in seeing and hearing are present in about 5%-10% of persons with
mental retardation. Sometimes these problems can be resolved by using hearing
gadgets or glasses.
 Multiple disabilities
Other developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy, speech problems and
autism (mental condition in which a person is unable to communicate) can occur
along with mental retardation. Persons with many disabilities pose a big
challenge in terms of providing care.
e) Causes of physical disability
Poor nutrition
Accidents before, at, during and after birth
Malaria, Syphilis, Measles,
i) Visual impairment
-direct sunlight to the eyes
-diseases like;
Glaucoma-which damages the optic nerve
Cataracts-clouding of the lenses
Diabetes which could result into a condition called retinopathy
Measles
Malaria; syphilis gonorrhea (at birth)
- Deficiency diseases like :
Lack of vitamin A in diet may cause blindness to a child.
Lack of Vitamin C may cause itching of the body or scurvy.
- Accidents;
Contact with acid and other chemicals used in the laboratories
Injury of eyes by falling down or motor accidents or putting objects into the
eyes
ii) Hearing impairment
29

What causes hearing loss?
 Before birth during pregnancy

-infections such as congenital rubella (congenital syphilis) measles or high fever
-drug abuse by expecting mothers
-smoking and alcoholism could be another serious cause of the problem
 Causes after birth

Hearing loss can also occur in a Childs or adults life and this includes
-infection (such as meningitis, chronic middle ear infections or measles
-injuries such as head injury accidents
Drug abuse (such as the antibiotic gentamycin)
-high noise levels such as from fire crackers or loud rock concerts
ii) Deaf blind
A person is regarded as deaf-blind if their combined sight and hearing impairment
cause difficulties in communication, access to information and mobility.
Causes of blindness can be grouped into three broad categories;
A) Genetic/Chromosome Syndromes
-Charge syndrome: it is characterized by a number physical abnormalities present
at birth
The letters in CHARGE refer to some of the most common characteristics of this
condition
C-Coloboma, cranial nerve
H-Heart defects
A-Artesia of the choanae
R-Retardation in growth and mental development
G-Genital abnormalities
E-Ear malformation and hearing loss
-Usher syndrome:-An inherited condition characterized by hearing loss and retinitis
30

pigmentosa which results into night blindness and tunnel vision
-Down’s Syndrome—cause of mental retardation which is also associated with deaf
blindness
b) Pre-natal conditions
The two common types here are rubella and congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV)
which can
cause mental retardation and or deaf blindness.
-rubella sometimes referred to as German measles occurring in pregnant mothers
can lead to deafness or blindness.
-children born with CMV a herpes virus are at risk of variety of disabilities including
deafness or blindness.
c) Post natal conditions
Among the post natal conditions that cause deafness and blindness are
meningitis and
Traumatic brain injury
-meningitis is a bacterial or viral infection of the linings of the brain or spinal cord
can
cause a number of disabilities.
-traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a cause of many disabilities can also cause
deafness and
blindness.
31

UNIT THREE
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CURRICULAR (3-6 YEARS)
This unit introduces you to the Pre-Primary Curriculum which is used in ECD
Centres to promote learning of children in the age bracket of 3-6 years. This
curriculum is called the Learning Framework for Early Childhood
Development which is used in Community based ECD centres, Nursery
schools or kindergartens. The main areas of concern in this unit include:
 Pre-primary curriculum
 Concept of the framework, Learning outcomes and Competences
 Learning areas in the learning framework for 3-6 years
 Developmental activities
 Schemes of work
 Lesson Plan
 Daily routine
2.1 PRE-PRIMARY CURRICULUM

Pre-primary Curriculum is a set of suggested activities, and instructions development
by government through the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) to be
used to teach children in all ECD centres in Uganda. This curriculum is contained in the
book called the learning Framework for ECD. There are two learning frameworks. One
is for children of 0-3 years and the other is for children of 3-6 years of age. The
learning framework is used instead of a syllabus as used in the primary schools
because young children cannot be taught in the same way as is done in primary
schools all over the country. Because we understand children’s development needs
and differences in culture that cannot be easily explained to children at this age, we
instead provide general guidelines to guide caregivers and teachers to teach children
basic concepts without over teaching or under teaching. The learning Framework is
theme based and is centered on learning areas. At this age of 3- 6 years the interest is
on what the child is able to do and learn.
32

Note:
Just as the syllabus or thematic curriculum is used for teaching children in primary
schools, the learning framework is also used for promoting learning in pre-schools like
day care centres, nursery schools, kindergartens and community based ECD centres.
It is not right to use the primary curriculum in ECD because it is for another level.
With this learning framework these are no lessons to be taught, instead, there are
developmental activities to be done by children. A number of activities that a child is
made to do helps that child to achieve a competence. A competence is a specific skill,
capability, fitness, expertise or experience that a child has learnt, acquired and showed
mastery in it as he/she displays it in different situations. A competence can also
describe genuine abilities. For example in the learning framework, a competence is
stated as follows: “I can ………………”. It is important to note that competencies differ
according to the age bracket (3-4year, 5-6year, 5- 6years). Those for younger children
as simpler while for the older children are more difficult. The difficulty is based on the
fact that a child is expected to achieve the easy ones first before going to the harder
ones.
A set of competences that have been achieved by a child builds a learning outcome. A
learning outcomes focus on what the child will be and what qualities she will have as a
result of undergoing a learning process. Critical outcomes are key skills, knowledge,
attitudes, and values for an individual to live meaningfully in the society. Outcomes are
achieved after a long time of learning, usually after a school term, year or end of
programme.
Activity
1. Explain the difference between the learning framework and the thematic
curriculum
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Discus the disadvantages of using the thematic curriculum in ECD
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Explain the difference between competence and an outcome
_______________________________________________________________
33

_______________________________________________________________
____________
4. Explain why we cannot use a syllabus in ECD just like it is done in primary
school
_______________________________________________________________
___________________-
________________________________________________________
2.2 LEARNING AREAS IN THE LEARNING FRAMEWORK FOR CHILDREN OF

3-6 YEARS
The learning framework for ECD used for promoting learning of children of 3-6 years is
made of five thematic learning areas. These areas combine a number of subject areas
that are related. Therefore, when teaching children in this age category, you do not
need to start looking for specific subjects to teach as all the content in the necessary
subjects has already been integrated in the areas.
Examine the learning framework (3-6 years) and identify subjects that have been
covered in it. Write down the identified subjects
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
________________
The five learning areas in the learning area for 3-6year old children include:
1) Relating with others in an acceptable way.

2) Interacting, exploring, knowing, and using my environment.
3) Taking care of myself for proper growth and development
4) Developing and using Mathematical concepts in my day to day experiences
5) Developing and using my language appropriately
We shall now examine each of the learning areas in details.
2.3 AREA 1: RELATING WITH OTHERS IN AN ACCEPTABLE WAY.

This area (see the learning framework 3-6 years pages 12-17) focuses on helping a
child develop competences that he/she will use to relate with self, peers, family,
community and society in an acceptable way. It explores acceptable behaviours that are
34

common in our communities and how they should be shown appropriately depending on
the culture and where one lives. It is a fact that cultures differ from one community to
the other in Uganda. This therefore means that children are supposed to be taught
those behaviours that are acceptable in their communities first before they can be made
to appreciate those of other cultures. It also means that while all classes will be having
the same lessons, the content will vary from place to place following their culture and
the acceptable behaviour therein.
Activity
1. List 20 behaviours that are acceptable in your community that you can
teach children to make them acceptable in your community
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. List 10 behaviours practiced by people in other communities but may not be
acceptable in your community
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
The main behaviours emphasized in this area are those that are universally acceptable
in Uganda. They emphasize the general good and equality for all people regardless of
their background or status. These behaviours have to be taught to all children together
with those other behaviours that are unique or specific to their community. The
behaviours are summarized in the following learning outcomes:
Outcomes for Learning Area 1
 Identifying, taking interest in and observing people around me.

 Identifying people who protect and take care of me and how they do it.
 Sharing with others and taking care of other people
The above outcomes cannot be achieved in one lesson or in a period of one month.
Rather, they can be taught for over a year. These outcomes are enabled by
competences. The competences in area 1 of the learning are summarized in the box
below.
35

Competences for Learning Area 1
 Identifying appropriately people at home, learning centre and immediate environment

 Talking about the roles of different people at home, learning centre and immediate environment
 Describing different people a child interacts with
 Communicating needs to different people appropriately
 Showing acceptable behaviour to people a child plays or interacts with
 Differentiating good from bad behaviours
 Participating in group activities
 Showing feelings for others in different situations
 Caring for others
Activity
1. Identify some acceptable behaviours that you would teach children to
show that they have feelings for others
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. List 5 behaviours practiced by people in your community that show caring for
others
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
Methods used
Different methods need to be applied when teaching children different acceptable

behaviours as suggested in this area. Since most lessons will dwell on behaviours, you
should use methods that help to inculcate behaviour and attitude in children. Some of
these methods include story telling, dramatization, role play, miming among others. You
should refer to the methods unit to identify the appropriate method to use and learn how
it is applied in class.
36

Assessment
Assessment of behaviour cannot be done through book activities. You need to observe
children in different situations for example at play, class, break time, or during group
activities. Make it a point to always remind them of the acceptable behaviours
immediately one shows an unacceptable behaviour. You also have to be patient with
them while rewarding the good behaviours till it becomes part of the children.
Activity
1. Explain five different ways you can use to instill acceptable behaviour
in children
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Identify different people that you can work with to help you instill acceptable
behaviour in children
_______________________________________________________________
_______
2.4 AREA 2: INTERACTING, EXPLORING, KNOWING, AND USING MY

ENVIRONMENT
child develop scientific competences that he/she will use to explore the environment,
use it and conserve it for now and future use. It explores different scientific skills like
observation, manipulation, experimenting, recording, testing, analysis and other variety
of scientific skills. This area also tries to tap into the characteristic of young children to
promote learning. These characteristics include curiosity, being inquisitive, eager to
learn, very active and are creative. Activities in this area are meant to enhance those
qualities of children as they are exposed to different experiences within the environment
and through use of all their senses.
Activity
1. List 8 scientific skills that young children should be exposed to
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. List 10 activities done in your community that promote scientific skills
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development in young children
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
The main scientific skills emphasized in this area are those that lay a foundation for the
child’s future involvement in different scientific activities as adults. It is important to note
that while giving children activities to promote the skills, we should not make it
academic. Instead, we should use play and everyday activities as children use their
body, mind and immediate environment. The scientific skills to be developed in this area
are summarized in the following learning outcomes:
 Exploring and knowing my immediate environment.

 Knowing and appreciating important places in my environment.
 Knowing how to keep and take care of my environment
 Identifying dangers in my environment and taking precautions
 Experimenting and understanding the concept of movement (force)
 Creating things, appreciating and expressing myself through art
below.
38

 Identifying and talking about home, learning centre and important places in the
community
 Using important places in the environment
 Classifying people, animals, insects and other objects seen at home, learning centre and
community
 Caring for and valuing the environment
 Cleaning and conserving the environment
 Identifying dangerous things in the environment and protecting self from those dangers
 Experimenting with things in the environment
 Manipulating different things in the environment
Activity
1. Identify 5 activities that you can give children to help them manipulate
their environment
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. How can you teach children to keep themselves safe from dangers in the
environment
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
Methods used
Different methods need to be applied when teaching children different scientific skills.
Since most lessons will dwell on the environment, you should use methods that help
children to experiment, manipulate different objects, exploring their environment,
creating things and expressing themselves. Some of these methods include
experimenting, project, discovery, field trip, demonstration among others. You should
39

refer to the methods unit to identify the appropriate method to use and learn how it is
applied in class.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s acquisition of scientific skills cannot be done through book

activities only. You need to provide children with a variety of materials and give them
freedom to do what they wish as long as you have taken care of safety issues. You also
need to take children out in the natural environment to allow them experience natural
world. From these settings, you can observe children in different situations for example
at play, class, break time, during individual activities, project work or during group
activities. Make it a point to always remind them to take not of changes or observations
that occur as they work with different and report them to you or peers. You can engage
them in discussion of the observed behaviours in the environment and seek their
explanations on why they are like that.
Activity
1. Explain five different ways you can use to help children explore their
environment
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Identify five different places where you would take your children to experience
different scientific knowledge
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Explain the reasons why you chose the places identified above
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2.5 AREA 3: TAKING CARE OF MYSELF FOR PROPER GROWTH AND

DEVELOPMENT
child to take care of self and live independently in the family and community. It focuses
on basic health and hygiene practices. Knowledge and practice of these basic practices
will help a child stay free from communicable and sanitation related diseases.
40

Activity
1. List 8 personal hygiene activities that children in your community are
exposed to
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Explain different ways through which children are taught person hygiene in
your community
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
The main health practices emphasized in this area are those that lay a foundation for
the child’s future healthy living as adults. It is important to note that these cannot be
mastered by children through usual class work. Instead, effort must be made for these
activities to be done practically so that they become part of the children’s daily life. The
skills to be developed in this area are summarized in the following learning outcomes:
 Caring for my eyes

 Caring for my ears
 Using the sense of touching and feeling to describe things and situations
 Caring for the body
 Using the sense of smell and caring for the nose
 Using the sense of taste and caring for the mouth
 Identifying and naming different body parts and their uses
 Having self-concept, confidence and self-esteem
 Using gross and fine muscles
 Expressing creativity freely and independently
 Keeping healthy and practicing good health habits
 Keeping safe and avoiding accidents
 Knowing and relating with God and His creation
41

below.
 Maintaining personal hygiene

 Caring for different body parts
 Protecting the body from danger
 Keeping safe
 Avoiding accidents
 Maintaining a good sanitation in the environment
 Showing self-concept, self-esteem and self-confidence
 Expressing self freely
 Using fine and gross muscles
 Knowing and relating with God and His creation
Activity
1. Identify 5 activities that you can give children to help them know and
relate with God
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. How can you teach children to protect themselves child sacrifice
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
Methods used
There is no one right method that one can use to promote children’s learning. Instead,
we should use a variety of methods in different contexts to promote learning. For the
case of learning area 3, most activities need to be done practically. It will be wrong for
children to just memorize different health habits when they cannot practice them.
42

Therefore, effort should be made engage them in the practices so that those desired
habits become part of them. Washing the face, brushing the teeth, washing clothes and
all other related practices and habit must be done by the caregiver/teacher as children
imitate and later continue practicing them. Even at snack time, the desired habits have
to be observed. When children do them right, they should be rewarded, while those who
do not do it appropriately should be shown what and how to do it and encouraged to
keep trying till they master them.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s acquisition of health habits and mastery of person hygiene

practices should be assessed in context and basing on observations of what the child
can or cannot do. If we note what they child did on the first day, we shall be able to tell
later whether the child is progressing or not. Those who show progress should be
encouraged to continue, while those who still find challenges have to be supported to
master them. Remember, as you teach children different health habits and personal
hygiene practices, keep in mind the culture of the area because they can have an
influence on what you are doing.
Activity
1. Explain how culture in your are can influence personal hygiene
practices that you may be teaching children in your class
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Identify five different health habits practiced in your community
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Explain different activities that you can give children to promote their self-
concept, and self-esteem
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
43

2.6 AREA 4: DEVELOPING AND USING MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS IN MY
DAY TO DAY EXPERIENCES
child develop mathematics competences that he/she will use to transact business in
every day situations. The area focuses on providing practical mathematics experiences
that will lay the foundation for a child to start understanding abstract mathematics
concepts in later life. It explores a variety of key concepts that every child must be
exposed to in order to lay a firm foundation for mathematics. The nine concepts
explained in this area are all useful. A child should not only be exposed to numbers as
is the case in some places, but need measures, sets, fractions, money, time, space,
statistics, geometry and algebra in their simple form as you will find them in this learning
area. Before you can start learning how to help children develop these basic
mathematic concepts, you should first remind yourself of what mathematics is, what is
means to young children, its use in our daily life and challenges teachers face as they
teach young children mathematics.
Meaning of Mathematics
Mathematics is one of the most useful and fascinating divisions of human knowledge. It
includes many topics of study which makes its definition to vary from place to place.
Mathematics can be described in the following ways:
 It is a science dealing with measurements, properties and relationships
of quantities as expressed in symbols/numbers.
 Mathematics is a science that has evolved from counting, measuring,
and describing the shapes of objects. It deals with logical reasoning and
quantitative calculation.
 It is one of the day-to-day real life experiences that enable children to
solve their problems, their needs and live in harmony with others.
Importance of mathematics in our day to day experiences

Mathematics is a combination of many things which children come across through
manipulation of different objects. If children are supported appropriately to practice
different mathematics activities, they will develop so many skills and abilities that are not
limited to the following:
 Solve daily problems. Children learn how to solve mathematical problems.
 Manipulative skills. It promotes the development of children’s fine motor muscles
as children play, model, sort, match and trace.
44

 Estimation and accuracy. Children develop appropriate skills of their daily
experiences such as knowing the amount of food to put on a plate, how to
conserve, critical observation and analysis.
 Transaction of different businesses
 Understand and use spatial relationship
 Writing, calculate, plan and measure different things and materials
 Be imagination, creative and concentrate so as to comprehend and give
verbal meaning
 Counting. Children develop the concept quantity of objects; more, less,
same amount.
 Matching and comparison. It helps children to see the similarities and
differences between objects.
 Language development. As children interact they develop language
through discussion exchange of materials and ideas.
 Helps to develop computation skills which include addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division.
 It helps children to develop a wider perspective of the mathematical
world.
Importance of mathematics in ECD

In ECD, it is important for us to expose children to all the basic mathematics concepts
and not just numbers so that we can serve the following purposes:
 Mathematics provides early childhood learners with a vital foundation for the
future understanding of mathematics.
 Build on the specific experience of the children in the classroom. This includes
using words and materials that are familiar to the children in terms of previous
knowledge, community, and cultural significance.
 Continued and sustained interactions with mathematics concepts over the course
of the school year helps the child to develop more complex mathematical abilities
from known to unknown, simple to complex among others.
 It makes mathematics learning a fun, an interactive process that crosses other
areas of learning such as literacy, art, music, and physical education.
Additionally, mathematics can be included in regular play activities such as block
building.
45

 Develop the use of new mathematics based vocabulary. A child is able to
understand and recall a word such as geometric when referring to a shape.
 Mathematics is a functional and service skill for job creation leading to self
sustainability.
Challenges in teaching young children mathematics

a) Personality of the Teachers
 Weak academic background and content knowledge for teaching
 Teachers’ poor attitudes towards mathematics
 Inappropriate teaching methods and practices (mainly teacher
centred, rote and chalk and talk), teaching geared towards passing
examinations).
 Examination pressure and competition among pre-school
stakeholders. This makes teachers not to teach mathematics concepts
comprehensively but drill them to pass examinations.
 Few qualified teachers who have the knowledge on what to teach
children
 Low morale from teachers due to low pay leading them not to
concentrate or plan adequately.
 Pre-school teachers in lower classes are under looked yet it is the
foundation level on which other mathematics concepts are built.
b) Characteristics of Children in our classes

 Individual differences as a person, home and socio-economic
background
 Inability to read and write
 Absenteeism and dropouts
 Children go to school when they are hungry.
c) Nature of Class Space

 Large class enrolment making them overcrowded in small spaces
 High pupil to teacher ratio
 Inadequate teaching and learning materials, and resources (textbooks)
 Much workload for teachers
d) Government Policies on Education
 Relaxed policy in the implementation of continuous assessment.
 Lack of a binding document on caregivers’ terms and conditions of
their jobs including salary so as to protect pre-school teachers
46

Activity
1. Briefly explain what you understand by the word mathematics
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Explain why we should bother to teach young children mathematics
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Explain five different ways you have personally benefited from use of
mathematics in your daily life
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________________
4. What challenges do mathematics teachers face in teaching mathematics in
your area?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2.7 BASIC MATHEMATICS CONCEPTS

This includes the following; Set, number, ordering, seriation, algebra, space, fractions,
and graphs.
a) Sets
A set is a gathering or collection of objects into a whole or on group. The small pieces
that make up a set is called elements of a set. The elements or members of a set can
be anything: numbers, people, letters of the alphabet, or other sets.
In a set, things are grouped together based on common properties or how they appear.
This enables children to put things into particular groups according to the features they
have.
Example:
A set of cups, a set of leaves, a set of plates, a set of girls, a set of boys, a set of
animals, or a set of bottles.
47

Application
 Avail a variety of objects in large quantities to the children.
 Let them sort and group similar objects according to the features they
have. In the process, children make sets.
 Encourage children to talk about the sets they have made.
 They can also match similar sets for example a set of cups to another set
of cups. Other activities may include finding the odd man out from a set or
matching.
Materials
 A collection of a variety of familiar objects from the local environment.
 Tins, bottles, leaves, bottles tops, cups paper bags, shoes, tyres, books, papers,
pencils, colours, crayons.
Assessment
Assessment is an ongoing process of finding out how children are progressing in the
achievement of the desired competences. This goes on in the teaching/learning process
and outside class. This can be done through direct observation while children are at
tasks, asking questions, talking to individual children, using check lists on competence
achievement, individual and group work.
It is important that you base your assessment on daily observations you make. This
necessitates you to keep records on daily basis in which you note individual children’s
progress.
Note:
Young children need to experience practical mathematics activities repeatedly before
they are able to understand abstract mathematical concepts. Therefore, you need to
diagnose the performance of each individual child to enable you identify those who
have not achieved expected competences so that you provide more support to them.
Encourage children to work with peers to enable them learn from each other. Let
children also use their daily experiences on set concepts for example at snack time,
lunch time and during free activity to enable them conceptualize.
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Activity
1. Briefly explain what you understand by the word set
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Think of five different things in life that usually stay as a set
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Explain how you can use sets in your daily life
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________________
b) Number
Number is a sign or word that represents amount/quantities of units/sum of group of

things. After sorting and matching of objects in groups, the children will be ready for
number work. Experiences in number are very important, as they serve as the
foundation on which the children will build their understanding of more complex
mathematical concepts as they get older.
It is important that you introduce quantities in a variety of situations with different objects
as you relate to the symbols. Understanding of quantities goes hand in hand with
counting similar objects in sequence. The children should do the counting by giving
number names to each object in sequence. Later, they can use these numbers to solve
every day problems in their daily life experiences for example:
 Number is used for showing positions of something in series like table number 1,
car number 2.
 Quantities of things/people like two bottles, few people.
 For separation of things/identification like telephone
 Other concepts children learn can be odd and even numbers, sum, division,
multiplication, addition, subtraction, some, all, few, fractions, or counting.
49

c) Ordering and seriation
Ordering involves children arranging objects from the smallest to the biggest, shortest to
tallest, lightest to heaviest. On the other hand seriation means putting things into a
sequence or arrangement of things one after another in pattern. They can be arranged
according to their size, weight, length, smoothness, and so on. It is through fitting
objects using trial and error that children begin to compare the characteristics of the
objects.
A teacher therefore, needs to provide various activities to enable children develop the
concept of ordering and seriation.
Application:
The following order will enable children to develop the concept of ordering and seriation:
 Avail varieties of materials of different colours, sizes, length, width, texture and
so on to enable children develop the concept of seriation and ordering.
 Compare the attributes of things e.g. longer/shorter
Arranging things one after the other in a series of pattern and describe their
relationships.
 Let the children arrange tins of different sizes, length, and width following a
sequence.
 For the case of blocks let children order them according to their sizes.
 Let children order sticks or strings of different lengths from the shortest to the tallest.
 A few children can also stand in a row according to their height.
 Children can model things and then arrange them from the biggest to the smallest
model. Children can do many similar activities using different materials.
 Children can arrange objects in sequence to make patterns and designs. For
example, they could use white bead followed by red beads, or white followed by two
red beads and so on.
50

 Children can also sequence objects or pictures in corresponding rows by number
values.
 Children should also learn and recite number poems and riddles
 Children can complete puzzles on numbers.
 They can also sing number songs
 Children can also play buying and selling at the shop or market area.
 They can also play number of outdoor games like jumping skipping, hope- step and
jump, while counting
 Children can play number value games like lotto and number dominoes.
Materials
Blocks of wood, sticks, leaves, plastic bottles, pencils, maize cobs, shells, seeds, cut-
out numbers, tins, pictures plastic tins, clay, bottle tops, wall charts with numbers,
scissors, crayons, coloured pencils, number cards, glue.
Assessment
This concept can be confusing for children if they are not guided well. The caregiver is
therefore advised to use as many activities and materials as possible in order to ensure
that all children develop this concept.
Some of the strategies for assessment include:
 The caregiver may hold two objects of different sizes and ask children which is
bigger than the other or vise versa.
 The caregiver may also ask a child to arrange children of different heights from the
shortest to the tallest.
 The caregiver may provide materials or objects of different sizes and ask children to
order them in groups from the biggest to the smallest or vise versa and see which
group finishes first.
Note:
Provide variety of materials that are available in the children’s environment. This will
help them to transfer knowledge from school to home. Also, ensure that you observe
how the children are carrying out different activities regularly and support or encourage
children who may have challenges.You can also create as many games as possible so
that children may acquire
51

d) Time
Time is one of the abstract concepts measured in seconds, minutes, hours, week,
months and years. To the children, time is interpreted in terms of activities for example
bed time, break time, day time, and night. Therefore, they will always use those
activities or events when telling time for example the sun is rising so it is time to go to
school or it time for going to work.
They also relate time intervals to familiar events, places and feelings for example in the
morning when I wake up, I greet people at home, I brush my teeth, I wash my face, take
breakfast…. Going to school to morning circle, bell means snack time, lunch time is
when you are at the lunch table, when it is getting dark means it is time for people to
come back home or it is time to eat super, or time to sleep…
As you interact with children and pass on to them the idea of time, the actual concepts
that you will be working with include concepts of: Speed that is fast, slow; part of the
day that is morning, afternoon, evening ,day and night; days of the week; months of the
year; relations to time for example: about, towards, past, present, future, age, events,
seasons, and telling the time.
Note:
Note: since the concept of time is difficult for children to understand, the caregiver
should provide simple and concrete activities to enable children develop the concept of
time. The caregiver needs to be patient when helping children to acquire the concept of
time since they usually tend to forget.
Application
 Let children discuss what they do as soon as they come to school and
what follows.
 Encourage children keep to regular routine to help them develop the
concept of time.
 Let them talk about what they do at home before and after school, at day
or night time.
52

 They can also tell news of what happened when there was no school
 Children can also talk about what happened yesterday, today, long ago,
what will happen tomorrow and so on based on a given event. It is good for them
to start using these words to help them understand the concepts.
 Children can learn and recite poems with ideas about time for example
“I wake up in the morning, I wash my face, I dress myself, I take my tea, then I
come to school”
Other activities may include
 Starting and stopping an action on signal
You can help children by using signs (symbols) or songs to show the start (or end)
of an activity. It can be a bell, drum or whistle. Encourage children to observe the
call for prayer, break, going to class or change of activity.
 Experiencing and describing rates of movement.

Provide a variety of materials for children to pour, roll, spine or swing in order to
observe how long they take to settle. Encourage children to observe and describe
the movement of different things seen.
 Experiencing and comparing time intervals
Relate length of time to familiar events for example I go to bed after super, after
Friday no school…
 Anticipating, remembering and describing sequences of events
Follow a consistent daily routine and ask children what comes next at the end of
each activity. Encourage children talk about steps used in performing an activity
Materials
A routine chart, calendar, bell, weather chart, drum, tyres, balls, seeds, video, pictures,
story books.
Assessment
Observe children as they describe sequences of events, days of the weeks, routine
activities and speed of objects. Encourage those who are not using them to keep trying.
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Activity
1. Briefly explain different activities you can give children to teach the
concept of time
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Which materials are available in your community that you can use to teach
children the concept of time
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
3. Compose a rhyme that can be used to teach time involving daily routine
activities
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________________
e) Money
Money is a legal tender that we use to do business. Children only need to know that we
use money for buying and selling. This knowledge can be developed through use of
different activities that promote the idea of what items are bought and sold, their cost
and how to count money. They will also start gaining knowledge on different money
and their amounts for example coins and paper money of 50s, 100s, 500s, 1000 or
2000.
Application
 Create a shop area within the environment.

 Have in place improvised coins and paper money.
 Let the children play at the shop buying and selling using the improvised
money or real money.
 Children can also learn and recite poems or sing songs related to buying and
selling.
54

Materials
Real paper money or coins and improvised money and coins
Assessment
Observe children during the shopping game, how they are buying and selling, the
language used for example how much, may I get some sugar please? May I get my
change? Here it is, thank you.
f) Measurement
Measurement is a concept that is developed through using activities and materials.

Caregivers should realize that children will only start forming measurement concepts
through activities given. The activities and materials help children to compare and
estimate various capacities and quantities. Children will also make and use simple
measuring instruments to measure lengths, area, volume, capacity, weight, time, space,
money and speed.
Measurement of length, width and height
The important concepts that children start developing in this case are that objects are of
different lengths, width and eight. The caregiver should therefore provide simple
materials and activities to enable them start developing the vocabulary which include
longer that, wider that, higher than and so on.These concepts can be developed
through some of the following activities:
 Comparing their own heights or using sticks to see how far they go along a wall.
 Observing the heights of buildings, trees, animals, cars, and tell which ones are
higher, longer and wider than the others.
 Comparing their fingers to see which ones are longer than the others.
 Comparing the foot prints to see who has a long foot.
 Learning and reciting poems and singing songs involving use of concepts of length
and height.
Area
This needs to be done using concrete objects and it can be developed through the
following activities:
 Provide cut-out square shapes of the same size to children.

 Let children put this square on a book or table, slates, mats to enable them see
how many of them cover that surface.
55

 Children can fit puzzles cut-out of different shapes like: squares, circles, triangles,
animal shapes and pictures.
Weight
Weight is a concept that will help children to develop the vocabulary of heavier than or
light. They will also learn to discriminate items by weight. This can be developed
through the following activities:
 Children can play blind folding games of lifting objects and saying which of the two
or three objects is heavier?
 Ask children to order by weight three or four containers of the same size.
 Let children play the floating and sinking game at the water corner and discuss
why some things float while others sink.
 Let children make light and heavy things by putting different amounts of the same
substance or equal amounts of different weights, unequal amounts of the same
substance.
 Let children play with the balance at the water or sand area so as to compare
which is heavy and light
 They can recite poems and songs related to the idea of weight.
Volume and capacity
Volume and capacity refer to how much something or a container can carry. The
caregiver should help children to start developing the concept of how many times a
smaller tin be used to fill the big tin. This can be done in the sand pit or water area. The
children can also compete to see which individual can fill a large container faster than
others.
Space
It is important for the caregiver to introduce the vocabulary of top/bottom, inside/outside,

far/near, between while dealing with space. For children to start understanding the
concept of space there is need for the caregiver to provide variety of activities through
which they will develop the vocabulary. In the process, children will also realize that
solid objects occupy space as they do these activities.
Materials
Boxes, omo packets, milk packets, tins, bottles, balls, sticks, water, sand, balances,
bottles of different sizes, imitation money, scissors, seeds, pieces of wood, feathers,
basin, crayons, shapes of triangles, squares, strings
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2.8 AREA 5: DEVELOPING AND USING MY LANGUAGE APPROPRIATELY
child develop competences that he/she will use to communicate with peers, people in
the family, community and society in appropriately. The area also focuses on helping a
child to develop his/her language and use it appropriately while communicating with
people of different categories. It explores the four language skills and different activities
and methods you can use to develop those skills in a variety of situations. Children in
ECD have to be helped to acquire and perfect the language skills in their mother tongue
as specified in the Uganda language policy. Before you can start developing children’s
language, you should first remind yourself of what language is, its importance to
children and stages of language development.
Language is a means of communication from one person to another. It involves oral

communication which includes speech and non-verbal communication, which involves
listening and speaking.
Children use language in their daily life in different situations to do the following:
 Conveying messages to other people
 expressing feelings about their likes and dislikes
 sharing ideas with other people or peers
 demanding for care from adults and other responsible caregivers within their
reach
 interpreting the environment they find themselves in
 To promote their mental development.
2.9 STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (0-6YEARS)

Children’s language development follows a sequenced pattern that can be recognized
through the following stages:
Emerging language(0-1 year): Under this stage, children show different characteristics
as different ages which overlap to other ages and are not necessarily fixed.
 From 0-2months, babies begin to make cooing sound to communicate their
feelings.
 At 4-6months infants/babies begin to add consonants to the words.
 At 12 months babies say their first recognizable words, know their own name and
say some words.
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Symbolic development(1-4yrs): At this stage, which is sometimes called the period of
language explosion, the child develops language very fast and acquires plenty of
vocabulary in the following ways:
 At one and half years children understand simple commands and their
vocabulary expands.
 At 2years, toddlers combine two words, and they understand much more in
advance.
 At 3years toddlers carryout complex commands.
 At 4years they listen to stories and also have many questions.
Consolidating language (4-6 years): This is the time when what has been learned and
understood about language is consolidated. At this stage further development is
enhanced. At 5years, the toddler develops power of reasoning and criticism, and also
use complex sentences copied from adults.
Activity
1. Explain different stages of language development
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Discuss the importance of language to children in your community
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
The main language skills to be developed in children that are covered in this area are
listening, speaking, reading and writing. The four skills are not taught as different skills
in isolation, but are taught in such away that they are integrated and used to reinforce
the other. For example, listening compliments speaking and vice versa. Emphasis
should be put on correct use of the skills in the children’s mother tongue or area
language following its unique rules that is specific to their community. The skills are
summarized in the following learning outcomes:
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 Listening with acuity for information and enjoyment and responding

appropriately in a wide range of situations.
 Communicating confidently, effectively and meaningfully in spoken and
sign language in a wide range of situations.
 Reading to enjoy, acquire knowledge and be able to comprehend
 Writing different kinds of factual and imaginative tasks depicting good
letter formation, creativity and handwriting skills.
The above outcomes are enabled by the competences in area 5 of the learning that are
summarized in the box below.
 Responding to different sounds

 Differentiating different sounds and objects
 Responding to instructions and commands
 Reporting what has been heard
 Expressing self in different ways
 Interpreting what is seen
 Reading simple words and sentences
 Writing letters and words accurately
Identify some competences that have been left out in the box above are useful in
promoting children’s language development
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________
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2.10 ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE
Development of children’s language requires use of different activities that will allow
children to practice use of their newly acquired skills. Activities that can be used are
according to the language skills.
Activities to develop children’s listening skills
We can use the following activities to develop children’s listening skills:

 Storytelling, News telling, drama, role plays,reciting songs, poems, riddles, oral
composition. All these activities are meant for the child to put into practice what
he/she has heard.
 Auditory discrimination games to train the child to listen effectively.
 Encouraging children to describing things or sounds made. It can also be
retelling information heard from discussions.
 Asking children to retell short stories after reading to them.
 Songs that a child repeat after the teacher.
 Games of transfer of messages heard from one person to another.
 Listening to recorded materials and answering questions about it.
Activities to develop children’s speaking skills
We can use the following activities to develop children’s speaking skills:

 Retelling stories that have been told to them
 role playing different situations that require children speak
 Imitating what others have said
 Conversations with adults or other children
 Proverbs that children are helped to say
 Saying rhymes
 Singing songs both traditional and composed songs
 Saying riddles
 Reciting poems
 Telling and re-telling news
 Saying tongue twisters
 Saying lullabies
 Letting children to imitate audio messages
Activities to develop children’s reading skills
We can use the following activities to develop children’s reading skills:

 Indoor games (dominoes ,jigsaw, lotto)
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 Opening of books to master orientation
 Reading tunes
 Reading story sequences,
 Use of Visual discrimination activities like sorting, matching or pairing
 Discrimination of sizes and shapes
 Left to right eye movement.
 Telling stories in sequence.
 Sound recognition.
 Recognition of patterns.
 Recognition and matching of letters.
 Spotting of missing parts from two similar pictures.
Activities to develop children’s writing skills
We can use the following activities to develop children’s writing skills:

 Tracing, Tearing, Cutting, Painting, Colouring, Collage, Drawing, Modeling,
Pasting, Doodling.
 Drawing and writing patterns
Activity
1. Explain five different methods you can use to teach children language
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
____________
2. Identify different ways of assessing children’s language development
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
___________
3. Suggest what you can do to help a child who is having a problem mastering
speaking skill
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
4. Explain five activities you can give children to develop listening skills
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
___________
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2.11 ACTIVITY PREPARATION
Every successful learning activity usually comes from a scheme and lesson plan. These
two aspects will be the focus of this part.
Scheme of Work
A scheme of work is detailed plan of content indicating what should be taught and how it
should be covered within a given period of time; it includes the instructional resource
materials and activities a student should engage in.
Purpose of Scheming
 To be able to identify all required instructional materials in time

 To keep the teacher focused
 To be able to break down content to manageable teaching topics depending the
ability of the learners
 Identify methods suitable to the learner’s ability
 It helps to apportion content to cover the available time as required for a
particular level
Note:
It should be noted that a well prepared lesson can be taught without any notes but a
good lesson cannot be taught without any preparation.
2.12 LESSON PLANNING

This is a planned sequence of learning activities or lessons covering a period of several
weeks and centered on some major concepts, themes or topics.
In lesson planning it is important to consider the following;
 The principles of learning,

 The techniques of questioning
 The use of teaching aids
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Purpose of lesson plan
Prior to the lesson, it helps the teacher to think through or visualize the lesson as he/she
will teach it. At this point the teacher can anticipate learning difficulties and decide how
to overcome them.
The plan assists the teacher in organizing the tools, materials and aids needed to carry
out the plan. A good lesson plan gives the teacher confidence while teaching and helps
him/her to;
 Provide needed motivation

 Gives proper emphasis to various parts of the lesson that require learner’s
activity
 Check carefully so that essential information are included
 Use learning aids effectively
 Ask questions at the proper time
 Stay on schedule
A clear well made plan helps to:

 Managetime
 Plan activities to be performed depending on the number of children in the class.
 Make learning materials available for use.
 Be systematic in exposing children to learning.
 To help in control and manage the class
 Be accountable in terms of the targets set
 Encourage a caregiver carry out enough research for the purpose of perfecting
work.
2.13 DESIGNING DAILY ROUTINES

Daily routine refers to the daily activities carried out in the school by children from the
time they arrive at the learning centre until they go back home. A sample of the daily
routine includes:
Time Activity
7:00 – 8:00 Arrival of children (Pick their play materials, Play,
toileting)
8:00 – 8:30 Morning Ring (singing songs, prayers, anthem,
health inspection, news, oral work, day’s theme).
63

8:30 – 10:00 Planned Class Activities (small groups activities
going from one area to another but without showing
children that you are changing from one area to
another).
10:00 – 10:30 Snack time (talking about table manners to be
observed, taking snacks as you talk about the uses
and sources of the foods being eaten).
10:30 – 11:00 Outdoor play (Caregivers have to be around to
supervise play for safety)
11:00 – 11:20 Rest (Children are made to sleep for a while)
11:20 – 12:00 Planned class activities in a learning area, toileting
and washing up.
12:00 – 12:30 Work time (Play in areas of choice like block, sand
or shop areas)
12:30 – 1:00 Large circle (prayer, recall of what had been done,
farewell).
From the daily routine, we can make a time table. The routine should be used to
standardize time allocated for each activity but there is room for flexibility in the
activities depending on the situation.
End of Unit Assignment
1. Identify two subjects that have not been covered in the learning framework for
ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
2. Identify 10 subject areas that have been covered in the learning area
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
3. Explain 10 acceptable behaviours that you will teach children to master in your
class
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________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
4. In which way can you involve parents to support you promote children’s learning?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
5. Explain the use of learning materials for children in ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
6. With relevant examples, explain the disadvantages using primary school

approach to teaching in ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
7. As a pre-primary teacher, list the materials you will need to prepare children’s
activities for use in a class
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
8. Make a sample activity plan to be used in your class
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________
9. Explain the role of the teacher in implementing the learning framework for ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
65

10. Identify some of the challenges teachers face when you using the learning
framework for ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CURRICULAR (0-3 YEARS)
This unit introduces you to the Pre-Primary Curriculum also known as the
Learning Framework for Developmental Experiences which is used to
promote learning of children in the age bracket of 0-3 years. This
curriculum is used in day care centres, homes and in Community based
ECD centres where children of 0-3 years are cared for to promote their
holistic development. The main areas of concern in this unit include:
 Learning outcomes and Competences in the framework
 Developmental areas in the learning framework for 0-3 years
 Schemes of work
 Planning development activities
 Daily routine
6.13 DEVELOPMENTAL AREAS IN THE LEARNING FRAMEWORK FOR

CHILDREN OF 0-3YEARS
The learning framework for ECD used for promoting learning of children of 0-3 years is
made of six thematic developmental areas. These areas combine a number of activities
that support each other in an integrated way to promote holistic development. The six
developmental areas in the learning area for 0-3 year old children include:
1) Enhancing personality, social and emotional development.

2) Communication, language and literacy.
3) Problem solving, reasoning and mathematical concepts
4) Knowing and understanding the environment
5) Enhancing physical development
6) Using creativity in day to day experiences
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We shall now examine each of the learning areas in details.
6.14 AREA 1: ENHANCING PERSONALITY, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT.
child develop his/her personality, social and emotional wellbeing. This can only be
possible if you provide the child with various opportunities to express self and emotions
while giving guidance on how to relate with others in the environment.
The main behaviours emphasized in this area are those that help a child to build self-
confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem. These life skill are very important in that
they are the driving force in us that make us value ourselves and therefore do what we
are supposed to do or fight for our rights incase we are being abused. They give us the
will to continue living and be what we are. The area also focuses on skills that help a
child to build good relations with others, make and keep friends. We are social animals.
Therefore, we all need company of good friends that must be maintained for some time.
The life skills are not handed over to children in a class situation, but they are passed
on to the children through participation in different activities, rewards and
encouragement given by caregivers, parents and peers. The skills are summarized in
the following learning outcomes:
Outcomes for Developmental Area 1
 Shows self-esteem,
Outcomes for Developmental
self-confidence Area 1
and self-esteem.
 Makes relations with people around him/her.
 Shows self-esteem, self-confidence and self-esteem.
 Makes relations with people around him/her.
The above outcomes cannot be achieved in one day or in a period of one month.
competences. The competences in developmental area 1 of the 0-3 framework are

summarized in the box below.
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Competences for Developmental Area 1
 I can express a sense of comfort

 I can express different emotions
 I can act various roles with understanding
 I can express my feelings
 I can interact, share and play with others
 I can play safely
Methods used
Different methods need to be applied when helping children acquire different life skills
as suggested in this developmental area. Since most suggested activities will dwell on
behaviours and life skills, you should use methods that help to inculcate these skills and
attitude unknowingly in children. Some of these methods include story telling,
dramatization, role play, miming among others. You should refer to the methods unit to
identify the appropriate method to use and learn how it is applied in different situations.
For the case of children of 0-3 years, you are their role model. So, everything you do will
be imitated by them.
Assessment
Assessment of life skills and attitude can only be done in real life situations. Therefore,
in order for you to assess achievement of these skills, you need to provide opportunity
for children to engage in different real life activities with other children or adults so as to
evaluate how they express their feelings. You need to observe children in different
situations for example at play, individual work time, snack time, or during group
activities. Make it a point to always remind them of the acceptable behaviours
immediately one shows an unacceptable behaviour. You also have to be patient with
them while rewarding the good behaviours till it becomes part of the child.
6.15 AREA 2: COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

This area (see the framework 0-3 years pages 22-26) focuses on helping a child
develop communication, language and literacy. It focuses on helping children
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communicate their feelings, express their feelings about something, converse with
others, listen and respond appropriately to different instructions. It is also through
exposure in this area that children are helped to understand rules of language and
communication in a supportive environment. Through these interactions, you will be
able to identify language and communication challenges that the children experience
and be able to help correct them early enough before it is too late.
The main language and communication skills emphasized in this area are those that lay
a foundation for the child’s future literacy acquisition. It is important to note that while
giving children activities to promote these skills, we should not be harsh to them.
Instead, we should use play and everyday activities as children explore and be creative
in their communication and use of language. The skills to be developed in this area are
summarized in the following developmental outcomes:
Outcomes for Developmental Area 2
 Listens for information and enjoyment;

 Communicate effectively and meaningfully.
 Reads to enjoy different kinds of factual and imaginative situations.
 Demonstrates the ability to use writing tools
competences. The competences in area 2 of the 0-3 framework are summarized in the
box below.
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 I can respond to different sounds in my environment
 I can listen and respond to sounds
 I can use new words
 I can show pleasure in looking at pictures and print materials
 I can interpret pictures
 I can coordinate hand and eye movement to fix on and make contact with objects
and make marks
 I can use large and small muscles to perform activities
 I can show control in the use of writing and drawing tools
 I can trace over drawn pictures
Methods used
Different methods need to be applied when teaching children different language and
communication skills. There is no one agreed most efficient method to be used. Instead,
a number of methods need to be employed. The methods chosen should be those that
give children ample time to practice and use the newly acquired language skills using
plenty of available materials.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s acquisition of language, communication and literacy skills is

done in context in with real life experiences. You need to provide children with a variety
of materials and give them freedom to communicate in different ways as they wish as
long as you guide them not to offend others. You also need to take children out to
different functions and places that will give them experiences to communicate about and
imitate. From these settings, you can observe children in different situations for example
at play, work time, snack time, during individual activities, project work or during group
activities. Make it a point to always remind them to communicate appropriately to
others. You can engage them in discussion of different events in their environment and
seek their explanations on them.
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6.16 AREA 3: PROBLEM-SOLVING, REASONING AND MATHEMATICAL
CONCEPTS
child to develop problem solving skills, reasoning and numeracy that will be a
foundation for future mathematics experiences to help the child solve day to day
challenges and live independently in the family and community. It focuses on basic
concepts with emphasis on understanding and not memorization. This understanding is
in logical order with some parts appearing before others. Knowledge and practice of
these basic concepts have to be done in play setting with plenty of materials for children
to manipulate and experiment with.
The main problem solving concepts emphasized in this area are summarized in the
following learning outcomes:
Outcomes for Development Area 3
 Compares and contrasts things according to different attributes

 Recognizes different shapes, sizes of things, and demonstrates a sense of
time as well as space
 Arranges different materials in order of size
box below.
71

 I can use materials in my environment

 I can sing simple number songs and recite rhymes
 I can use some number language such as “more, less, many, few”
 I can count up to 10
 I can show awareness of myself and others in available space
 I can respond to the routine of doing things
 I can manipulate things and talk about particular features and processes
 I can locate different places, tell longevity in time and fit things in right the space
 I can notice changes in groups of objects, images or sounds
 I can arrange things according to sizes
 I can use vocabulary of measures
Methods used
case of developmental area 3, most activities need to be done practically. It will be
wrong for children to just memorize different problem-solving skills when they cannot
practice them to solve different personal problems. Therefore, effort should be made
engage them in the practices so that those skills can become part of them. Plenty of
materials and time should be given to children to practice and learn the desired skills.
When children do them right, they should be rewarded, while those who do not do it
appropriately should be shown what and how to do it and encouraged to keep trying till
they master them.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s problem-solving skills should be done in context and basing

on observations of what the child can or cannot do. If we note what the child did on the
first day, we shall be able to tell later whether the child is progressing or not. Those who
show progress should be encouraged to continue, while those who still find challenges
have to be supported to master them.
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6.17 AREA 4: KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING THE ENVIRONMENT
child develop an understanding of the world and the environment around him/her. It
focuses on helping the child experience the world through different media,
experimentation in the environment by touching, manipulating and tasting or testing
different things in life. It also focuses on use of different senses of touch, smell, taste,
sight and hearing in different situations.
Knowing and understanding the environment can be realized for children through use of
the following learning outcomes:
 Uses different movements/skills to coordinate the body

 Shows awareness that there is specific time for doing things
 Demonstrate awareness of the existence of other things in and people in the
environment
box below
 I can move to explore my environment

 I can use things and talk about their particular features
 I can identify and use different things in my environment
 I can demonstrate personal safety and hygiene
 I can show interest and curiosity about things in the environment
 I can demonstrate playing imaginary games using things familiar to me
 I can gaze on faces and enjoy interaction with the person near me
 I can recognize people such as family, friends or my caregivers
 I can listen to and tell stories
73

Methods used
case of developmental area 4, most activities need to be done practically. It will be
wrong for children to just talk about different places and things when they cannot
experience them practically. Therefore, effort should be made take them out to
experience the environment in its natural setting so that the experiences become part of
them. Plenty of materials and time should be given to children to practice and learn the
desired skills. When children do them right, they should be rewarded, while those who
do not do it appropriately should be shown what and how to do it and encouraged to
keep trying till they master them.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s understanding of the environment should be done in context

and basing on observations of what the child can or cannot do while in the environment.
If we note what the child did on the first day, we shall be able to tell later whether the
child is progressing or not. Those who show progress should be encouraged to
continue, while those who still find challenges have to be supported to master them.
6.18 AREA 5: ENHANCING PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

This area (see the learning framework 0-3 years pages 36-42) focuses on enhancing a
child’s physical development. It focuses on basic movement, coordination and strength
activities and experiences that will promote a child’s physical development. It also had
advice on supportive activities and food that promotes children’s physical development.
The main physical development aspects emphasized in this area are summarized in the
following learning outcomes:
 Uses different skills to coordinate body movements and perform activities

 Shows an understanding of safety and personal hygiene
74

box below.
 I can use movement and sensory exploration to link up with my immediate

environment
 I can explore my body parts, and begin to hold objects firmly
 I can solve my own challenges set in moving mobility
 I can imitate and improvise actions observed such as clapping and waving
 I can coordinate my body movements and perform more than one activity at once
 I can show physical fitness and begin to play with others
Methods used
Plenty of materials and time should be given to children to practice and learn the
desired skills. Always be with them to show them how to use different materials and to
ensure their safety as they use the materials. When children do them right, they should
be rewarded, while those who do not do it appropriately should be shown what and how
to do it and encouraged to keep trying till they master them.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s physical development should be done basing on observations

of what the child can or cannot do. If we note what the child did on the first day, we shall
be able to tell later whether the child is progressing or not. Those who show progress
should be encouraged to continue, while those who still find challenges have to be
supported to master them.
6.19 AREA 6: USING CREATIVITY IN MY DAY-TO-DAY EXPERIENCES

child to develop creativity so as to solve day to day challenges and live independently in
the family and community. It focuses on encouraging a child to take up risks and
experiment with things they are not sure of their outcome. Most of the activities are child
initiated and simply encouraged by the caregivers.
The main creativity concepts emphasized in this area are summarized in the following
learning outcomes:
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 Creates music and dances

 Engages in imagination and imaginative play
 Designs and makes things
box below.
 I can respond to music in form of dance with the whole body by bouncing rocking
and swaying
 I can associate sounds with things
 I can move my body to sounds I enjoy
 I can move to the rhythm of the sounds I hear
 I can smile with pleasure on recognition of play things
 I can join my helpers as they participate in doing different things
 I can tell that some objects have similar characteristics and can pretend that one
object represents the other
 I can show curiosity and interest in things
 I can show interest in pushing and pulling things and begin to build structures
 I can show curiosity and interest in making things
Methods used
We should use a variety of methods in different contexts to promote children’s creativity.

Effort should be made to provide a variety of materials, freedom and time for children to
practice their creativity and learn the desired skills. When children discover something
76

on their own, they should be rewarded, while those who have challenges should be
encouraged to keep trying till they find something of interest to themselves.
Assessment
Assessment of children’s progress in this area is based on how many times a child
report back a new discovery or creativity and explanations that are given for each
creative invention. If we note what the child did on the first day, we shall be able to tell
later whether the child is progressing or not. Those who show progress should be
encouraged to continue, while those who still find challenges have to be supported to
master them.
DESIGNING DAILY ROUTINES

Daily routine refers to the daily activities carried out at home or day care centre by
children from morning till the time they are picked by their parents. A sample of the daily
routine includes:
Time Activity
7:00 – 8:00 Arrival of children (Pick their play materials, Play, toileting)
8:00 – 8:30 Morning Ring (singing songs, prayers, anthem, health inspection,
news, oral work, day’s theme).
8:30 – 10:00 Planned play activities (small groups activities going from one
area to another but without showing children that you are
changing from one area to another).
10:00 – 10:30 Snack time (talking about table manners to be observed, taking
snacks as you talk about the uses and sources of the foods being
eaten).
10:30 – 11:00 Outdoor play (Caregivers have to be around to supervise play for
safety)
11:00 – 11:20 Rest (Children are made to sleep for a while)
12:00 – 12:30 Work time (Play in areas of choice like block, sand or shop areas,
toileting and washing up.)
12:30 – 1:00 Large circle (prayer, recall of what had been done, farewell).
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End of Unit Assignment
1. Explain content of the six developmental areas in 0-3 framework
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
2. Identify 10 specific creativity areas for children of 0-03 years
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
3. Explain 10 acceptable behaviours that you will teach children of 0-3 to master
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
4. In which way can you involve parents of 0-3 years to promote children’s
development?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
5. Explain the type of learning materials that you will provide for children of 0-3
years
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
6. With relevant examples, explain the disadvantages teaching children of 0-3 years
in a class setting
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
7. Explain different activities that you will use to promote children’s physical
78

development
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
8. Make a sample activity plan to be used with children of 0-3 years under your care
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________
9. Explain the role of the caregiver in implementing the 0-3 framework for ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________
10. Identify some of the challenges caregivers face when using the 0-3 years
framework for ECD
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________
79

UNIT FOUR
ASSESSMENT, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Introduction
In this unit, you are going to learn about assessment and evaluation in pre- primary and
primary schools. You have to be aware that the teaching and learning process is
incomplete until we have found out/determined whether learning has taken place. You
need to know whether the set goal and objectives have been achieved, and if so, to
what extent
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
 To enable the teacher know the value of assessing learning in the context of
school.
 To be able to use different methods to assess pupils’ learning.
 To be able to interpret, from the results of a particular examination, facts about
effectiveness of exams and make up of group that was examined.
 To understand the procedures used in setting, sitting and marking public
examinations.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment is the process by which the quality of an individuals’ work or performance

is judged.
In schools assessment of learning is usually carried out by teachers on basis of

impressions gained as they observe their learners/ children at work or various kinds of
tests given periodically.
In the context of classrooms, assessment is the systematic and on-going process of

collecting, describing and analyzing information about learners‟ progress and
achievement in relation to curriculum expectations. It involves determining the level of
performance of a given learner on a given task.
Types of Assessment
Assessment can either be objective, subjective or continuous.
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Objective assessment
This is applied to any form of educational assessment in which prejudice, partiality

or other distorting effects do not play part. In schools (pre-school and primary),
objective testing is increasingly used because it is both easier and quicker to mark
and is generally a fairer test of what children know. For example matching, true-
false, filling in blank space, practical experiment, drawing diagrams and pictures are
kinds of objective testing.
Subjective assessment
This type of assessment is used where objective cannot perform satisfactorily

because the qualities to be assessed can not be related to a fixed scale. Opinions,
feelings, impressions and personal values play important part in subjective
assessment. E.g. oral examinations, essay questions and projects
Continuous assessment
This is a way of recording a child’s progress without using examinations. The

assessment is practised as an on-going process. It is increasingly used as an
alternative to terminal examinations because it provides more information and
information that are more reliable than exams-because it builds up a picture of a
child’s performance over prolonged and representative period whereas exams
shows only what he/she did on one particular day. In other words, exams normally
measure intellectual and literary skills of the child.
This is the type of assessment, which takes place as learning progress. It has the
following advantages:
 It enables learners to be evaluated as they learn.

 It prepares children for external and final examinations.
 It helps you identify learners‟ weaknesses in learning and guides you on how
to design remedial work.
 Children discover their strengths and weaknesses and will make effort to
improve accordingly.
 It enables children to get used to testing.
 It helps in the guidance and counselling of children.
Conducting continuous Assessment:
1. Honestly and objectively, record the marks against each pupil so that each has
a cumulative record of marks.
2. Let the children know how they are progressing.

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3. Design enrichment exercises for the above average and for the weak, design
remedial exercises.
4. Calculate an average mark for all the sets of marks obtained by the learner.
This will give you a picture of the overall performance.
Peer assessment
This can be done by asking the learners to comment on each other’s work. This can
assist them in learning from friends as they assess and give each other feedback. Peer
assessment can be done by:
 Asking learners to comment and give constructive feedback to each other.

 Mark each other’s work.
 Take responsibility for their friend’s progress.
 Encourage learners to ask friend’s to comment on their work.
Informal assessment
In daily interaction with learners both outside and in class, you always make comments
on what they do. This is especially so when what they are involved in, is a learning
activity. All the comments you give are based on your assessment of what they do and
the feedback given to them is greatly valued by the learners. If you comment on their
work, dressing, playing a game or drawing, you will be doing what we call informal
assessment.
We assess the learners or children to see the standard skills and knowledge acquired
by the child. In educational assessment standardization refers to the process by which
tests are set out to measure specific qualities such as intelligence, aptitude, and
personality are made into accurate and statistically reliable measuring instrument.
To reach the standard, the assessment made to the child/ learner must be monitored.
Therefore, Monitoring refers to the focusing of attention on a process or performance

with the objective of drawing attention to particular features that may require corrective
action. It is therefore practised regularly by evaluators and should be habitual with
teachers.
Purpose of assessment
The primary purpose of assessment is to improve pupils‟ learning. Pupils receive

multiple attempts to practice and to demonstrate understanding of content and to
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develop skills by receiving specific and timely feedback in order to improve
achievement. Specific purposes of Assessment:
 Analyzing learners progress for the purpose of modifying and refining the
teaching/learning cycle to meet their needs.
 Motivating and encouraging learners and teachers.
 Selection and placement of learners into different classes and levels.
 Identification of weaknesses in the methods and teaching/learning materials
used.
 Providing guidance and counselling where necessary.
 Encouraging learners as they discover their strengths, weaknesses and
potentials.
 Preparing learners for National examinations.
Attributes assessed by teachers
There are a number of attributes teachers assess. Sometimes teachers’ mistake

learners‟ scores on one attribute for something else. The attribute commonly assessed
by teachers include:
1. Achievement
This is the attribute assessed by teachers most of the time. Achievement refers to what
a learner has done successfully with effort and skill after a certain period of instruction.
It refers to how much an individual has learnt from a given period of instruction.
Whatever a given learner gains from a period and process of instruction, is influenced
by:
 Teaching and learning materials used.

 The quality of the teachers.
 Learners‟ ability with reference to health and well-being.
 The quality of the learning environment.
 Textbooks used.
Therefore, achievement results are not the only measure of a child’s intelligence. If
learners fail your task, it does not necessarily mean that they are dull. It may be that
they did not gain much from your teaching.
2. Intelligence
This refers to an individual’s ability to learn, understand and reason correctly.

Intelligence test scores are generally known as intelligence quotient or (IQ). The
average IQ may be 100. A score between 80 and 110 is regarded as average, and if it
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goes beyond 120, the learner is considered to be mentally gifted. If it is below 70, it is
regarded as below average
3. Aptitude
This refers to an individual’s ability to perform a given task. These tests are given to
predict future performance in areas where an individual is not trained. Aptitude is
measured by comparing the ability of those already in the programme. These tests are
always done if one wishes to join public service in his Country or any related
programme.
4. Interests
This refers to individual’s liking. They may be social interests, which are assessed using
questionnaires.
5. Personality
This refers to those characteristics that make an individual unique and different from
others. An individual’s personality is made up of emotions and behavioural traits. Our
emotions and behaviour enable us to react to different situations differently. In a class of
learners, some are quiet, talkative, shy, active, aggressive, friendly, etc. All these
aspects describe personality.
MAJOR TOOLS OF ASSESSMENT
Action Research as a tool
Action Research is a process in which, participants examine their own education

practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research. This reflective
practice is very good for researchers and teachers because it helps them to evaluate
what they are doing in order to make necessary changes or improvement. Action
Research is a collaborative activity among colleagues searching for solutions to
everyday problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction
and increase learners‟ achievement. Rather than dealing with the theoretical aspects of
knowledge, action research allows practitioners to address those concerns that are
closest to them. For example, if you find out that learners are not performing well, you
can conduct research on the cause of poor performance and then take action
immediately to improve it. Action Research is not a library kind of thing where you have
to go and open books. It is you to realize a problem and take action for better results.
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Assumptions for action research:
 You work best on problems you have identified yourselves.

 You become more effective when encouraged to examine and assess your own
work and then consider ways of working differently.
 Working with colleagues helps you in your professional development.
Reflective practice as an assessment tool
There are various definition of reflective practice, among which are the following:
 Reflective practice is a way of helping professional to develop a deeper

understanding of issues by analyzing their previous experience to learn from and
thereby improving their daily work.
 It is a thinking activity and involves carefully thinking back over an event, incident
or every day experience. Reflective practice is the process involving thoughtful
consideration of one’s experience in applying knowledge to practice (Schon,
1996).
 Reflective practice is thinking systematically about one’s practice and learning
from experience.
You have to be aware that learning cannot take place without reflection. In reflective
practice, reflection is the essential part of the learning process because it results in
making sense of or extracting meaning from the experience. Reflective practice can
also be a tool for revealing discrepancies between espoused theories (what we say and
do) and the theories in use (what we actually do).
It is better for you as a teacher to sit back after teaching and do some kind of reflection
on your lesson. You look at what you have taught. This can also be realized after giving
an assignment and finding out that it is not done to your expectations. It may be that you
have a problem with your methods or teaching/learning materials! Reflective practice
will assist you in looking deeper into your teaching styles and ultimately to improve your
professional practice.
The following summarizes reflective practice:
 Questioning what, why and how one does things and asking what, why and how
others do things.
 Seeking alternatives.
 Keeping an open mind.
 Asking for other people’s ideas and viewpoints.
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Importance of reflective practice
The primary benefit of reflective practice to the teacher or caregiver is a deeper

understanding of their own teaching styles and ultimately, greater effectiveness as a
teacher.
 Reflection is the foundation of purposeful learning. By developing the ability to

explore and be curious about our own experiences and action, we suddenly open
up the possibilities of purposeful learning.
 Improves on child learning and development
 Improves on one’s performance
 It helps in finding out causes, effects and solutions to ones actions
 It helps in self-evaluation on practices
 It helps the teacher to develop both personally and professionally
 It promotes life-long learning
 It promotes creativity and innovation
 It helps to re-examine and revise our plans of action
 It enables one to appreciate his/her profession.
Reflective journal writing
A reflective journal is a record of events or critical incidents, based on one’s thought out
ideas, emotions and experiences or salient points which are written regularly i.e daily,
weekly, monthly or bimonthly. A teacher may document challenging situations
encountered in the teaching/learning process or any other issues related to his/her work
in school, guided by questions that may lead or help him/her to improve on practice.
To develop the practice of recording, you require a notebook which will serve as a
reflective journal.
Reasons for keeping a reflective journal
 For self-evaluation
 To improve own thinking skills
 Evidence of research in one’s job
 Develop own theories and practices
 Share thoughts and ideas to get feedback
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Activity:
1. Write one reflective journal entry on an incident that has happened to you in the
course of executing your duties in your school.
EVALUATION
Evaluation refers to the process of interpreting or making value judgment regarding the
merits or the worth of the result of assessment. In other words, evaluation is the process
of making qualitative measurement based upon measurement or non-measurement
information. It is the process of testing and assessing an individual.
Evaluations are the basis for making decisions about what course of action should be
taken. It enables you to answer the questions, “How good is the learner’s
performance?”
Types of Evaluation
If any innovation is to be successful, there must be a system by which its effects can be
tested and the degree to which it has achieved its objectives can be assessed.
It is vital to consider evaluation at a very early stage in the process of innovation, when
indeed; the process is still being developed. Evaluation at this stage is call Formative
Evaluation because its findings are used to alter and adapt the innovation being
devised, whether it is a new curriculum, a new type of teaching or simply a new way of
keeping the class register. The principle of formative evaluation requires that tests are
made in small pilot projects and findings fed back to the team devising the innovation.
Necessary changes are made and revised innovation is again tested.
After innovation has been implemented the second process of evaluation takes off. This
process of evaluation is called Summative Evaluation- in which the ultimate success of
the innovation will be assessed.
Formative evaluation
This consists of the formal and informal techniques that are used during the period of
instruction to judge the quality or the worth of learners ' achievements during the period
of instruction. Such judgment can help you guide the learner in the next learning task.
Formative evaluation enables you to monitor learners‟ instruction so that they may keep
it on a course as a plan or they may adjust their instruction to suit the circumstances.
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Summative evaluation This takes place at the end of an instructional unit for example:
Examinations given at the end of term and year. Its major purpose is to find out whether
learners have mastered the necessary knowledge and skills from the available courses.
Sometimes summative evaluation is used for the certification of learners. These are the
functions of summative evaluation:
 Delivering the pupil’s overall knowledge of the subject.

 Determine a pupil’s standing in the group.
 Indicates a pupil’s degree of success in learning.
Importance of Evaluation
i) it help in knowing the ability of the learners

ii) Help in knowing the validity of the test and assessments.
iii) Gives the effectiveness of the test and assessment.
iv) Provide the consolidated total that may be used for awarding the prizes or
other honours.
v) Aids in ranking the learners.
vi) Assist in selection
vii) Recognises the different interests of children and their varying spans of
concentration.
viii) Exposes weaknesses in learning
ix) It enables meaningful comparisons and classification to be made.
x) Reveals differences of quality.
xi) Tell exactly how much something there is.
xii) Evaluation helps in maintaining standards.
xiii) It is necessary for teachers to make them more critical of the curricula they
teach and the methods they use.
Evaluation of Teaching in Pre-School
Teaching can be evaluated in pre-school by use of the following:
 Exercise
 Oral questioning
 Giving test
 Examinations
 Demonstration. Here the child is allowed to demonstrate what he/she has learnt.
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TOOLS FOR ASSESSING CHILDREN’S GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND
LEARNING
The major tools for assessing children’s growth, development and learning are tests,
observation and examinations.
1. Test. People usually use test methods in everyday life (growth, development and
learning) sometimes unconsciously or consciously/deliberately. For example,
when a mother senses from restless movement of the baby on her back that it is
in need of attention this is unconscious. The test becomes deliberate when the
teacher examines the ability of the child.
The common test used for assessing children is:
 Achievement tests where each test seeks to measure the child’s ability in
specific skill and relate it to tables of norms for children of different ages.
 Aptitude tests in which the specific abilities are considered important for
particular role to build up a profile of individual in terms of abilities.
 Diagnostic tests which seek to identify critical weaknesses in basic
educational skills so that appropriate remedial action can be taken.
 Intelligence tests in which assessment is made of various mental skills
considered relevant to intelligence in order to find I.Q of the child.
 Personality tests in which the aim is to identify the dominant traits of the
child so as to classify his personality and provide the kinds of learning
pattern best suited to him.
2. Observation. A child growth, development and learning can be assessed by

direct observation. For example during snacking or it can be indirectly through
asking questions to the child orally.
3. Examination. This is a system of educational measurement designed to

Provide information about those who are tested. In other word, exams are Form
of test.
DESIGNING AND WRITING CHILDREN’S ASSESSMENT REPORTS
When the children are assessed the report or results of the assessment can be
presented main in the following ways;
i) Descriptive terms and letter grading. Whenever it is undesirable for the

children to know the exact score they have obtained in a test, or if the test is
subjective and difficult to grade with precision, or the candidates being tested
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are too young to appreciate numerical scores, the teacher may give the
results in descriptive equivalents such as:
Excellent Or Pass Or A
Good Or Pass Or B
Average Or Pass Or C
Fair Or Pass Or D
Poor Or Fail Or E
In this way the objectives of the test can be served without children or their parents
feeling, as they so often do with numerically scored tests, that every mark is vital. It also
enables the objectives to be served without the children over-reacting to marks which
they perceive either as admirable or shameful
ii) Numerical scores. The tests can be expressed in a numerical form, but it is
important to remember that a number score is meaningless until it is related
to a scale. For example a test mark 20 means nothing until we are told what
the possible marks are. Percentages, where the scale is 0 – 100, are most
commonly used. Percentages are however, convenient for making
comparison with the results of other tests.
iii) Rank order. Order of merit shows the particular order in which the candidates
are placed as a result the score they gain. The rank order can be in terms of
percentile.
iv) Evaluation. This tell you if it was a good test or if there were questions that
did not do the job intended of them. Such analysis should examine the
following features of the results; range, mean, median, and mode.
In presenting the result the above can be presented in report card as shown below:
(To be drawn on the chalkboard)
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UNIT SUMMARY
In this unit, you have been introduced to classroom assessment and evaluation. You
have particularly looked at the various types of assessment and evaluation and the role
they play in order to attain the objectives and goals of the educational system. This
knowledge will help you to understand the reasons as to why we assess and evaluate
pupils‟ academic achievements after an interval of a piece of teaching and learning
work.
REFERENCES
Clemson, David & Clemson, Wendy. (1996). The Really practical Guide to primary
assessment. Great Britain: Stanley Thornes Publishers, Ltd.
Nacino-Brown R.; Restus, E. Oke & Brown, P. Desmond. (1982). Curriculum and
Instruction, An introduction to methods of teaching. London: Macmillan.
Paper Derek. (1983). The objective models of curriculum, planning and evaluation. CET
Occasional Paper, no. 10. UK.
Wheeler, D. K. (1967). Curriculum process. London: The University of London Press.

Worthen Blaine R. and Sanders James R. (1987). Educational Evaluation. USA:
Longman.
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UNIT FIVE
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
PART ONE:
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION
PHILOSOPHY
The term philosophy is derived from two Greek words ‘philo’ meaning love, to strive
after, to search for; and ‘sophia’ meaning wisdom. Philosophy thus involves a search for
wisdom by a philosopher. Philosophers take nothing for granted: not even themselves
or their wisdom: as such they are constantly searching for answers and are concerned
with the meaning and significance of life. This search can make them a nuisance to
everyone e.g. Socrates spent most of his time in the streets of Athens going round
discussing with people, taking nothing for granted and questioning everything e.g. what
is good, what is true, what is beautiful, what is courage, justice democracy. He
considered his task similar to that of a midwife and a sculptor: to bring to birth a new
idea, and to create new things, new knowledge respectively. Eventually people in the
state of Athens grew tired of him and put him to death.
Doing philosophy (in the wider sense) includes any serious attempt by people to arrive
at an answer or response to the basic questions of human life. A philosopher is anyone
who shows concern and takes nothing for granted: instead, he searches and searches
hoping thereby to arrive at a tentative (unsure/provisional) answer, a typical human
response. The term ‘philosophy’ when used in its singular form refers to process or
activity involving philosophical thinking. In its plural form, ‘Philosophies’ points to a
product i.e. the outcome of the philosophical process. Philosophical thinking produces a
philosophical thought. The philosopher’s world is very curious and odd because it
consists of two worlds: the wide world of general philosophy and the smaller world of
philosophers.
General Philosophy: A Wide World

The beginning of philosophy coincides with the beginnings of man; homo sapiens
(sapiens means wise, a word often used to refer to a philosopher. Philosophy is both
particular and universal i.e. it varies from time to time (traditional or modern), from place
to place (European, African, Asian etc). Particular means that, a human being facing
different situations in different places at different times is likely to respond differently to
these situations. Universality of philosophy means that philosophy as a human
response can be found in every period of history in every culture/society on earth. Doing
philosophy is not a preoccupation of scholars only but all humanity because they all
question their humanity, human condition and experiences of life. Africans expressing
their traditional thought through stories, riddles and proverbs is as much part of
philosophy as books by renown philosophers e.g. Plato in The Republic
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One’s philosophy of life e.g. to be a farmer, teacher, carpenter etc is as much
philosophy as national philosophies e.g. Kenya’s Nyayo Philosophy, Tanzania’s
Ujamaa. All these belong to the wide word of general philosophy because they express
man’s response to life though quite varied and with limitations. A thought is considered
philosophical in character because of its authenticity of thought. The term authenticity
comes from Greek ‘authentes’ meaning one who does things himself (autos). It thus
implies thinking that is independent, genuine, original, critical and sincere giving a
personal answer to a personal question through a personal struggle. People however
call such thinkers Mwalimu, guru, sage but reserve the term philosopher for recognized
academic scholars mostly of Western or European origin.
Technical Philosophy (A Small World)

This is referred to as formal/academic philosophy. In this sense, it is an academic
discipline comprising of specialized content, methods and specialists known as
philosophers. In a technical sense, philosophy refers to process and product. As a
process, it refers to the activity of vigorous thinking concerning perplexing
questions/issues of life. Product refers to the outcome of such thinking i.e. established
systems of thought, views and ideas. Technical philosophy applies to few people;
individuals who are committed to scrutinizing issues, problems going beyond the
surface common sense aspects to their logical composition. This small world has
evolved from the large world of philosophy characterized by the following factors:
(i) Formalization
 It is a process whereby a definite form is given to a variety of human activities; form
refers to the presence of a structure, pattern or system. Formalization in our context in
philosophy refers to formalization of thought.
 Initially, philosophy consisted of the general amorphous sense. With the advent of
writing, the various philosophical thought began to be expressed in a more definite,
systematic and lasting form.
 Today the world of technical philosophy is a world of books, scholarly writings, formal
language and systematic thought because it is an exclusive domain for academic
scholars leaving no room for oral traditions of the past and common philosophies of life.
 Writing also allowed for debate and as long as debate continued, philosophy continued
to thrive.
(ii) Westernization
 Western civilization has greatly influenced the field of learning to an extent that
philosophy is attributed to Western philosophers.
 It is believed that philosophy originated from ancient Greece and was further developed
in Europe and America. Philosophy is closely associated with Western civilization to an
extend that anyone interested in it must be familiar with the various systems like
realism (emphasizes that there is a world of real existence which exists independently
of human mind), idealism (stresses the idea that reality is an expression of the mind:
knowledge is based on recognition/remembrance of latent/inborn ideas already
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present in the mind), pragmatism (views reality as a changing phenomenon: man sees
reality differently as he interacts with it), as well as the philosophical language that is
associated with it.
 As a result of this, Western philosophy is assumed to be the standard of technical
philosophy. For instance, ancient Egypt played a very big role in the field of learning
such as medicine and philosophy. Ancient Greece and anyone who had studied in
Egypt was highly regarded as an authority.
(iii) Specialization
 Refers to the acquisition of exceptional knowledge of, or skills in a given
discipline/subject as a result of constant and intensive study.
 In ancient Greece, a philosopher was a scholar who specialized in the exploration of the
nature of man and the world. The knowledge was not dichotomized into rational and
empirical domains. A philosopher was thus a Master of Arts and Science.
 Due to westernization, western specialists started at one time to dominate the field of
formal philosophy and subsequently imposed their language, interests and methods
upon others making formal philosophy highly technical and a matter for experts; always
within the Western context.
 Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher wrote widely on ethics, politics, fine art, logic,
biology and physics.
 Philosophy was referred to as the mother of all sciences, the most distinguished science
‘scientia eminentia’. With the advent of scientific evolution, the empirical sciences were
detached from philosophy. Later on, other disciplines like sociology, psychology and
anthropology developed as independent disciplines from philosophy. These
developments led to a situation where philosophy acquired its own methods, content
and terminologies.
 A student of education does not require technical philosophy specialization but an
introduction in order to understand the meaning and significance of educational
philosophy as an academic discipline.
Revision questions
1 What do you understand by the term philosophy?
2 Distinguish between technical and general philosophy.
3 Why is the world of technical philosophy a domain for a few?
CONTENT OF TECHNICAL PHILOSOPHY

This philosophy is concerned with four main areas namely; logic, epistemology, axiology
and metaphysics. These are called the branches of philosophy.
1. Logic
It refers to the study of correct reasoning. It deals with the structure and principles of
sound arguments. On our daily basis, individuals are engaged in various forms of
arguments, where premises/statements are made and conclusions drawn. In most
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cases, wrong conclusions are arrived at involving wrong premises and undue
generalizations. Logic is essential because it stipulates how arguments should be
constructed and how fallacies (erroneous beliefs or myths) can be detected and
avoided. Within logic, two forms of reasoning can be distinguished: deductive and
inductive.
(a) Deductive reasoning
This involves reasoning from general to particular instances. In this case, a conclusion
is inferred or deduced from general premises/statements/propositions. For example:
(a). All PGDE students are untrained teachers
John is a PGDE student
John is an untrained teacher
(b). All human beings are liable to make mistakes

Mike is a human being
Mike makes mistakes
(c). All human beings have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
Mary is a human being
Mary has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
The above reasoning has been expressed in syllogism form: the first two statements
need to be stated before the third can follow logically. This type of reasoning is
prevalent in philosophy, religion and mathematics.
(ii) Inductive reasoning

It involves general laws/conclusions being inferred from particular instances. It is the
reverse of deductive reasoning. In this type of reasoning, various instances of a given
specimen are observed over a period of time. The observation leads to general
conclusions/laws being established. This type of reasoning is applicable with empirical
sciences. In modern philosophy, logic is expressed in two main dimensions:
 Symbolic logic involving mathematical symbols – application of
symbols to explain phenomena e.g a + b = 4: b= 4 – a
 Analytic logic – prevalently used by analytic philosophers who
emphasize the logical analysis of language to arrive at clear meanings
of terms/concepts.
Students studying science, arts or education should be familiar with the basic rules of
logic so as to enable one reason correctly and use language meaningfully.
2. Epistemology
This is the philosophical study of knowledge. Epistemology is derived from two Greek
words: episteme (knowledge) and logia (study). It deals with philosophical reflection on
issues related to knowledge. Epistemology does not deal with factual knowledge such
as that which socio-sciences are involved. empirical sciences like Psychology and
sociology study issues by describing in a factual manner what they have observed
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about human knowledge e.g. in cognitive development, a Psychologist will talk about
how it differs in relation to age, individual and the society. The philosopher on the other
hand will not inform on facts and try to justify; instead, he will think before and after the
scientist does his work thereby challenging the scientist. Epistemology distinguishes
clearly between rationalism (which stresses the role of intellect in knowledge
acquisition) and empiricism (pays attention to sense experience).
It studies the nature, sources and validity of knowledge. It seeks to answer questions
like:
 What is knowledge?
 How do we know?
 What is truth?
 What can we really know/
 What does it mean to say that I know something?
 What are the sources of knowledge?
3. Axiology
It is the philosophical/rational study of values. The term is derived from Greek words
logia (study) and axia (values). It is subdivided into the following sub branches:
(a) Ethics or moral philosophy – reflects on the origin and nature of moral values:
meaning of what is right and wrong.
(b) Aesthetics – philosophical study of artistic values. Interested in meaning of beauty,
art.
(c) Social and cultural philosophy – study of values related to societies and cultures
(d) Political philosophy – deals with study of politics, governance etc.
The philosophical study of values is restricted to the prescriptive domains. Values
fall under three categories:
 Objective – values considered to be universal e.g. good, truth, beauty, freedom,
love.
 Relative – values that depends on personal preference.
 Hierarchical – ordering values from the least desirable to the most desirable.
Philosophical reflection on values becomes necessary when people are no longer
certain about what is important, worthwhile valuable for one’s life. It’s applied when
people are faced with conflicting moral standards or confronted with radically opposed
ideologies that call for the need for one to think about the foundation of morality and the
society. Ethics/moral philosophy have a great link with education.
4. Metaphysics
This term refers to what goes beyond (meta) physics, beyond the study nature. It is the
study of matter and its relationship with energy. It deals with questions, things or
concerns that lie after or beyond the physical world of sense experience. Traditionally,
it is subdivided into four areas:
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 Cosmology: the study of the universe (cosmos). It has to do with the origin and
nature meaning of the universe. This is done rationally.
 Theodicy: rational investigation of the supernatural. It belongs to the field of
theology where religious concepts and beliefs are assessed.
 Ontology: the philosophical study of ‘being’. What is the meaning of existence?
What comprises matter? What is man/woman? What is the essence of being?
 Rational or philosophical psychology: philosophy of the mind. It investigates into
the intricate processes of perceiving, imagining, remembering, feeling,
understanding, willing. It attempts to solve the mind/body problem; their
composition, nature and relationship e.g. can mind survive destruction of the
body?
Revision questions
To what extent are the contents of philosophy relevant to education?
Why is it important for teachers to grasp a clear understanding of logic?
Methods of Technical Philosophy

i) Critical Method
The term ‘critical’ is derived from a Greek verb “Krincin” meaning to judge. It involves
subjecting of values, facts, principles, conversations and assumptions; usually taken for
granted to severe questioning. This is meant to encourage honesty of thought. It seeks
to protect man from fanaticism and hypocrisy, intolerance and dogmatism, slogans and
ideologies in order to liberate man from narrow mindedness. This method is also called
the Socratic method. It is liberating and constructive in the sense that it seeks to
evaluate, to judge things in the light of clear and distinct ideas.
ii) The Rational Method
It emphasized the need for logical and systematic thinking. It’s greatly interested in logic
being the art of correct reasoning. It consists of analysis and synthesis. Analysis method
has to do with breaking issued into parts and by the power of systematic and logical
thinking in order to arrive at a clear understanding. Such thinking must not be
haphazard or confusing; it should be clear making the necessary distinctions separating
clearly what is essential, what matters from what is accidental and of less importance. It
classified as primarily analytical thinking because it cuts an issue into parts, analyses
concepts and statements. In addition, the method seeks to analyse concepts,
statements and the language used in different contexts in order to clarify and justify
meanings. Philosophical synthesis has to do with putting together the various parts of
an idea to form a whole. It is used to complement philosophical analysis. Where else
analysis breaks an issue into small parts, synthesis brings together the parts. The aim is
to see something in its totality, see the inter-relationship and the overall framework. The
limitation with the rational method is its sole reliance on mind as the source of
knowledge neglecting ordinary sense experiences. Rationalists are thus regarded as
idealists who do not live in the real world.
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iii) Phenomenological Method
The term phenomenology originated from the Greek word ‘phenomenon’ meaning
appearance and logia meaning knowledge. It designates the description or study of
appearance especially if the appearances are sustained and penetrating. It is considers
the actual staring point of investigation to be the actual things as they appear, in their
essential reality through experience. Things will appear different from one person to
another. A philosopher’s concern is not the differences but to discover the underlying
meaning and thus arrive at a deeper understanding of phenomena. By reflecting on an
everyday human experience e.g. Of pain, joy, fear, frustration, a philosopher is able to
explain the experience in concrete terms indicating in which manner the experience
affects one’s life, whole being or existence. It involves a non-biased, non-prejudiced
stance in examining phenomenon. Here, preconceived theoretical speculations are
abandoned.
iv) The Speculative Method

This method is also called the metaphysical function. To speculate is to make an
intelligent/rational guess. It endeavors to challenge the human mind as far as possible,
to its ultimate limits in trying to understand what is apparently incomprehensible. Man is
not satisfied with knowing what happens to him, he also wants to know why. Basic
issues of concern in life include; death, suffering happiness. There is no simple answer
and many people explain or clarify them in religious terms believing religion will give the
final answer. Philosophers however prefer to explain these issues by use of human
reason; they want to challenge the human mind as far as possible in trying to
understand the incomprehensible. Speculation is very well utilized in a research
hypothesis.
Revision question
To what extent are methods of philosophy relevant to the teaching and
learning process?
THE CONCEPT OF EDUCTION

It is very complex and thus cannot be defined simple terms due to its diverse shades of
meaning. It also applies to diverse activities and processes. Most definitions of
education are descriptive in nature. As such, they do not capture a single idea but a
family of ideas. The meaning of the word education can be accessed from a number of
perspectives
(a) Descriptive Definition
This is the meaning as offered in a dictionary. The meaning is descriptive in nature and
inadequate because it tends to be general and vague e.g. the Fontana dictionary
defines educating as:
 Passing on a cultural heritage
 Initiation of the young into worthwhile ways of thinking and doing.
 Fostering of an individual’s growth.
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This definition is limited because it does not explain the cardinal factors requisite in the
process of educating namely that which has to do with transmission i.e. how does one
do it? Which component of cultural heritage is worth of education?
(b) Prescriptive/Normative Definition

This perspective tends to be biased depending on the thinkers/theorists involved for
instance: Plato defined education in the laws as training, Comenius defined is as the art
of teaching all men all things, Milton defines it as the art of knowing everything while
Lodge defines it as equivalent to experience i.e. the experience of man interacting with
his/her normal environment.
(c) Etymological Definition

Etymology is the study of the origin of terms/words. Accordingly, education is said to be
derived from the Latin verb educare. In the ancient Rome, the verb referred to the
general process of growing up, of rearing, of bringing up. Originally, it designated both
the rearing of plants, animals and the bringing up of children. Based on this definition,
education has come to be viewed as the art of molding, of giving form to an incomplete
or delicate person i.e. child. It presupposes the role of an adult molding the character,
mind and psychomotor of the learner. Other scholars trace the origin of the term
education to a Latin word ‘educare’ meaning to lead out or to bring out. In other words,
the adult assists the child to come of age and realize his potential without any shade of
coercion. The assumption is that the child is in possession of abilities/potential waiting
to be elicited by proper guidance.
The more we pursue the definition of the concept of education along the foregoing
paths, the more complex it becomes. Realizing this, analytic philosophers have
suggested necessary conditions or criteria of education. According to R S Peters (1966)
in Ethics and Education:
 Education must involve the transmission of what is worthwhile, valuable or
desirable. This is called the ‘desirability condition’ of education.
 Education must involve knowledge and understanding, and some kind of
cognitive perspective. This is called the knowledge condition of education.
 Education rules out certain procedures of transmission that lacks willingness and
voluntaries on the part of the learner. This is the procedural condition of
education.
Other philosophers, particularly Njoroge and Bennars in Theory and Practice of
Education (1994) have reflected on these criteria and proposed four criteria or
dimensions of education.
(a) Education must involve the development of knowledge and understanding
(The knowledge/Cognitive condition). Any reference to education presupposes
the acquisition of knowledge – facts, skills, ideas, principles e.t.c. It involves
intellectual activities like thinking, judging, reasoning, perceiving, and deciding e.t.c.
If an activity does not involve intellectual process then education cannot be said to
have taken place. It involves abstraction, discrimination, intuition and imagination.
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(b) Education should involve the development of individuality (the Creative/skill
condition). Education should encourage the development of individual unique
capacities. Education should make the individual creative rather than a docile
recipient of knowledge should make one a tool – user rather that make one a tool.
Education should encourage self- esteem, self–reliance, self–determination, self–
expression and individual growth. Education that places emphasis on knowledge
only may produce a person who is too academic but lacking social training (well
educated). Whenever people see unbecoming behaviour, the question becomes:
‘where did you go to school? This is because schools are expected to make one
social. Besides being academically endowed, an educated person should actively
participate as a creative agent.
(c) Education should involve Socialization (The Normative Condition): Education

takes place in a social setting and serves social functions. Education as
Socialization is the acquisition of Knowledge, values, attitudes, skills to make
learners acceptable members of society. These values and skills are passed from
one generation to the next. The aims (objectives), content and methods of
education are socially determined. The norms and values transmitted ought to
address the mind/the understanding level as opposed to mere habit formation.
(d) Education should involve dialogue: Education is essentially a process of

communication between the learner and the environment as well as between the
learner and teacher. Education as dialogue encourages mutual respect,
understanding, free debate and co-operation between learner and teacher.
Methods that hinder free and active participation of both teacher and learners
negate proper education. The methods should neither be too permissive nor too
authoritarian.
Revision questions
Analyse education according to either Njoroge and Bennars OR R S Peters and show its
relevance to the teacher.
Discuss critically the concept of education and its relevance to a secondary school teacher.
THE CONCEPT OF TEACHING

Teaching may refer to three aspects.
 An occupation or a profession.
 Normal activity of a teacher in a classroom or school situation (enterprise).
 Describing an actual teaching exercise.
(a) Teaching as a profession

This entails the following:
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 An occupation by which a living is earned.
 Deeper commitment.
 Long duration of preparation/training.
 Formal induction and acceptance.
 Standard of performance or competence.
 Code of regulations, ethics or practice to preserve the honor and prestige of the
profession.
 Willingness to advance the growth and effectiveness.
 Regulate scheme of payment and remuneration.
 A great regard for the interest or advantage of the client.
(b) Teaching as an enterprise

It refers to the cluster of activities that the teacher engages in within the school setting:
 Marking registers.
 Checking noise or maintaining discipline.
 Filling mark books.
 Coordinating co-curricular activities.
 Being on duty (TOD).
(c) Actual teaching

Simply defined as a system of actions intended to induce learning. Must meet the
following criteria:
 Have a person who is consciously and deliberately doing the teaching.
 Another person or oneself who is being taught – learner is logically necessary.
 Something (content) being taught (facts, information, knowledge, skills).
 At least an intention on the part of the person doing the act that the recipient
should learn.
 Involve methods or procedures that are orally and pedagogically sound or
acceptable.
According to William Frankena (1973), education is said to take place when
 “X is fostering or seeking to foster in Y some disposition. D by method M.” Where
 X is the society, the teacher or whoever is educating (even oneself)
 Y is the leaner (child youth or adult)
 D is disposition beliefs, habit, knowledge, skills, attitudes considered desirable
both for the leaner and society.
 M is morally acceptable methods that pay attention to the interest of the learner,
personal integrity and active participation in the learning process. (Methods
should not dehumanize or degrade the learner.)
Revision question
What does the teaching concept entail? Why should a teacher have a clear
understanding of this concept?
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EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT IN AFRICA
This can be classified into various categories:
I Traditional
 The African traditional/indigenous education.
 The Islamic tradition in education
 The Western tradition in education
II Contemporary
(a) Conservatism
 Colonial view of education
 The religious view of education
 The nationalist view of education
(b) Progressivism
 the liberal view to education
 the radical view to education
 the instrumental view to education
TRADITIONAL THOUGHT: THE AFRICAN INDIGENOUS EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT

According to J P Ocitti (1973), African indigenous educational thought comprised of the
following philosophical principles:
 Communalism
 Preparationalism
 Functionalism
 Perenialism
 Wholisticism
(a) Communalism
It is derived from the adjective communal originating from the Latin word ‘communis’
meaning belonging equally to two or more people. It refers to a condition where people
are united, cohesive, cooperative, and are committed to the welfare of the group as
opposed to individualism. In practice, the principle of communalism was expressed
through the socialization of children as opposed to individualization. Education was
aimed at strengthening the organization, unity of the clan, community and chief-dom.
Overall, cooperation was preferred to competition enabling the children to grow up
seeing their well being in terms of the welfare of the group.
Relevance to contemporary education

 Unity and cooperation are desirable virtues which modern education ought to
inculcate in the learners. Education policy makers should do away with
parochial/narrow minded extension of the society as a whole.
 Teaching of social education and ethics, history, literature as instruments to this
endeavor.
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Limitations
 Communalism’s emphasis on the organic whole of the community denies the
human person the freedom to exercise unique potential, and to aspire to become
rather than conform.
 Unity of purpose, theory and action in inhibitive to creativity. It negates the need
to establish unity in diversity.
(b) Preparationalism
Derived from the noun preparation which stems from Latin word ‘prepare’ meaning to
make ready. It entails the process of making someone ready or suitable for a certain
purpose. In the African indigenous society, children were prepared to become useful
members of the society. They were expected to become well adjusted with certain
values, ideas, modes of behaviour and attitudes in their adult life particularly as married
men and women.
Relevance
 It is imperative for education to equip individuals with the capacity to cope with
the physical, social and perhaps spiritual environment. The content, methods and
overall aims of education ought to prepare someone to become a useful member
of the society.
 Modern education has relegated this aspect to training colleges and universities
which caters for a negligible percentage of learners.
Limitations
 Over emphasis on the outcome/preparation can easily overlook the process
value of education. Each piece of knowledge, skill and general attitude ought to
be useful.
(c) Functionalism
Function is a Latin word meaning action or activity proper to anything. It also refers to
the ability to function or to be useful in practical terms. Indigenous education
emphasized this principle by ensuring that every learning experience was useful.
Children were inducted into the society through participatory learning. They were
involved in work, ceremonies, rituals, imitation play, hunting and oral literature. Practical
learning was highly valued.
Relevance
 The utility value of learning experience is a positive approach to education. In
other words, education is of use to the society.
 Learning by participation can encourage production in society. Instead of
confining the youth and energetic adults to institutions of learning and exposing
them to theories, they should work as they learn.
 The principle underscores the empirical approach to learning which is a useful
method of teaching and learning.
 Creativity component of education is essential.
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(d) Perenialism
The term emanates from the adjective perennial which is from Latin ‘perenis’ meaning
lasting throughout the year or a succession of years. It designates a sense of
permanence. Indigenous education was based on the assumption that cultural heritage
e.g. language, food types, beliefs and traditions was essential for the survival of the clan
or tribe. The values, attitudes and practices contained in the common heritage were
considered established once and for all in the long distant past. Succeeding generations
were not allowed to change or modify it but had to perform/observe it and hand it over.
Relevance
Historical study of the past is good so as to appreciate and understand the milestones in
the development and evolution of ideas, knowledge and certain practices.
Limitation
 It tends to overlook the learners. Teaching based on perenialism is mainly
teacher and content centered while today’s teaching advocated for the learner
centered approach.
 Knowledge is pragmatic and keeps on changing after every given period of time.
(e) Wholisticism
It is derived from the adjective wholistic whose origin is the word ‘hal’ an old English
term meaning not divided into parts, complete amount or a combination of parts.
Indigenous education entailed a wide range of skills, attitudes, values and knowledge. It
was aimed at producing an all round person equipped with a wide range of skills.
Relevance
 Wholistic approach to learning is important because it enables and individual to
function in diverse situations. The approach however encourages shallowness
(jack of all trades and master of none)
 Specialization is essential for innovation to be realized in the society.
Revision question
Examine the relevance of philosophical foundations of African indigenous education to
the 7 4 2 3 system of education in Uganda.
CONTEMPORARY VIEW: NATIONALISM IDEAS IN EDUCATION
EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN (1832 -1932)

Born in West Indies in 1932, he migrated to Liberia in 1851. He lived during a time when
racism was at its peak. Africans were considered backward and primitive. The Western
education was widespread and its major aim was to enable Africans to imbibe Western
values ideas and worldviews. His contemporaries reacted to the racial prejudices
differently. Some were persuaded to discard their cultures and absorb the Western
culture wholesale attaining what Frantz Fanon refers to as a “black skin, white mask”.
The second group attempted to integrate the Western values with African values i.e.
they discarded whatever was repugnant and adapted that which was useful. The third
category adopted a racial stance against the prevalent racial myths. They tenaciously
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defended the Negro cultural heritage by dispelling the lingering racial myths, and
second by advancing unprejudiced racial theories. This category of thinkers was
equivalent of cultural nationalists. Blyden falls in this category. His nationalist ideas
included:
 Defending the Negro race as a distinctive race capable of playing its rightful role
in the civilization of humankind.
 He opposed the inferiority complex exhibited among Africans in their encounter
with people of other races.
 He painted to the fact that the Negro race had played a significant role in the field
of learning in the past and could do so again if the right education was
transmitted.
 He thus advocated for:
 A race-conscious-culture based type of education i.e. a curriculum specially
tailored towards the innate capacity and the ultimate utility of race. This should
be an education that will cause Africans to discover themselves. Education in
Africa should instill confidence among Africans. It should restore human dignity
and absolute confidence or faith in one’s creative abilities. This call for authentic
personality that strives to dispel the lingering myth of European people being
superior to the Negro. He came up with the Philosophy of Afrikaners that sought
to establish how to make black people participate in the community of nations.
 The development of the mind to be able to subdue complicated phenomena. This
would enable one to express themselves in normative, rational and creative
domains. Towards this, he advocated for the education of girls and women in
order to ensure rapid and permanent progress.
Revision question
In what ways are Blyden’s education ideas manifested in education in Uganda today?
PROGRESSIVIST PERSPECTIVE: LIBERAL VIEW TO EDUCATION
JULIUS KAMBARAGE NYERERE

Born in 1922 in Musoma Tanzania, he obtained a Diploma in education at Makerere
College Uganda and later undertook a Master of Arts Degree in Edinburg University in
1952. He became involved in the politics of Tanzania when he returned home. He was a
co-founder of TANU along with other nationalists. During the first presidential elections
in 1962, he was elected the first president of post-colonial Tanzania. Besides politics,
Nyerere articulated his ideas in diverse spheres of knowledge including social
philosophy and education. In education, he advocated two related views namely:
education for self-reliance and education for liberation.
Education for self reliance

The concept of self reliance comprises of two distinctive words, ‘self’ and ‘reliance’. Self
refers to the human person, the agent or the ‘I’ of the individual. Reliance points to a
state of being that are dependent on something or somebody else. It refers to some
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bond or relationship where subjects embrace in inter-subjective relationship viewed
together. Self reliance refers to a situation where the individual relies upon
himself/herself or his/her being. In a book called ‘education for self reliance’ (1967),
Nyerere underscored the need to radically examine education in Tanzania. He
diagnosed the major pitfalls of the inherited colonial education in Tanzania as:
 Education was founded upon the principle of capitalism; it promoted a class of
elites and inequality and class structure.
 It divorced its participants from society and discouraged them from unconditional
service to the community. They want to live in towns.
 It tended to be formal; book centered and despised traditional informal
knowledge and wisdom.
 It tended to be unproductive, discouraging students and pupils from hard work.
These factors were not in agreement with the past independent Tanzania which
basically embraced the philosophy of Ujamaa (African Socialism). Ujamaa stood for:
 Work by everyone and exploitation by none.
 Fair sharing of resources which are jointly produced.
 Equity and respect for human dignity.
 Education for self reliance. It meant the attainment of economic and cultural
independence at a corporate level where society could rely on itself for
progress and development.
 It also meant individuals expressing themselves in creative, productive terms as
a result of education.
Education for liberation

The concept of liberation stands for:
 Being freed from what appears inhibiting/constraining.
 Being freed to be able to undertake, empowerment or freedom to become.
Education for liberation implied in Nyerere’s context:
 Removal of constraints and limitations that stood in the way of Tanzanians to
become self reliant: this is namely colonialism and post colonial conditions that
were in the interest of colonial powers.
 Liberation is not a once for all event: it is an ongoing process involving
systematic eradication o physical and mental impediments to freedom.
 Liberation is both physical and mental – the total emancipation of man.
 Education should release liberating ideas and skills to the mind of learners. This
is likely to increase control over themselves, their lives and their environment
 Education for liberation should employ rational approaches to educating in the
sense that educating should arose curiosity and provoke inquiry.
 The product of education for liberation is likely to be a self reliant individual.
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PART TWO: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
It is the process and outcome of philosophical thinking about education. It is an
educational discipline whose focus is the study of education/an area of specialization
within the study of education. It employs philosophical approaches in studying
education. It utilizes the content, methodology and to some extend the language of
philosophy in analyzing/dealing with educational issues. Philosophy of education is an
integral part of technical philosophy, equivalent to say philosophy of science, law
religion, mathematics etc. The philosophy of education studies approach the study
of/deals with educational ideas in sociology, comparative, sociology of education etc
while employing empirical and inductive approach. As such, philosophy of education is
essential to the study of education in the following ways:
 It provides room for a vision beyond the empirical data of education i.e. seeks to
explain what education is.
 It tries to liberate those being educated and their educators from their
shortsightedness. It helps us to enlarge our perception of education as well as for
teaching.
 It helps the student to think logically, systematically, consistently and clearly
about educational problems as well as life. The teacher will learn the essence of
clarifying meanings and justifying statements.
 It equips teachers with insight into the whole purpose of teaching. Thus, it goes
beyond knowledge of subject matter and competence in teaching skills. Teachers
ought to know what they are doing and why they are doing it.
General Philosophy of Education

This refers to the common sense notion of what education ought to be. It refers to the
personal view or attitude concerning the ideal education. It refers also to the preferred
slogans concerning education such as ‘education for self reliance, education for gender
equity’ etc. In a school setting, it refers to the school motto. In most cases, these
philosophies are varied, vague and are not based on systematic thought of what type of
man they want to produce. Education commission reports contain general philosophical
perspectives about education.
Technical Philosophy of Education

Technical or professional philosophy of education refers to the thorough and in-depth
reflection on education. This is done using philosophical methods, tools and techniques
in investigating problems of formal schooling. In this case, the process as well as the
product amounts to philosophy of education. This means that the process of asking
questions and criticizing issues in education as well as development of a clear
statement of a positive and more rational alternative in education comprises of
philosophy of education.
Technical philosophy of education is an integral part of formal philosophy. It is the
exclusive domain of professional philosophers and of academic scholars concerned
with the study of education. It is basically/largely Western in orientation attributed to
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Western Thinkers and educationists such as Comenius, Locke, Rousseau, Pestalozzi,
Dewey etc.
EDUCATION AND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
THE COGNITIVE DIMENSION OF EDUCATION

Human knowledge falls within epistemology. Epistemology deals with philosophical
reflection of knowledge. It studies the nature, sources and validity of the knowledge. It
attempts to answer questions about knowledge such as:
 What is knowledge?
 What is the nature of knowledge?
 What are the principles of knowledge?
 What is truth?
 How do we come to know?
 How can we verify knowledge?
 How do we know that we know?
 What can we really know?
(a) What is Knowledge?

The concept of knowledge ‘to know’ can be sub-divided into three aspects:
 Knowing that – facts, information or details about something.
 Knowing how – having the ability to demonstrate, possession of a skill or
technique.
 General familiarity – lack of sufficient details.
The Conditions of Knowledge

According to I. Scheffer (1965), there are three conditions of knowledge:
1. Belief Condition
Belief is a construction that something is as it is stated. Anyone who makes a claim to
knowledge must believe that it is so. He must personally accent to the truthfulness of
the claim. This involves the conviction of the claimant. It is different from opinion (I think)
which implies doubt. Believing indicates certainty. To believe is however not to know: it
is just the beginning, more is required than mere belief. Believing is more of a
psychological state of mind and knowing is more than a strong conviction. This is
necessary for communication/teaching as it helps one to demonstrate an element of
originality.
2. Truth Condition
It refers to the actual truth of what one asserts. Knowing thus points to something
independent of the individual claiming to know – points to the truth of the matter. What
one ‘believes’ may not be necessarily the truth as it is universally known. To know is
thus more than believing: it implies that there is actually truth: a matter of true belief. To
establish the truthfulness of a proposition/statement, it must be subjected to the
following theories:
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(a) Correspondence theories of truth: whatever is claimed to be true must correspond
with reality i.e. must agree with what can be empirically verified, measured,
observed. The major impediment to this theory is that our verification
tools/observation are at times faulty. It is possible to perceive reality wrongly.
(b) Coherence theory of truth: whatever is claimed must cohere/agree with what is
already accepted/admitted as truth. Any new knowledge is validated on the basis
of the existing knowledge. However, this theory has limitations. Whatever is known
may be untrue or false, one could possibly be mistaken e.g. the Galileo’s case with
the Roman Catholic Church.
(c) Pragmatic theory: whatever is of utility/value works and is useful or beneficial.
3. Justification/grounds condition
The claimant must be able to cite evidence and evidence of the right kind to
support/justify his claim. Absolute certainty is difficult to attain because human
knowledge tends to be limited. Certainty thus remains uncertain or hypothetical. One
must always be prepared to review/reconsider their knowledge in the light of new
evidence though adequacy of evidence is many times a serious problem. Although
every claim to knowledge must be based on some grounds, there are statements which
do not necessarily require evidence. E.g. analytic propositions that are self explanatory
statements; statements based on existential and consciousness i.e. I feel frustrated.
While we insist on evidence, we should exempt analytic proportions based on existential
realities.
Authority as a Source of Knowledge

It refers to people or individuals who occupy superior positions in relation to the
claimant. Knowledge is here based on what those in authority have said i.e. I know it
because so and so says so. People in authority include parents, teachers, preachers,
authors and journalists. Authority is simply believed. Individuals rely on authority
because they lack time to verify for themselves. Also, there tends to be lack of
commitment to question issues and search for clear knowledge. In a classroom
situation, students tend to believe wholesale whatever the teacher says. There is
therefore a need for care and concern for truth on the part of the teacher.
Precautions when dealing with authority:

 The person whose statement we believe must be a relevant authority in the field.
 Authorities sometimes disagree. There is need to be careful: sometimes
judgment needs to be suspended before arriving at a conclusion.
 Verify information. Whenever we accept the other people’s statements, we
should establish whether they are actually true.
No matter how reliable an authority is, it cannot be the primary source of knowledge.
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Human Knowledge and Curriculum
Generally, curriculum refers to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and skills which are
considered desirable for transmission to others. Knowledge is classified or categorized
within the curriculum based on certain criteria:
i). Language: each subject tends to have a particular language e.g. maths -
matrix, integral, numbers; religion – sin, grace, soul etc.
ii). Methods of verification or testing: e.g. sciences depend on empirical
observation and tests on experiments while mathematics uses deductive
reasoning.
(iii). Area of specialization or subject matter: physical sciences deals with
natural world while social science concentrates on the world of culture. Philosophy,
religion and mathematics also deals with distinct areas such as the world of numbers.
Based on the above criteria, the following classifications of knowledge have been
enunciated:
1 Logic and mathematics.
2 Physical sciences.
3 Human sciences.
4 Aesthetics (e.g. fine arts)
5 Morality or ethics.
6 Philosophy.
In addition, philosophers have presented theories by which a good curriculum ought to
be assessed.
(a) The utilitarian curriculum: This means the curriculum that is useful to the learner
and one conducive to human happiness i.e. promotes the greatest amount of
happiness for the largest possible number of people. Such a curriculum includes
survival skills, social skills, and politics.
(b) A curriculum for rationality (thinking systematically): It has to produce a rational
mind. In order to cultivate this certain subjects need to be incorporated i.e. logic,
mathematics, philosophy.
(c) A heritage curriculum: The chief point of education is to bring children into what
exists as a public tradition of shared knowledge i.e. culture which refers to the
intellectual aesthetic, moral and material achievements of mankind.
Knowledge: a Question of Depth

I. Rational Belief: it is the justified true belief i.e. a belief justified on rational
grounds one arrives at a rational belief by reasoning. This belief goes beyond
logical reasoning because it is more comprehensive. It is a matter of
understanding. Understanding involves insight and reflection. Insight is a moment
of intuition, of discovery, of seeing the point, of first awareness. After insight one
makes a claim which must be justified in a rational manner: by searching for
evidence. Reflection involves critical evaluation of the evidence for verification in
order to judge the truth of the claim or belief. Whereas insight is like pure belief,
reflection points to justified belief and ultimately to justified true belief.
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II. True Belief: truth is the agreement/correspondence between our thoughts and
reality. A belief is called true if what one believes agrees with the facts. To
accept the truth of an idea, it must be compared with the reality/with the real
facts. These facts can be established with reference to two theories of truth:
III. Inter-subjectivity of truth: truth is inter-personal; it is something shared by all of us

and not purely an individual affair. One can compare their understanding of truth
with that of others; if there is agreement one can conclude that their
understanding is correct/true. This knowledge is however hypothetical because
things may change. Scientists operate in this manner when testing their ideas.
IV. Man’s dialogue with reality: man gives meaning to things but reality provides a
man with meanings. Truth becomes evident when things uncover themselves.
The basic criterion of truth is therefore evidence gained by observation and
reflection. An object communicates its meaning when it is put into use. The
object itself provides the answer e.g. if there is a doubt on the identity of a sharp
object – if it’s a pencil or screw driver – the dispute is put to rest by putting it into
use: the evidence of what it is comes from the way it works.
EDUCATION AND VALUES: THE NORMATIVE DIMENSION OF EDUCATION

Axiology is the philosophical study of values. Normative definition defines a word in
terms of what ought to or should happen ideally speaking. The definitions are in the
area of values and ideals. Values are generally categorized into two: ethical and
aesthetic values. Whereas ethical values deal with morality, aesthetic values are to do
with beauty; harmony and uniformity. The term value is a word that implies what is good
or right, desirable or worthwhile and what ought to be praiseworthy. Normative
dimension of education refers to norms or standards that are to be recommended for
the educational enterprise which in turn provides general guidelines for education theory
and practice. For example, Uganda considers education as an important vehicle for
attaining the goals of Education (White paper, 1992):
1. To foster nationalism, patriotism and promote national unity,

2. To promote the social economic, technological and industrial needs for national
development,
3. To promote individual development and self fulfillment,
4. To promote sound moral and religious values,
5. To promote social equality and responsibility,
6. To promote respect for and development of Uganda’s rich and varied cultures,
7. To promote international consciousness and foster positive attitudes towards other
nations,
8. To promote positive attitudes towards good health and environmental protection.
Throughout history, the question ‘what kind of life is good (how l ought to live)?’ has
been raised. In answer to this question, diverse answers have emerged:
 A good life ought to involve maximum pleasure.
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 A good life should include spiritual contemplation.
 A good life ought to be ascetic – involve self denial and elimination of desires.
Value is emphasized by a given society. It affects not only the direction of
morality but also the direction of educational objectives and content.
ETHICS
The term ethics is derived from a Greek noun ‘ethos’ meaning:
 The customs and conventions of a given community. In this sense, ethics is
synonymous with morality i.e. set of norms guiding human conduct.
 The study of morality in all its forms. It is primarily an academic exercise, an
intellectual pursuit, a process of inquiry and reflection. Here, ethics refers to a
process whose product becomes morality and ethics.
 Meta-ethics: it is concerned with the meaning of moral concepts and statements
as well as their justification. It aims at clarifying such ambiguous words like good,
bad, wrong and right.
Approaches to the Study of Ethics
There are three approaches namely: Descriptive ethics; Normative ethics and Analytical
ethics:
I Descriptive Ethics
This is a scientific study of ethics/morality. It involves the observation of values and the
reasons given for them. It refers to the empirical or descriptive study of morality.
Morality refers to a set of norms or standards – transitional or otherwise – that defines,
guides and regulates good acceptable behaviour among human beings. Descriptive
ethics is characteristic of social sciences such as psychology, sociology and social
anthropology.
Examples of descriptive ethics
Kohlberg, a psychologist distinguished three levels of moral development namely:
(a) Pre-conventional stage: the child simply perceives right and wrong primarily in terms
of reward and punishment. This is a stage of naïve egocentrism. Rewarding encourages
repeat of certain behaviour. The problem with this level in the teaching/learning process
is the impact on those not rewarded; they tend to get discouraged.
(b) Conventional stage (of law and order). This is mainly between the ages of 10 and 13.
At this stage, the child begins to respond willingly to expectations in the family, group
and community. The child tends to seek approval from parents, teachers and peers by
conforming to the set social conventions. There is a tendency to be loyal.
(c) Post-conventional stage (moral autonomy): this ranges between 15 and 19 years. The
young person goes beyond the stage of law and order and seeks to develop own
judgment on matters of morality. The youth specifically tends to respect democratically
determined rules and laws. This stage leads to self determined moral principles and
moral autonomy.
Sources of Morality
(a) Religion: through divine revelation, religion offers a supernatural source of moral
standards. Such revelations are expressed in terms of laws and guidelines contained in
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religious writings such as the bible, Koran etc. The Faithful of such religions observe
morality because God commands it. These comprise what is called religious ethics.
(b) Society: there are various social institutions in it e.g. family has parental authority, clan
has the authority of elders, the school and teachers authority, the peer group and public
opinion; and national laws are sources of morality. Social and religious ethics comprise
of moral standards which are external to the individual person. In this case, the centre of
moral authority lies outside the individual; either the divine or human agents. Such
ethics is called heteronymous ethics.
(c) The individual human person (autonomous): here, the source of morality is both
human reason and human conscience. In this case, somebody does something
because they believe it is right or wrong i.e. and individual lays down the norm. The
various sources of morality offer diverse moral guidelines and principles/multiplicity of
values.
II Normative Ethics
Ethics as the study of morality can be either descriptive or normative. Normative is
interested in the rules and norms of society. It attempts to give fundamental reasons for
values/morality. Basically, it seeks to prescribe the ‘ought’ of values. Whereas
descriptive ethics is empirical in character and relies mainly on the social sciences,
normative ethics goes beyond mere descriptions. It is reflective in nature as it seeks to
inquire – rationally into the basic grounds of moral conduct and theories to justify
morality in a philosophical or theological manner. Morals do not stand on their own; they
are centrally located between principles and values on the one hand and laws, rules
and regulations on the other hand.
Normative ethics is primarily concerned with basics; with moral principles and moral
values which lay down norms for moral human conduct/action. Moral or immoral action
is only a possibility with human beings. Animals and non humans are non moral.
 An action is judged to be moral or immoral when it is done voluntarily or
intentionally. When a person is forced to do something or accidentally does
something or is in sane or mentally damaged, such a person cannot be said to
be morally responsible for the action.
 The morality of an action is judged by its effect on the basic direction of human
existence. Human actions become moral if and when they affect human
relationships.
Morality Principles
Morality refers generally to ‘doing the right thing’. It implies action, behavior/conduct.
Such action is considered right (moral) when it is done in accordance with certain
principles generally referred to as theories of moral obligation. These theories provide a
framework within which to judge whether a certain action is morally right or wrong.
There are two theories of moral obligation: teleological and deontological
(a) Teleological theories
They judge a certain action to be good or bad, right or wrong depending on whether the
consequences of that action are desirable or not. One’s action is judged based on the
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desirability of the goal. The term teleology is derived from and ancient Greek word
‘telos’ meaning goal. On the question of whose ultimate or good ought to be promoted,
teleological theories render two distinctive views i.e.
 Ethical universalism stresses the common good or the general good of all.
 Utilitarianism which coheres with ethical universalism states that something is
morally good if it is useful in promoting good over evil; if it helps to bring about
the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
(b) Deontological theories

The word deontology emanates from Greek word ‘Deon’ meaning duty. Deontological
theories emphasize duty meaning actions as judged to be rules, commandments that
prescribe one’s duty. Within the deontological theories, two views can be distinguished:
 Rule deontology; it involves doing one’s duty or obeying the stated rules, laws at
all times.
 Act deontology: this theory allows for individual judgment on what to do and how
to do certain actions. The rules and the laws are considered as a general
yardstick.
Morality of Values
Theories of moral value concentrate on the agent rather than the action on the person
who acts. It emphasizes the inculcation of values to the individual as necessary for
moral actions in other words, emphasis is on being and not necessarily doing. Moral
philosophers have identified cardinal virtues that ought to be inculcated namely
prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice.
 Prudence; quality of being cautious and wise in conduct: discreet wisdom applied
to practice.
 Fortitude: courage in endurance.
 Temperance: moderation in the exercise of natural appetites and passions.
 Justice; quality of being fair, integrity, impartiality, rightness and the awarding of
what is due.
ANALYTICAL ETHICS/META-ETHICS
This is a more critical level of the study of ethics. It goes beyond prescriptions and
seeks deeper insights into the justifications of morality/values. This approach to the
study of ethics is at the clarification of terms and statements that is the meaning of
ethical terms and statements as used in ethics, both in the ordinary and academic
sense. It is a form of linguistic analysis aimed at clarifying and validating. Advocates of
liberty and freedom oppose any form of externally imposed discipline. They argue that:
 A person must be in to some degree free from external restraint.
 A person must exercise freedom of choice.
 Discipline is only admissible if it increases or widens or guarantees an individual
great freedom of choice.
 On the other hand, proponents of externally imposed discipline argue that
discipline is justifiable or several reasons:
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 Restores and preserves the natural authority of the teacher.
 To minimize or prevent disorderly behaviour which may interfere with the liberties
and rights of others or even of their own.
 To help students/learners to be able to choose for themselves and hopefully to
choose to accept the laws.
PUNISHMENT
The term punishment means the intentional and purposeful infliction of pain (of some
kind) by a person in authority as a penalty for what the authority believes to be some
wrong done by the offender. In a school, punishment may take various forms; corporal
punishment, withdrawal of privileges and, imposition of sanctions and detentions.
Education implies the transmitting of knowledge skills by one who is an authority to
those who are not. To enable this to take place, certain external conditions must be
applied. It is generally expected that the student must be reasonably orderly and
attentive, and the instructions of the teacher must be generally obeyed. As such, the
teacher ought to operate as an authority in what he teaches and function in authority.
The teacher is required to cultivate the right personality, have mastery of his teaching
content and be conversant with class management in order to naturally elicit obedience
and discipline in his learners. Whenever his/her authority is challenged, he/she may
have to resort to punishment. Punishment would then be justified in the following ways:
i) As a means of restoring the position which existed before the offence took place.
ii) To prevent a repetition of the offence.
iii) To restore the teacher’s lost authority as a result of the learner’s disobedience.
iv) To cause the learner to learn something i.e. obedience or learning the content as
a result of punishment.
Philosophical Justification of School Punishment

i) Utilitarian theory: according to this theory, punishment is justified if it excludes a greater
evil to the individual or society. In this case, punishment is not an end in itself. It is
viewed as a means to greater good. As such, it is aimed at producing good results,
fame of the school etc. although punishment may look unpleasant, involving pain and
humiliation; this is temporary compared to the good which it is likely to produce. This
theory allows for pressure to be exerted on both the good (non offenders) and the
offenders alike as long as good results can be obtained.
ii) Retributive theory: it holds that wrong doing is blameworthy and that some forms of
wrong doing should not only be blamed but that blame should be expressed through
that infliction of pain. In this case, to punish is to repay (restitute) the wrong done. It
holds that an individual should suffer for his mistake/offence. This view assumes that
man is generally free and responsible for his actions. As such, one can be rationally
and logically held responsible for wrongdoing. Punishment serves as a moral
disapproval.
a. Retributive punishment should not be mistaken with revenge. Such confusion
usually unleashes terror and violence upon the offender unproportionally.
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b. The retributionist hopes that punishment makes the offender feel, through
his/her suffering, the society’s vehement condemnation of his irresponsible
act. It is also hoped that through this, the offender may feel condemned,
accept the punishment as just, condemn himself in sorrow, repent and start
on a voluntary enterprise of self reform.
Criticism of the retributive theory

It may lead to communication breakdown between the offender and the person
administering punishment i.e. when the offender feels that it is a personal attack or
revenge by the punisher. This is often the case where no explanations are given before
or after the act of punishment. It is impossible to inflict pain that is proportional to the
offence. The suffering of the injured party cannot be given back to the offender in the
same measure. The offender may cultivate resentment. In place of the expected sorrow
and repentance, one may reserve anger and repetition. This theory therefore overlooks
reassuring and prudence. The offender may have wronged by mistake or ignorance.
iii) Deterrent theory: deterrent punishment aims at influencing people by some sort of fear
so that they will not do/repeat the wrong. The theory holds that: inflict pain on or after
the occasion of wrong doing. This will tend to condition the offender towards the
avoidance of the offence in future. Deterrent punishment is necessary in schools if
social order is to be maintained because:
 It deters others from breaking rules.
 It prevents others from a greater evil.
 It reforms the culprit eliciting better behaviour.
It is utilitarian because it aims at correction as well as bringing about a good life.

However, only those who have willingly/voluntarily wronged should be punished. But
those who genuinely committed offences out of ignorance should be treated otherwise.
Deterrent punishment should aim at the understanding of the offender concerning the
offence i.e. society’s approval and the urgent need to reform. It is a form of conditioning.
In order to be administered effectively, the teacher should understand its effectiveness
in application to different personality types.
DISCIPLINE
The term discipline originates from the Latin ‘discere’ meaning to learn or to conform to
specific order. The concept of discipline in education may be defined as a relationship of
submission or obedience to some sort of order. Discipline implies three distinctive
meanings:
 The imposing by some persons on others of restraints backed by sanctions of
some kind. Here, it refers to external control of a person’s restraint.
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 It may mean self-discipline that consists of exercising one’s freedom of choice in
which case one must be reasonably free from external restraint.
 It may mean the discipline that is freely accepted when one decides to put
oneself under an order of some kind i.e. the order of religion or morality of an art
or the discipline of an academic subject. This advocates for liberty and freedom.
Revision Questions
1. Corporal punishment is unacceptable in upholding discipline in schools in Uganda. Discuss
the rationale of this argument showing how discipline can best be cultivated in schools.
2 Critique the normative dimension of education in Uganda with reference to the national
goals of education.
3 How can the theories of moral obligation be utilized to inculcate morality in secondary
schools in Uganda today?
EDUCATION AND INDIVIDUAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: THE CREATIVE

DIMENSION OF EDUCATION
Introduction
Human beings are unique. They are more than a material object at the mercy of
physical chemical forces and more than a sensitive animal controlled by biological laws.
He/she transcends the view that one is a mere product of society or an outcome of
political, economic forces. The human person is endowed with ability to be actively
involved in the world and be able to control in a limited manner his own destiny or life.
Basically, the human person comprises of four elements.
 Ability to think, reason.
 Human will – voluntary decision making
 Ability to act.
 Ability to relate with others – socialize.
In the process of education, the child is considered to be a potential human being, a not
yet human. Education thus serves the purpose of humanizing; bringing the child into an
actual being. It aims at influencing the child to come of age, to reach adulthood. The
task of education in this case is two-fold:
(i) The individualization of man:
This involves a process of humanization where limitations/ inhibitions to his/her potential
are deliberately removed or minimized. This is done by:
 Inculcating rationality in the learner to foster critical thinking ability to
comprehend, justify and appropriately apply acquired knowledge.
 The Transmission of morality, ethics to enable the child attains moral judgment
and moral behaviour.
 Inculcating skills and know-how (occupational capacities).
(ii) The socialization of man

Genuine humanization should enhance the social dimension of man where one is able
to mutually interact with others and co-exist with them. By inference, we find the four
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dimensions of education namely; cognitive, normative, creative and dialogical. Each of
these dimensions deserves attention in the process of education in order to realize
genuine education. In the final analysis, we may define education normatively as the
‘inter subjective process of learning to be a self-reliant person in society’.
(a) Education and Human Creativity
Creativity is the capacity or ability of an individual to create, discover or produce a new
or novel idea or object including the rearrangement or reshaping of what is already
known to him which proves to be a unique personal experience. In education, creativity
refers to those aspects of education geared towards the development of an individual’s
potential. As a dimension of education, it gained prominence with the rise of progressive
movement in educational thinking.
The progressive movement arose from John Dewey’s educational ideas. He advocated
for the child to be allowed to grow in a natural way: not just physically but also mentally.
There should be no direct interference with this natural process: teachers and educators
should play the role of a ‘gardener’ providing the right environment that stimulates the
growth. His ideas were influenced by earlier philosophies of Froebel (school =
kindergarten) and Rousseau (educating Emile). Dewey advocated for a revolution in
theory and practice of education. Dewey opposed the traditional authoritarian approach
to education which regarded the teacher as the sole authority in the classroom.
Traditional approach forced pupils to abide by a rigid system of rules and regulations for
purposes of discipline and character formation. In addition, it gave prominence to
content of learning where learners were expected to assimilate learning content in the
given form.
According to Dewey, this traditional approach violated the psychology of the child as
well as the wide idea of democracy. He advocated the view that true education can only
be found in ordinary experience as the individual interacts with his environment. In this
case, children can best effectively learn by exploring the environment through inquiry
and testing one’s ideas. Dewey equated education to the process of growth whereby,
an individual should learn independently through experience to adjust to life. He
advocated for child-centered education. This education entails a shift from content-
centered and teacher-centered traditional approaches.
In a nutshell, Dewey stressed the importance of experience and growth of inquiry and
freedom as well as creativity. Progressivists view education as a process of helping a
child to develop mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. These levels of
development are possible if the child is allowed to grow naturally. This enables the child
to express one’s potential and to creatively utilize these talents. Emphasis in education
is upon the individualization of the learner.
Operationalizing Creativity in Education

Creativity refers to the ability to bring about change, novelty and innovation in the way
things are perceived and done. It has to do with the natural inclination of an individual to
express himself reflectively and act accordingly. In other words, it has to do with stirring
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individual’s innate abilities and causing the individual to rationally apply them in the
society. In order to ensure the component of creativity in education, several aspects
need attention. These include:
 Child centered approach to education.
 Learning environment should be warm and encouraging – free from intimidation/
coercion etc.
 Learner uniqueness ought to be appreciated. Individual differences should be
addressed in teaching and learning.
 Teachers should display care and concern towards learners – show
understanding
 Dialogue should be the routine in educational communication.
 Teachers should fully grasp the essence of the process of knowledge production
and dissemination/transmission to learners.
 Usually, knowledge tends to be produced/manufactured outside the classroom.
It’s not only contained in textbooks.
 When it is transmitted in the class, it is viewed as alien isolating the learner; it
appears unrelated to the learning environment and realities.
 Need to exercise these two moments concurrently in the teaching/learning
environment. Learners should feel that they too could produce knowledge and
know it at the same time.
 Teaching methodology should involve problematization of content towards which
both teacher and learner approximate by way of seeking for answers – task
oriented learning.
 Content presentation should not be portrayed as though the content is final.
Teachers should endeavor to relearn the content while learners learn the content
the first time.
 The teacher should encounter the learner as equals in this shared humanity. The
learner may look delicate, ignorant etc, but the focus should be on what the
learner is becoming.
 Identify learner’s strengths and weaknesses and be able to advice them

appropriately in terms of careers, talents etc.
 The teachers’ role here is to guide, train and elicit the inner capacities that often
lie dormant or idle.
The importance of creativity in education is:

a) To develop individuality.
b) It is an educational approach that is directed at personal growth and personal
liberalization from limiting circumstances of life.
c) Reflection and action, inherent in creativity is bound to produce a human
response that is adequate and adaptive to the reality of a situation.
d) Human beings are usually actors, producers, creators and workers. An approach
which seeks to equip them appropriately is welcome.
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e) It tends to promote critical thinking and activity oriented learning process.
f) It enhances the independence of mind, thought and action leading to autonomy.
g) Allows for the exploration of self in connection with inherent potentialities.
h) It helps the learner to realize that he/she is a task/project, - not yet complete –
open ended being who can transform himself as he reconstructs the
environment.
i) It promotes self esteem, self expression, self determination, self reliance etc.
Revision question
Examine the critical role of creativity in education showing how it can be
incorporated into the process of education
(b) Education and Human Consciousness

The term consciousness is derived from the Latin verb ‘consicite’ where sicite means to
know. It is an activity of the mind which involves awareness, feeling, perception and
knowledge. In essence, consciousness involves two aspects:
 The subject person who is knowing.
 The object being known.
Being conscious always implies being aware of something. When one is conscious of
something, they direct their intellectual/mental attention to either something outside
themselves; to the subject of their attention or to themselves introspectively i.e. in this
process, one makes themselves actively present to it. They come into contact with it.
Levels of Consciousness
There are four levels of consciousness:
(i) Empirical consciousness
This is the lowest level of awareness where man experiences things empirically through
senses. This level of consciousness is also shared with animals, even plants that may
be said to be conscious of the environment. It is also a level of pre-reflection common to
children.
(ii)Intellectual consciousness
This is the second stage of consciousness. It is a stage of concept formation where the
mind develops ability to identify things, to name them. It is a stage of construction as
opposed to concrete awareness. Concepts like table, chair, etc. begin to form in the
mind.
(iii). Rational consciousness
Here the process of reasoning begins. An individual begins to make judgments based
on values/norms of society. Conformity to societal norms sets in.
(iv). Responsible consciousness

The level is also called critical consciousness. It involves the ability to make judgment
about the world (phenomena) and react to it in critical turmoil. Critical reflection involves
questioning the norms, routine of things. It transcends the known strives to bring
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novelty, new approaches to doing things. Each stage of consciousness is essential for
every individual. In teaching/learning environment, it is important to develop all the four
stages/levels of awareness. The ultimate aim of education ought to be attainment of
responsible conscious news. Where an individual attains this level, one discovers that
they are limited in many ways; that there exist inhibitions along one’s development.
Revision question
To what extent does the process of education in Uganda fulfill the attainment of the
four levels of consciousness?
EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON: THE DIALOGICAL DIMENSION OF

EDUCATION
The term dialogue is derived from the Greek words ‘dia’ and ‘logos’ meaning
communication or speaking words between two or more people. It is a moment where
humans meet to reflect on their reality as they make and remake it. Education as a
dialogue proposes a middle-ground approach between the traditional approach and the
progressive approach to education. It attempts to bridge the gap between transmission
and socialization, prevalent in traditional view and liberation and individualization
emphasized by Progressivists. Proponents of dialogue observe that both views fail to
address the basic meaning of human existence which is co-existence.
This means that there should be no polarity between the individual and the society
rather, both the society and the individual need to be catered for in education. Education
ought to develop knowledge and understanding in ways that are consistent with the
society’s values as well as the development of one’s personality; individual. Dialogue
entails mutual agreement, mutual respect and understanding between individual and
society. It encourages the process of speaking to each other. The teacher (representing
society) and the learner ought to be involved in dialogue during their activities.
The basis of the teacher learner relationship ought to be realization that the learner is a
human being who has a right to exist and to express himself/herself. Dialogue requires
the teacher and the learner to encounter each other as equals, each of them playing an
essential role as far as education is concerned. Based on this equality, education
should be seen as a process of communication. This aspect rules out methods and
procedures of monologue which destroy the realization of a fulfilling education.
Monologue constitutes an assault on the consciousness of the other, rendering it silent,
passive etc. Dialogue makes education to be inter-subjective: a process involving
encounter, participation. Education as dialogue rules out authoritarian approaches by
the teacher i.e. force and corporal punishment. Such measures make students to be
docile and submissive.
It also rules out the alleviation of the learner above the teacher as advocated by the
progressive movement. This is because doing so reduces the educating environment
into a chaotic atmosphere. The teacher should not abdicate his position as an adult, but
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should exercise his/her role with care and concern, be humane to the learners. This will
motivate them to seek after, to explore and inquire into knowledge under the caring
guidance of the teacher. Essentially, dialogue is a democratic communication. It affirms
the freedom of the participants to make and remake their culture in many ways.
 Dialogue puts the object to be known between the two subjects of knowing. They
meet around it and through it for mutual inquiry.
 The educator/teacher normally has prior contact with the object to be known. It is
he who presents it to the class for learners to discuss. However, the teacher’s
prior knowledge of the object does not mean that he/she has exhausted all
dimensions of the object.
 It is required that the teacher relearns to avoid transferring knowledge statically
as a fixed possession of the teacher; dialogue demands a dynamic
approximation towards the object.
 Dialogue does not mean that everyone in class must say something even if they
have nothing to say. It only sustains a level of freedom for any learner who may
want to say something.
 Dialogue requires that the starting point of learning be ordinary experiences of
reality.
 There should be no dichotomy between reality and the content of study.
Conceptualize knowledge as much as possible.
 Teaching should be conversational; moderate your voice accordingly.
 Making learning task oriented – problem based.
 Teacher must be able to grasp the learner’s entry behaviour in terms of their
critical level of cognition, literacy and vocabulary, political and social ideas they
possess.
 The words used ought to be familiar – clarity of words will result into clarity of
thought hence effective communication.
Revision question
Assess the role of dialogue in education.
PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT AND EDUCATION
(I) IDEALISM AND EDUCATION

Definition and meaning of Idealism
The main tenant of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. M a n y
t h i n g s i n t h e wo r l d c h a n g e , b u t i d e a s a n d k n o wl e d g e a r e e n d u r i n g .
Idealism was often referred to as “idea-ism”. Idealists believe that ideas can
c h a n g e l i ve s . T h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t p a r t o f a p e r s o n i s t h e m i n d . I t i s t o
b e nourished and developed.
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Idealist Ideas. Proponents include: Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Kant, Hegel and Royce
Bishop George Berkeley etc.
Aims of Education
 The purpose of education is to contribute to the development of the mind and

self of the learner.
 It emphasizes intellectual activities, moral judgments, aesthetic judgments,
self-realization, individual f r e e d o m , in d i v i d u a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y, a n d
s e l f - c o n t r o l i n o r d e r t o a c h i e ve t h i s development.
Education outcome: a literate person with good moral character in order to better
serve society.
 The school has a responsibility to find and to train future leaders

 Education should maintain and transmit of the established values of the past
The Concept of Student
 The Idealistic pupil is characterized by that admirable trait, the will to perfection.
W h a t e ve r h e d o e s , h e d o e s a s we l l a s h e c a n .
 H e i s a m b i t i o u s t o d e s e r ve h o n o r s i n scholarship.
 He wants to grow in knowledge and wisdom, to appreciate the aesthetic
things in life to deserve approbation, and to be a worthy person.
 He strives for perfection because the ideal person is perfect.
The Concept of Teacher

 The teacher must be excellent, in order to serve as an example for the student, both
intellectually and morally.
 Is the most important element in the school to train learners on
perfection.
 Excel in knowledge and in human insight into the needs and capacities of the
learner.
 Demonstrates moral excellence in personal conduct and convictions.
 Exercises great creative skill in p r o vi d i n g o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r t h e l e a r n e r s '
m i n d s t o d i s c o ve r , a n a l y ze , u n i f y, synthesize and create applications of
knowledge to life and behavior.
 Serves as a living ideal model for the student by teaching through
example and guidance the lifelong habits of patience, tolerance and
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perseverance towards a goal. He thus represents, to some degree, what the
student can become.
 In teaching, teacher’s role is to be a skillful questioner who encourages students to
think and ask more questions in an environment that is suitable for learning.
The curriculum
 The ideal curriculum teaches children to t h i n k .
 T e a c h e r s s h o u l d h e l p s t u d e n t s t o e xp l o r e t e xt s f o r i d e a s a b o u t
t h e purposes of life, family the nature of peer pressures, and the problems of growing up.
 Idealists believe that ideas can change lives: classical literature, history and
biographies can be used and explored to help solve problems in today’s world.
 Ideal curriculum selects subject matter that deals with ideal man and ideal
society: subjects essential for the realization of mental and moral development.
 Idealists rely on the world of the mind; their curriculum has little contact with the
experiential universe characterized by field trips and empirical or sensory data.
 As the curricular emphasis is subject matte r of mind: literature,
h i s t o r y, philosophy, and religion.
Instructional Methodology
 All thinking begins with a thesis (opinion) where all points of view are looked at.
 It’s dialectic, a process where ideas are put into battle against each other, with
the most significant idea winning the battle.
 At the end of the discussion, the ideas or opinions will begin to
synthesize as they work closer to truth.
 Knowledge can be attained through skillful questioning.
 Idealist education involves teaching the whole rather than its parts.
 The idealist is not concerned with turning out students with technical
skills but to have a broad view and understanding of the world in which
they live.
 Idealism emphasizes the role of the teacher, a skillful questioner
 The lecture method in an idealist’s education system, it is considered more of a
way to convey information and to help students comprehend ideas.
 Idealists thus prefer project based learning as a form self directed
learning activity where learning can occur without a teacher’s presence.
 Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through l e c t u r e ,
discussion, and Socratic dialogue (a method of teaching that
u s e s questioning to help students discover and clarify knowledge).
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 I m i t a t i o n s h o u l d b e o f s o m e exemplary person or persons who by their
behavior give evidence that they are close to the nature of reality.
C o m m o n criticisms of this philosophical school
1. Sets Unobtainable Goals: if perfection is unreachable there is very little desire on the part of
most to become perfect.
2. Ignores the Physical Self: The body cannot be ignored. To try to separate mental
activity from the physical and to try to place Ideas in a realm unrelated to the existing
world becomes nothing more than an exercise in futility.
3. Deemphasizes Experience: Many ideas cannot have meaning apart from
experience: to deny the validity of this experience is to make the universe sterile.
4. Leads to Totalitarianism: Some of the critiques of idealism is that it discourages the
progress of science and our modern discovery.
5. Emphasizes Humanities: humanities oriented outlook, may lead t o a r e j e c t i o n
of the whole concept of a technological society which is
mechanistic and “scientifically” oriented.
6. Overlooks possibility of Error: it fails to take into account the possibility that it may be in
error. This is especially true of idealism since its truth is immutable and unchanging.
(II) REALISM AND EDUCATION

According to Realism, the external world of objects is not imaginary. It really exists, "Our
experience is not independent but determines reaction to the external objects.
Experiences are influenced by the external world which has real existence. According o
realists, the external world is a solid Reality, whether known or unknown to man. Reality
is already in existence and in the invention of man. It exists independently of being
known to perceive by, or related to mind. Man can only comprehend it, through senses.
One should dip below the surface to know the reality. Proponents include: Mills,
Comenius, Russel, Locke, Rouseau etc. Realism believes that, the individual doesn't
make reality, he only discovers it. Its main tenets (beliefs) are:
 Realism believes in the world which we see of perceive to be real.
 Realists believe in the present life.
 They believe that the truth of life and aim of life are in the development from the
present unsystematic life.
 Knowledge is real and can be assimilated by the human beings.
 The realists distinguish between ‘appearance' and ‘reality'.
 Realism believes that there is an objective reality apart from that which is
presented to the consciousness.
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Realism and Aims of Education
 Realists do not believe in general and common aims of education. The aim of
education should be to teach truth rather than beauty, to understand the present
practical life.
 The purpose of education is to prepare the practical man of the world.
 Neo-realists aim at developing all round development of the objects with the
development of their organs.
Realism and Curricula
 Classical literature should be studied: not study its form and style but, its content
and ideas contained.
 Essential subject from ancient times: natural sciences and contemporary social
life and on humanistic feelings including subjects like physics and psychology,
sociology, economics, Ethics, Politics, history, Geography, agriculture varied arts,
languages.
Realism and methods of teaching
 Education should proceed from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract.
 Things before rules and words.
 Students to be taught to analyze rather than to construct.
 Vernacular to be the medium of instruction.
 The order of nature to be sought and followed.
 During teaching, realists argue that:
 Repetition is necessary for retention.
 Individual's experience and spirit of inquiry is more important than authority.
 No unintelligent cramming. More emphasis on questioning and understanding.
 Methods of scientific thinking (Inductive).
 Method of travel of journey method – field trips (give real experience of varied
aspects of life that improve knowledge and mental faculties).
Realism and the Teacher

 A teacher should be such that he himself is educated and well versed with the
customs of belief and rights and duties of people, and the trends of all ages and
places.
 He must have full mastery of the knowledge of present life.
 He must guide the student towards the hard realities of life. He is neither
pessimist, nor optimist.
 He must be able to expose children to the problems of life and the world around.
 A teacher should always keep in mind-
 Re-capitulation is necessary to make the knowledge permanent.
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 One subject should be taught at one time.
 No pressure or coercion be brought upon the child.
 The practice of cramming should be given up.
 The uniformity should be the basic principle in all things.
 Things should be introduced first and then the words.
 The entire knowledge should be gained after experience.
 The knowledge should be imparted on the basis of organs.
 Straight forward method should be adopted for teaching.
 There should be a co-relation between utility in daily life and education.
 The child should be told the utility of whatever is taught.
 The simple rules should be defined.
 All the subjects should be taught in proper order.
 Various organs of education should be taught in chronological order.
 The topic should not be given up unless the students understand it well.
 To find out the interest of the child and to teach accordingly.
Realism and the child
 Realism in education recognizes the importance of the child. The child is a real
unit which has real existence. He has some feelings, some desires and some
powers.
 Child can reach near reality through learning by reason.
 Child has to be given as much freedom as possible.
 The child is to be enabled to proceed on the basis of facts.
 The child can learn only when he follows the laws of learning.
 The child is to be understood a creature of the real world there is no sense in
making him a God (perfect). He has to be trained to become human.
Realism and school organization
 School organization would be based on the real needs of society. It should be
established d at a place where it is not needed.
 The opening of science classes in every school is must. Only academic and
literary subjects are not sufficient to fulfill the needs of the society.
 Realism doesn't oppose co-education. Sex-drive is a real feeling. It is a natural
happening so it cannot be rejected.
 School is the mirror of the society. It is a miniature form of society and it presents
the real picture of the society
Realism and discipline
 Discipline is adjustment to objectivity. It is necessary in order to enable the child
to adjust himself to his environment and concentrate on his work.
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 A disciplined student is one who does not withdraw from the cruelties, tyrannies,
hardships and shortcomings pervading the world. Realism has vehemently
opposed withdrawal from life. One has to adjust oneself to this material world.
Dark side of realism

 Realism recognizes the real existence of the material world. This recognition
remains an objected to unless he says that only material world really exists.
 The realist claims to be objective. Objectivity in knowledge is nothing but the
partnership of personal knowledge. Knowledge is always subjective.
 The realist recognizes the origin of knowledge from the datum achieved by
senses and asserts that only objects are main and it is through their contact that
knowledge is acquired.
 The realist does not accept the existence of transcendental (not based on
experience or reason) being.
 Realism admits real feelings and needs of life on the one hand, gives no place to
imagination and sentiment, on the other.
 The realist is satisfied simply by the fulfillment of the needs of daily life and be
does not care to make life sublime.
(III) PRAGMATISM AND EDUCATION

Definition of Pragmatism
Pragmatic means dealing with matters according to their practical significance or
immediate importance. Pragmatism refers to the doctrine that evaluates any assertion
solely by its practical consequences and its bearing results on human interest. The
origin is Greek ‘pragma’ meaning ‘use. Pragmatic theory states that, truth can be known
only through its practical consequences and is thus and individual or a social matter
rather than an absolute. Its major proponent is John Dewey.
Educational Aims of pragmatism

 Pragmatists believe that the aims are always determined by individual not by any
organization or any structure.
 The aim for education is to teach children to be comfortable in their learning
environment: the environment is not a preparation for life but life. Educators
should thus know the things that motivate and interest children and plan
accordingly.
 Helping of the child to develop in such a way as to contribute to his continued
growth.
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Three characteristics of good educational aims by John Dewey:
1. An educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activates and needs (including original
instinct and acquired habits) of the given individual to be educated.
2. An aim must be capable of translation into a method of cooperation with the activities of
those undergoing instruction.
3. Educators have to be on their guard against ends that are alleged to be general
and ultimate. Pragmatist’s sole aim in education is to provide the conditions that make
growth possible.
The concept of Student

 The student is an experiencing organism capable of using intelligence to resolve
its problems. As a thinking organism his experiences and his reflections upon
those experiences become a part of him determining his likes, dislikes, and the
future direction of his learning.
 The student is a whole organism constantly interacting with the environment. The
school is both a part of this environment and a special manmade environment
designed to provide the best possible educative experience to the learner.
 The whole organism which is the child consists of the biological child,
the psychological child, and the social child. The experiencing organism that is
the learner brings to school with him all the meanings, values, and experiences
that constitute his personality: his self.
The concept of Teacher
 The role of the teacher is important in successfully educating children.
 The teacher must capture the child’s interest and build on the natural motivation
that exists.
 Teachers need to vary their teaching methods to accommodate each individual
learning style because not all children learn at the same pace or are at the same
point.
 Teacher should organize knowledge and relate it to current experiences.
 The teacher, for the pragmatist, is a member of the learning group who serves in
the capacity of helper, guide, and arranger of experiences. He is as involved in
the educative process as his students.
 The pragmatic teacher does not abdicate responsibility. Uses child centered
approach not lasses faire (free style)
 The teacher is responsible for wiring with the students and helping them develop
their own projects that arise out of the felt needs of the students rather than those of
the teacher.
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Curriculum Framework
 Any educative experience is the subject matter of the pragmatist’s curriculum:
any experience contributing to growth.
 The curriculum is learner- centered. In changes and shifts as the needs of the
learners vary.
 Pragmatists see subject matter as an arbitrary and wasteful system to which all
learners have been forced to conform. They reject this system in order to center
the subject matter on the problems and needs of the learner.
Instructional Methodology
 Methods range from almost complete laissez- the relatively structured.
 The project method is the most common.
 Classroom discussion in a free and open atmosphere is encouraged, as well as
individual problem solving research. All of this may well involve a tremendous
amount of reading, studying, and traditional subject matter mastery.
 The curriculum for the pragmatic philosophy supports a connection between
knowledge and experience. It is important for children to connect the two so
learning can become meaningful.
 Pragmatic method is rooted in the psychological needs of the students rather
than in the logical order of the subject matter.
The teacher will as well as possible help the learners at each stage of the effort:
 to initiate the activity (to form or choose the purpose);
 to plan how to carry the activity forward,
 to execute to plan:
 To evaluate progress during the activity and the result at the end. While all
this is going forward the teacher will also
 encourage the learners to think up and note suggestions or new leads
for other and further work;
 help them to formulate these suggestions both for clarification of thinking
and for later recall and possible use (perhaps writing them in a book or
on the board for future reference);
 help pupils criticize their thinking en route or at the close, as may seen
wise; and finally
 Look back over the whole process to pick up and fix important kinds of
learning as well as draw lessons for the future from both successes and
failures.
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Criticism to pragmatism
1. Weak Ontology: the whole structure of the pragmatic position is relatively

unstable due to its lack of a sound ontological base.
2. Anti-Intellectualism: the main area of concern for pragmatists is the marketplace
of daily life thus not rationalistic.
3. Theory of Truth: all other major philosophical systems are concerned with the
nature of truth, but pragmatism challenges the existence of this core making it a
dangerous and radical philosophy.
4. School as Instrument of Social Change: Traditionally the school has been viewed
as society’s instrument for the preservation and continuation of our cultural
heritage but pragmatists argue that, the school and the whole process of
education should be an instrument of social change and social
PART THREE
CONTEMPORARY THEMES IN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
I HUMAN RIGHTS AND EDUCATION
Amnesty International defines Human Rights Education (HRE) as a process whereby
people learn about their rights and the rights of others, within a framework of
participatory and interactive learning.
 HRE is concerned with changing attitudes and behaviour, learning new skills,
and promoting the exchange of knowledge and information.
 HRE is long-term, and aims to provide an understanding of the issues and equip
people with the skills to articulate their rights and communicate this knowledge to
others.
 HRE includes a varied range of innovative and effective education programs in
the formal, informal and non-formal sectors.
 It recognizes the universality and indivisibility of human rights;
 increases knowledge and understanding of human rights;
 empowers people to claim their rights; assists people to use the legal instruments
designed to protect human rights;
 uses interactive and participatory methodology to develop attitudes of respect for
human rights;
 develops the skills needed to defend human rights; integrates the principles of
human rights into everyday life;
 creates a space for dialogue and change;
 Encourages respect and tolerance.
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There are two main aspects to the relationship between human rights and education. In
one sense the denial of education has in itself come to be seen as the violation of a
basic human right and a synonym for disempowerment. The other has to do with the
content of the curriculum and the extent to which it possesses a human rights
orientation.
According to the UN declaration on education as a human right:
“ States should strive to eradicate illiteracy and should direct education toward the
full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms. The World Conference on Human Rights
calls on all States and institutions to include human rights, humanitarian
law, democracy and rule of law as subjects in curricula of all learning institutions in
formal and non- formal settings. Human rights education should include peace,
democracy, development and social justice, as set forth in international and
regional human rights instruments, in order to achieve common understanding and
awareness with a view to strengthening universal commitment to human rights. ”
—Paragraph 79 and 80, section 2 of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
UNESCO has a responsibility to promote human rights education, and was a key
organizer of the UN's Decade for Human Rights Education (1995 – 2004) UNESCO
attempts to promote human rights education through:
Development of national and local capacities for human rights education, through its co-
operation in development projects and programmes at national and sub-regional levels.
Elaboration of learning materials and publications and their translation and adaptation in
national and local languages.
Advocacy and Networking Activities

Schools offer human rights education as part of their curriculum. Content in this
education includes:
 The theory of human rights.
 The practice of human rights.
 Contemporary human rights issues.
This curriculum can take formal, informal or non formal approach. Delivery of the
content will use of the following approaches:
1. The Perceptual Approach
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This is the learning of human rights ideas through formal teaching/learning situation.
This approach may have three forms:
(a) Human rights training as a subject: This may be offered as a course in the
school curriculum. Time is set aside on the formal school timetable during which
students are given adequate factual knowledge on human rights. Through
theory practice and field visits or excursions students are taught the virtues of
good human rights. Teaching is followed by exams.
(b) Human rights training through social studies curriculum. The subject of Social
Studies should introduce students to the political, economic and social life of
their community. It imparts on the learners knowledge on the values and
activities that we cherish as a society.
(c) Human rights education through all the subjects of the curriculum. All the
subjects should provide an opportunity for the content training.
2. The Exemplary Approach

 human rights training through observation, imitation and role modelling.
 This may be informal – (believed that what we learn informally tends to persist
more than what we learn under normal circumstances).
 Members within the immediate environment of learners should set good
examples to be emulated – should be beyond reproach. (Do as I say not as I
do): Are our teachers good role models? Why? Salary, Poor living conditions
e.t.c No one wants to be a teacher. (Being a teacher as condemnation to
poverty and moral depravity).
3. The Experiential Approach

 Based on theory of Experience as the best teacher.
 Expose students to opportunities for active and responsible participation in
school and community affairs.
 Positive attitudes and essential skills are learnt through participation.
 In school, provide a wide range of activities which encourage working in groups
and social interaction.
QUALITY EDUCATION
The changing definition of quality education as reading, writing and arithmetic has been
expanded to address new challenges such as relevance, universal values, peace and
security and informed decision-making. In this context, quality education has to be
based on a human rights approach, as well as address areas including, but not limited
to, cultural diversity, multilingualism in education, peace and non-violence, sustainable
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development and life skills. (UNESCO: Human Rights Education). Human rights are
designed to protect the less powerful from the whims and caprices of the mighty. They
provide protections that have been judged to work to make societies more equitable,
peaceful, and stable
Possible challenges in teaching human rights education
 Factual inaccuracies and insensitivity to the existing religious, ethnic and cultural
diversity of the nation
 Perspectives that encourage bigotry, prejudice and discrimination towards fellow
citizens, especially women, and religious minorities and other nations.
 Omission of concepts and material that could encourage critical self-awareness
among students.
 Schools must respect human rights by allowing the students the three great
freedoms: freedom of choice, freedom of action and freedom to bear the results
of action – that constitute personal responsibility.
Revision question
1 The changing definition of quality education as reading, writing and arithmetic has
been expanded to address new challenges such as relevance, universal values,
peace and security and informed decision-making. How are these challenges
being addressed in the education system today?
2 To what extent has the content on human rights education been integrated and
infused in the Primary school curriculum?
3 “The denial of education and selective inclusion of human rights content in the
school curriculum amounts to human right abuse as far as education is
concerned”. Discuss.
II EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY (JOHN DEWEY:

OCTOBER 20, 1859 – JUNE 1, 1952)
He was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas

have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early
developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional
psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and
progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in
the USA.
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In his advocacy of democracy, Dewey considered two fundamental elements—schools
and civil society—as being major topics needing attention and reconstruction to
encourage experimental intelligence and plurality.
Dewey asserted that:
 Complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but
also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by
effective communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter
being accountable for the policies they adopt.
 "Democracy and the one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind
synonymous."
 Education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus the school
itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place.
 Students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and
interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take
part in their own learning.
 The importance of education is not only as a place to gain content knowledge,
but also as a place to learn how to live.
 The purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-
determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one’s full potential and the
ability to use those skills for the greater good.
 To prepare one for the future life means to give him command of himself; it
means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities.
 Education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform.
Education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social
consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this
social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.
 On educational pedagogy, Dewey argues that the major flaw in this methodology
is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, "the child is simply
the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be
deepened" .
 For education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that
allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening
the connection with this new knowledge.
 Too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning
process. Dewey advocated for an educational structure that strikes a balance
between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and
experiences of the student.
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 The present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define
instruction. Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of hands-on
learning or experiential education, arguing that "if knowledge comes from the
impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure
knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind"
 Many researchers even credit him with the influence of Project Based
Learning (PBL) which places students in the active role of researchers.
 The role that the teacher should play within that process: one should not be one
to stand at the front of the room doling out bits of information to be absorbed by
passive students. Instead, the teacher’s role should be that of facilitator and
guide. “The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain
habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the
influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to
these influences”.
 Thus the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to
independently discover meaning within the subject area. This philosophy has
become an increasingly popular idea within present-day teacher preparatory
programs.
Revision questions
1 John Dewey’s ideas are not practical in view of the overloaded 8 4 4 syllabus.
Discuss.
2 Critique the recent government policy on democratic school governance that
seeks to abolish the prefect system in favour of the student council system by
August 2012.
III LEARNING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND

(A) GENERAL OUTLOOK
Excerpts from a report from a new public-private coalition known as the Partnership for
21st Century Skills, articulates a vision of how schools can best prepare students to
succeed in the first decades of the 21st century. Central to the report's
recommendations is a call for schools to focus on six key elements of 21st century
learning:
1. Core Subjects: The importance of the core subjects identified in any education
system. The challenge here is for schools and policymakers to expand their
focus beyond "basic competency" to understanding the core academic content at
much higher levels.
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2. Learning Skills: They need to know how to use their knowledge and skills-by
thinking critically, applying knowledge to new situations, analyzing information,
comprehending new ideas, communicating, collaborating, solving problems, and
making decisions."
3. 21st Century Tools: Recognizing that "technology is, and will continue to be, a
driving force in workplaces, communities, and personal lives in the 21st century,
"Emphasis should be on the importance of incorporating information and
communication technologies into education from the elementary grades upwards.
4. 21st Century Context: should cover experiences that are relevant to students'
lives, connected with the world beyond the classroom, and based on authentic
projects.
5. 21st Century Content: The report's authors believe that certain content essential
for preparing students to live and work in a 21st century world is missing from
many state and local standards (elaborated later here).
6. New Assessments that Measure 21st Century Skills: today’s assessment
remains an emerging and challenging field that demands further study and
innovation. Recommendations include moving beyond standardized testing as
the sole measure of student learning; balancing traditional tests with classroom
assessments to measure the full range of students' skills; and using technology-
based assessments to deliver immediate feedback.
21st Century Learning Skills and ICT Literacy
(a) Information and communication technology literacy
 Thinking and problem-solving skills
 Critical thinking and systems thinking
 Problem identification, formulation, and solution
 Creativity and intellectual curiosity
 Using problem-solving tools (such as spreadsheets, decision support, and design
tools) to manage complexity, solve problems, and think critically, creatively, and
systematically.
(b) Information and communication skills
 Information and media literacy skills
 Communication skills
 Using communication, information processing, and research tools (such as word
processing, e-mail, groupware, presentation software, and the Internet) to
access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information.
(c) Interpersonal and self-direction skills
 Interpersonal and collaborative skills
 Self-direction
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 Accountability and adaptability
 Social responsibility
 Using personal development and productivity tools (such as e-learning, time
managers, and collaboration tools) to enhance productivity and personal
development.
21st Century Content
(i) Global awareness
 Using 21st century skills to understand and address global issues
 Learning from and working collaboratively with individuals representing diverse
cultures, religions, and lifestyles in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue in
personal, work, and community contexts
 Promoting the study of languages other than English as a tool for understanding
other nations and cultures
(ii) Financial, economic, and business literacy
 Knowing how to make appropriate personal economic choices
 Understanding the role of the economy and the role of business in the economy
 Applying appropriate 21st century skills to function as a productive contributor
within an organizational setting
 Integrating oneself within and adapting continually to our nation's evolving
economic and business environment
(iii) Civic literacy
 Being an informed citizen to participate effectively in government
 Exercising the rights and obligations of citizenship at local, state, national, and
global levels
 Understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions
 Applying 21st century skills to make intelligent choices as a citizen
(B) LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND

Lifelong learning is now recognized by educators, governing bodies, accreditation
organizations, certification boards, employers, third-party payers, and the general public
as one of the most important competencies that people must possess. Promoting
lifelong learning as continuous, collaborative, self-directed, active, broad in domain,
everlasting, positive and fulfilling, and applicable to one’s profession as well as all
aspects of one’s life has emerged as a major global educational challenge. Meeting this
challenge will require changes in the way teachers teach and learners learn, as
teachers take on a more facilitative role and learners take more responsibility for setting
goals, identifying resources for learning, and reflecting on and evaluating their learning.
Malcolm S. Knowles, is the “father of adult learning”.
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Lifelong Learning: A Definition
defined lifelong learning as “a continuously supportive process which stimulates and
empowers individuals...to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding
they will require throughout their lifetimes...and to apply them with confidence, creativity,
and enjoyment in all roles, circumstances, and environments.”
This definition emphasizes lifelong learning as

(a) Continuous (it never stops);
(b) Supportive (it isn’t done alone);
(c) Stimulating and empowering (it’s self-directed and active, not passive);
(d) Incorporating knowledge, values, skills, and understanding (it’s more than what
we know);
(e) Spanning a lifetime (it happens from our first breath to our last);
(f) applied (it’s not just for knowledge’s sake);
(g) Incorporating confidence, creativity, and enjoyment (it’s a positive, fulfilling
experience); and
(h) Inclusive of all roles, circumstances, and environments (it applies not only to our
chosen profession, but to our entire life) .
Lifelong Learning and Traditional Learning

Lifelong learning is more than adult education, which often is restricted to providing
people with opportunities to engage in (school-like) learning activities during their adult
life.
 The challenge for lifelong learning is to fundamentally rethink learning, teaching,
and education for the information age in an attempt to change mind-sets.
 Lifelong learning involves and engages learners of all ages in acquiring and
applying knowledge and skills in the context of authentic, self-directed problems.
 By integrating working and learning, people learn within the context of their work
on real-world problems.
 The learner’s involvement in goals setting is a prerequisite to motivated and self-
regulated learning. Goal setting implies the personal commitment of the learner
and is an integral part of learning in life.
 In traditional learning, the goals are fixed and predetermined, providing students
with little or no chance of involvement.
 Traditional learning tends to motivate by extrinsic rewards, such as praise from
the teacher or others, grades, or financial compensation. As a result, students
can develop a dependency on praise, leading to feelings of insecurity and non-
development of task motivation.
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 Learning flows from a variety of activities, for example, observing how other
people do something, discussing with others, asking someone, looking up
information, trying something for oneself and learning from trial and error, and
reflecting on all the previous activities.
 The mental activities involved in learning may be divided into four
categories:(a) social interaction, (b) processing verbal and other symbolic
information, (c)direct experience, and (d) reflection.
 In real life, learners decide on the type of activities in which to engage, often with
input from others, but the final responsibility is with the learner.
 In traditional learning, most of the regulating is done by the teacher and
educational system. This makes learning look like a neat, step-by-step
procedure, from the beginning of the book to the end, from the start of the
program to the examination. Learning processes in real life are much less
predictable and straightforward.
Traits and Skills of Lifelong Learners

Lifelong learning is largely self-directed learning, “a process in which learners take the
initiative, with the support and collaboration of others; for increasing self- and social
awareness; critically analyzing and reflecting on their situations; diagnosing their
learning needs with specific reference to competencies they have helped identify;
formulating socially and personally relevant learning goals; identifying human and
material resources for learning; choosing and implementing appropriate learning
strategies; and reflecting on and evaluating their learning.” Steps to lifelong learning can
be articulated as:
 reflection,
 setting goals,
 assessing knowledge and skills,
 creating a learning plan,
 putting the plan into action, and
 evaluating and refocusing...
An individual’s learning potential and the development from novice to expert depend on:
 the development of expertise in learning to learn (knowing what and how to
learn),
 having access to a relevant knowledge base to build on, and
 Being motivated to learn.
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Barriers to Lifelong Learning
Certain obvious issues, such as lack of motivation, time, and adequate resources, can
interfere with an individual’s success as an independent adult learner. In addition, more
subtle problems, such as a lack of awareness of knowledge deficit, personal reluctance
to change, ambivalence (indecisiveness), and group mentality, can also be significant
barriers to positive educational change.
Promoting lifelong learning as continuous, collaborative, self-directed, active, broad in

domain, everlasting, positive and fulfilling, and applicable to one’s profession as well as
all aspects of one’s life has emerged as a major global educational challenge. Meeting
this challenge will require changes in the way teachers teach and learners learn, as
teachers take on a more facilitative role and learners take more responsibility for setting
goals, identifying resources for learning, and reflecting on and evaluating their learning.
Revision Questions
1 Assess the extent to which our Primary and Secondary schools are compliant
with the requirements of the 21st Century: refer to the content and learning skills.
3 Compare and contrast lifelong to tradition
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UNIT SIX
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Introduction and Brief History of Sociology of Education
A systematic sociology of education began with Durkheim's work on moral education as

a basis for organic solidarity and that by Max Weber, on liberation as an instrument of
political control. It was after the World War II, however, that the subject received
renewed interest around the world:
From Technological functionalism in the United States of America, Egalitarian reform of

opportunity in Europe, and human-capital theory in Economics; All these implied that
with industrialization, the need for technologically skilled labour force undermines class
distinctions and other descriptive systems of stratification, and that education promotes
social mobility.
Sociological studies showed how schooling patterns reflected, rather than challenged,
class stratification and racial and sexual discrimination. After the general collapse of
functionalism from the late 1960s onwards, the idea of education as an unmitigated
good was even more profoundly challenged. Neo Marxist argued that school education
simply produced docile labour force essential to late capitalist class relations.
Sociology examines a sequence of roles played by an individual in relation to others at

different times and places. The activities of each individual are part of the social order.
Definition of Terms
 Sociology
Anthony Giddens (“Sociology”, 1989) provides the following general definition:

“Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and
compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behaviour as social beings.
In “The Complete A-Z Sociology Handbook” (1996) Tony Lawson and Joan provide the
following definition: “Sociology is the study of individuals in groups and social formations
in a systematic way, which grew out of the search for understanding associated with the
industrial and scientific revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the simplest form, sociology is the scientific study of social relationships or human
behavior in group due to the fact that man lives in groups. When people live together,
they interact with one another and in this way an individual is looked at not only in terms
of himself but also in relation to others with whom he interacts.
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 Society
A society is an organization of people who interact in a systematic way with
one another and their environment to promote shared or common interests.
 Socialization
Socialization is a term used to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and
disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and
habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. Socialization is thus ‘the
means by which social and cultural continuity are attained’. Socialization describes a
process which may lead to desirable, or 'moral', outcomes.
Socialization is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, language,
social skills, and value to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into a
group or community. It is a combination of both self-imposed (because the individual
wants to conform) and externally-imposed rules, and the expectations of the others. In
an organizational setting, socialization refers to the process through which a new
employee 'learns the roles,' by becoming sensitive to the formal and informal power
structure and the explicit and implicit rules of behavior.
 Education
Education refers to all the experiences an individual goes through during his life time;
that is from the day one of birth to the day one dies. Education prepares an individual to
be a useful member of the society by imparting relevant knowledge, skills and values or
attitudes.
From sociological perspective, education is the process by which a society deliberately

transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another
through social institutions.
Education has often been seen as a fundamentally optimistic human endeavor

characterized by aspiration for progress and betterment. It is understood by many to be
a means of overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality and acquiring wealth and
social status.
Education is perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique
needs and potential. It is also perceived as one of the best means of achieving greater
social equality.
 Sociology of education
Sociology of Education is the study of how public or social institutions and individual
experiences and forces affect educational processes and its outcomes, and vice versa.
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It is mostly concern with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies,
including the expansion of lower, higher, further, adult and continuing education.
Sociology of education is a branch of sociology which examines or studies the social

patterns and processes that exist in the educational systems.
It can also be defined as the study of relationship between education and society.
Therefore, it studies the social interactions within the school system and how these
interactions are affected by other social institutions in society.
Relevance of Sociology of Education to a Teacher
i) Sociology of education enables the teacher to prepare learners of different

backgrounds in the school to accommodate each other and accept to live in
harmony with their school mates. This acceptance and harmonious
understanding continues even after an individual has left school life.
ii) It helps one better his methods of teaching and improve the content of what is to
be taught. The discipline will enable him to examine the effect of the child’s
environment on his performance in the class room and school. This enables the
teacher to handle children from different backgrounds differently. For example, a
child from low socio-economic status will require a different approach from the
child of High Socio-economic status.
iii) Sociology of education enables a teacher to identify the problems (challenges) of

learners in order to offer proper guidance and counseling.
iv) It enables the teacher to encourage pupils in school to form meaningful group
that is , groups that will allow them to achieve their objectives and the school
goals. He will encourage pupils to adopt the right form of interactions among
themselves and their teachers in order to achieve the school goals.
v) It enables the teacher to teach with a purpose since sociology of education

examines the significance of education in society. That is the teacher will be
conscious of the curriculum (content of what to teach) to enable the child become
a useful member of the society.
vi) It helps the teacher to identify his role in the school as a teacher. The discipline
identifies the parents’ and pupils’ expectations of the teacher, which s/he is
supposed to fulfill for the smooth running of the school.
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vii) It equips the teachers with formal and informal methods of socializing the child
and enables him to play his socializing roles adequately. For example, through
teaching and personal behavior in school and out of the school, the teacher
equips learners with desirable values and norms of the society.
viii) It prepares the teacher to manage his class effectively. It reveals to the
teacher the sub-cultures in the classroom (academic, fun, delinquent, vocational)
and how to handle them.
ix) It helps the teacher to understand the nature of the teaching profession which
prepares the teacher to be exemplary in society and to learners.
x) Critically analyze social circumstances in the process of teaching and learning

and understand the social roles that education plays in society.
xi) Apply basic sociological concepts into the understanding of educational

processes. Eg social stratification-why some students go to UPE schools while
others are not; socialization – ensure pupils socialize appropriately at school,
family, community/society level – teachers are agents of socialization; the drop
out concepts; since a problem understood, is a problem partly solved.
xii) Understand how the social division and power relationships associated with class
and gender are reproduced through formal education. This helps the teacher to
minimize the influence of class and gender on education. It is noted that teachers
tend to associate with learners from good socio-economic background and bright
ones.
xiii) Understand the ways by which teacher’s impact on the educational

experiences and opportunities of children. The shapes learner’s experiences to
either build or destroy them. Teachers should be role models.
xiv) Examine how formal education shapes the life chances and social
identities of individuals.
xv) Increase their cultural sensitivities and appreciation for living in a multi-cultural
society. A teacher should appreciate living with other people of diverse cultural
backgrounds. This is good for building team work spirit in a school setting.
xvi) To appreciate the teaching profession. We should appreciate our

placement within the teaching profession and the economic sectors or other
professions within the society.
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xvii) It enable the teacher to play a role of forging and promoting unity,
cooperation in our society by eliminating sectarianism leading to peace and
deeper feeling of patriotism.
Sociological Function of Education
Education serves six functions in society: socialization; selection, training and

placement function; economic function; instructional function, certification; and custody
and control functions.
i) Socialization function
 The latent role of education is socializing people in the society’s main

stream.
 Transmit core values and social control of the society
 Helps in developing identities and self-esteem. It is that the school

identifies the most capable child early.
 Education plays an ironic dual role of preserving and changing culture.
 It test cultural knowledge and therefore exhibits a cultural bias.
ii) Selection, training and placement function
 Education helps in networking (making interpersonal connection). This is

investable. Most students tend to network with fellows of the same class
or major.
 Competition: through competition in both class and outside activities,

some prizes are usually awarded this motivates the child to do more and
this may earn one a position in the society. For example, through atlethics
Moses Kiprotich of Uganda has become a prominent figure in the society.
 Sorting and separation: education helps in sorting and separating learners

on the basis of merit. Society’s needs demand that the most capable
people get channeled into the most important occupations. Schools
identify the most capable students early. Those who score highest in class
and standard tests enter accelerated programs. E.g government
scholarship at higher institute of learning and universities.
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iii) Economic specialization
 According to conflict theorists education is not seen as a social benefit or

opportunity, but as a powerful means of mainstreaming power structures
and creating a docile work force for capitalism.
 Property taxes fund most schools, in affluent districts like Kampala,

Mbarara and Jinja have more money. Such areas are predominantly
white, they can afford to pay higher salaries, attract better teachers and
purchase newer texts and more technology. Students who attend schools
in these areas gain substantial advantages in getting into the best colleges
and universities and being attracted into higher-pay professionals.
iv) Instructional function
 Education provides proper instructions to children both socially,

economically, and spiritually in order to make them have wholesome
knowledge and talents.
v) Certification function
 Schools simultaneously are to provide job training for children who will not
go to college and college preparatory training for those who will, in order
to certify them for society’s services.
vi) Custody and control function
 Education plays a very important role in safe guarding the children

because parents entrust their children in the teachers to take care of them
on their behalf.
 It delays marriage and early pregnancies in girls. Education takes a

process which tends to make a person to get married at later age.
 Education protects a child from bad behaviors and models new behavior
that suits the society’s norms, values and beliefs.
Forms of Socialization
Sociologists have distinguished six kinds of socialization:
i) Primary socialization
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This is a process of socialization whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and
actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. Here the
family is the prime socializing institution and it is believed that it where ones’
personality is produced and through which one is able to fit into the system of the
whole society.
ii) Secondary socialization
This refers to the process of learning what is appropriate behavior as a member

of the smaller group within the larger society. It is usually associated with
teenagers and adults, and involves smaller changes than those occurring in
primary socialization, such as entering a new profession, or relocating to a new
environment or society. This takes place in educational set up and other areas
like recreational centres. Here personality is further shaped as a preparation for
societal roles. It makes the individual grow with the sense of belonging, duties
and responsibilities.
iii) Developmental socialization
This is the process of learning behavior in a social institution or developing one’s

social skills. It takes place both at home, school and other social institutions.
iv) Anticipatory socialization
This refers to the processes of socialization in which a person rehearses for

future positions, occupations, and social relationships. It can also be called or
termed as Status or role Socialization. This is common with peer groups
whereby when they are informed of being admitted at the university, they begin
to discard the high school life and take on the life and mannerism of the
university life.
v) Reverse socialization
This is deviation from the desired behaviors or enculturation, especially of the

younger generation. It involves both adult and children.
vi) Re-socialization
This refers to the process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting
new ones as part of a transition in one’s life. This occurs throughout the human
life cycle. Re-socialization can be an intense experience, with the individual
experiencing a sharp break with their past and needing to learn and be exposed
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to radically different norms and values. An example might be the experience of a
young man or woman leaving home to join the military.
Agents of Socialization
Socialization agents are the sources from which we learn about society and ourselves.
People and groups that influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior
are called agents of socialization. They are our socializers. People who serve as
socializing agents include family members, friends, neighbors, the police, the
employers, teachers, political leaders, business leaders, religious leaders, sports stars,
and entertainers. Socialization agents also can be fictional characters that we read
about or see on television or in the movies. Every social experience we have affects us
in at least a small way. However, several familiar settings have special importance in
the socialization process. Some of the important agents of socialization are as below.
i) The Family
The family has the greatest impact on socialization. Infants are totally dependent on
others, and the responsibility to look after the young ones typically falls on parents and
other family members. It is a matter of child survival. There is an automatic provision of
learning situations to the young ones. Family begins the life long process of defining
ourselves of being male or female and the child learns the appropriate roles associated
with his/her gender.
Who we are! The perceptions about ourselves and the family status are conferred on
us. The class position of parents affects how they raise their children. Class position
shapes not just how much money parents have to spend, but what they expect of their
children. In the lower class there is lot of emphasis on conformity and obedience.
The children are told “Don’t get into trouble." There is more use of physical punishment
in lower class than in other classes. People of lower class standing usually have limited
education and perform routine jobs under close supervision. They expect their children
will hold similar positions, so they encourage obedience. Well-off parents, with more
schooling, usually have jobs that demand imagination and creativity. They try to inspire
the same qualities in their children. Therefore in the middle class there is emphasis on
developing curiosity, self- expression, self-control, and reasoning.
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ii) The Peer group
Peer group is the one whose members have interests, social position, and age in
common. Unlike the family and the school, the peer group lets children escape the
direct supervision of adults. Among the peers, children learn how to form relationships
on their own. Peer groups also offer the chance to discuss interests that adults may not
see are with their children (such as clothing or other activities).
In a rapidly changing society, peer groups have great influence on an individual. The
attitudes of young and old may differ because of a "generation gap." The importance of
peer groups typically peaks during adolescence, when young people begin to break
away from their families and think of themselves as adults.
Neighborhood and schools provide a variety of peer groups. Individuals tend to view
their own group in positive terms and to discredit others. People are also influenced by
peer groups they would like to join, a process sociologists call anticipatory socialization.
Advantages of peer group to the child in school
Peer groups help a child in numerous ways as below:
 Serve as a source of information (information bureau)
It is where peers get teachings on customs, social norms and different ideologies
of the society
 Members inside peer group learn to develop relationship with others in the social
system.
 Teaches gender role to the members where boys and girls learn about the sex
differences, social and cultural expectations
 Serves as a practicing venue to adulthood where adolescent peers provide

support to teens assimilate into adulthood.
 It teaches unity and collective behavior
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 It helps individuals form their own identity. Identity formation is a developmental
process where a person acquires a sense of self.
Disadvantages of peer group to the child
 Peer pressure: the term describes instances where an individual feels

indirectly pressured into changing his/her behavior to match that of his/her
peers. e.g smoking and underage drinking.
 Future problem; here when the child has poor peer relationship may also
experience job related and marital problems later in life because of the
developmental delays and academic achievement as a result of unsuccessful
peer relationship.
 Risk behavior. Adolescent tend to replace tend family regarding social and
leisure activities and many of these activities results into problematic
behaviors.
 Aggression and pro-social behavior: Social behaviors can be promoted or

discouraged by social groups, and several studies have shown that
aggression and pro-sociality are susceptible to peer influence.
 Sexual promiscuity
iii) The School
Schooling enlarges children's social world to include people with back grounds different
from their own. Among the manifest functions, the schools teach children a wide range
of knowledge and skills. Schools informally convey other lessons, which might be called
the hidden curriculum. Through different activities schools help in inculcating values of
patriotism, democracy, justice, honesty, and competition. Efforts are made to introduce
correct attitudes about economic system/ political system
iv) Religion
Religion plays significant role in the socialization of most Pakistanis. It influences

morality, becoming a key component in people's ideas of right and wrong. The influence
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of religion extends to many areas of our lives. For example participation in religious
ceremonies not only teaches us beliefs about the hereafter but also ideas about dress,
concepts of manners appropriate for formal occasions
v) The Mass Media
The mass media are impersonal communication aimed at a vast audience. Mass media
arise as communication technology (first the newspapers and then radio, television,
films, and the Internet) spreads information on a mass scale. The mass media have an
enormous effect on our attitudes and behavior, and on shaping people's opinions about
issues as well as what they buy
Where television provides lot of entertainment, at the same time it is a big agent of
socialization. The portrayal of human characters in different programs and in
advertisements on television helps in projecting the gender perceptions prevalent in the
society; thereby helping in gender construction. The same programs help in shaping the
attitudes, values, and basic orientation of people to life.
The other agents of socialization include; the state, work, marriage, hospital, prisons,
military and cultural factors. They are called total institutions. Total institution refers a
society which is socially isolated but still provides for all the needs of its members. It is
capable of re-socializing people either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Activity
Explain how the state, work, marriage and cultural factors are agents of socialization.
Briefly discuss how the peers, family, and church can negatively socialize an individual.
Role of the Teacher in Children’s Socialization
Teachers are one of the most influential people regarding the philosophy and lessons of
socialization. By teaching and modeling socialization to children, children will learn the
meaning of kindness and generosity.
They will then be able to eventually go out into society and contribute in a positive,
meaningful and productive way.
Teachers, in a sense are a child’s provider outside of the child’s home. The teacher has
a very important role in the facilitation of socialization in a child’s life. Having said this, I
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would like to stress the importance of a teacher’s role to the effect a teacher has on
children’s perception of the concept of socialization.
One of the main roles a teacher plays in socialization in a child’s life is by direct
examples set by the teacher in the classroom. A teacher has the responsibility to weave
acceptance and care for one another within the curriculum. A child must feel accepted
and cared for in order for that child to have healthy socialization skills and a chance of
happiness and success in life. A teacher can provide that for children. A teacher must
have the wisdom to guide children with compassion as well as teaching through play.
It is vital to keep the children busy and excited in what they are involved in. It is just as
important for a teacher to be extremely organized. Children rely on the consistency of
schedules. Children will be happier and feel safe and secure in their school
surroundings when their daily schedule is better organized.
Being organized creates a comfortable and social environment. It is the teacher’s

responsibility to nourish a child’s cognitive and physical needs. Children need to run and
play as well as learn the ability to sit and work. They need to know and understand
boundaries and respect for others. Children also need time during their schedule where
they have freedom to do whatever they choose to do without being told by a teacher.
This is time allowed where children get to explore and play either by themselves, side
by side with other children, or play by interacting with each other. Teachers must allow
children to have this non-direction play time. All of these tools aid as in building
structures for a healthy social life
The Teacher's Role: Do's and Don'ts

A major role for a teacher is to see that children have enjoyable social contacts and to
help motivate children towards a desire to be with others. The early childhood school
years setting affords children numerous learning opportunities for social development.
The teacher has an important role to play as children learn the give and take of social
interaction. In the role of social organizer, the teacher creates a physical and
interpersonal environment that promotes the development of children’s socialization
skills.
Social competence: the teacher’s role:
DO’s:
• Respect individual timetables and feelings.
• Establish authority and credibility.
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• Express expectations simply and directly.
• Redefine children’s characters in positive terms.
• Encourage impulse control.
• Appeal to children’s good sense.
• Invoke ground rules.
• Mix it up: arrange things to get one child next to another.
• Move it: People, toys, you!
DON’T:
• Make implied comparisons.
• Issue empty threats.
• Hover.
• Make teacher-child interaction be all about misbehavior
• Motivate children by indirect disapproval.
• Lose your sense of humor.
• Allow a rigid curriculum to narrow possibilities for social interaction.
Changes affecting the role of teachers today
i) Technological changes: the availability of televisions, radios, video cameras and

recorders, home computers has affected the way children respond in class; and
teachers will need to demonstrate flexibility in adjust to the change.
ii) Changes in pedagogy: pedagogy refers to the methodology of teaching. As

technology is advancing a new model of teaching will be more appropriate to
enable the children keep in pace with the changing social context. Teachers will
need to change their teaching style to a process rather than a product model.
Therefore, a good teacher will have a good understanding of thinking skills and
will develop in the learners the ability to understand and use information, to
problem pose, to be flexible in their thinking, to use their imagination and to have
well developed social and communication skills to facilitate the understanding
and cooperation of others.
iii) Changes in curricular content: teachers are expected to keep up to date with the
subject matter, be aware of curriculum project materials, and take part of
curriculum projects. Changes in the emphasis or organization of the curriculum,
often to present a more general or thematic approach.
Solutions to the changes affecting the teachers’ role today
In light with the above changes, teachers will need:

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 To be mediators or guides to knowledge rather than transmitters of knowledge.
 To have non- authoritarian relationships with the young people and to accept
their rights to participate in decisions affecting their learning and lives.
 To understand the adult world outside the school
 To incorporate education for human rights, for domestic citizenship, for non-
violent conflict resolution as a feature of more traditional subjects.
 To have skills in the use of group and individualized work and in creating learning
situations.
 To be able to use the experience of young people as a learning process through

reflection
 To accept that people other than teachers are sources of knowledge and
valuable experience, and tap into those sources.
 Not only to master the art of effective communication but to teach it to their
learners.
Factors influencing teachers’ expectations of their learners
 Pupil’s behaviors: pupils who are badly behaved tend to receive lower academic
expectations from the teachers while the disciplined ones receive higher
expectations.
 Negative attitudes about the pupils by other teachers or head teachers often
result into low expectation.
 Sitting position; pupils who sit at the back and the side of the classroom usually
have low expectations and the reverse is true for pupils who sit in front.
 Neatness; lower expectations are associated with general disorganization, poor

hand writing or any other indicators of untidiness. On the other hand, pupils who
are organized, tidy and write well receive higher expectations from teachers.
 Status of the school; teachers have lower expectations from pupils who attended
or from rural schools than those from urban schools.
 Physical attractiveness: pupils who are good looking are expected to be

intelligent while those who are bad looking are expected to be dull.
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 Sex difference: teachers expect girls to be less intelligent than boys and believe
that they cannot perform better in some subjects such sciences.
 Education text books: some text books put myth and ideologies that individuals’
standards have limitations. This reinforces low expectations of learners.
 The socio-economic status of the pupils’ family: learners from well to do families
always pay school fees in time, have all the scholastics, smart and clean in their
school uniforms and therefore, expected to perform well in class unlike those
from poor families who are shabby and dirty, lack scholastics and fail to pay fees
in time.
EDUCATION AND TRANSMISSION OF CULTURE
The components of culture

 Speech example language
 Art example painting, music and craft
 Myths
 Material traits example food, habits, shelter
 Religious practices example rituals
 Social practices example marriage
 Relics and regalia
 Dressing code
 Family practices example inheritance
 Way of governance example kingdomship, chiefdomship
 Warfare
The main features of culture
 It exist with human beings
 It lasts beyond any individual’s life time
 It is observable
 It is Explainable
 It is ideal
 It is dynamic
 It is shared
 It is learnt
Aspects of culture
 Beliefs: these are propositions that are accepted to be true
 Values: these are aspects of culture valued by society
 Recipes: these are ideas/ understanding of how things should be done
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 Routines: these are cultural actions and events
 Customs: these are what people resort to for recurring purpose.
How culture is transmitted to children in schools
Culture can be transmitted to children in schools through the following:
 Co-curricular activities that are related to their cultures
 Music, Drama and dance
 Teaching the local languages e.g Luo, Luganda, Runyakitara, Lugbara,
Akarimojong, etc
 Teaching of African literature
 Teaching African poetry
 Teaching home economics
 Teaching African history
 Teaching African religion, sociology, anthropology, political science and
philosophies for higher students
 Teaching agriculture
 Military science for defense
Factors affecting effective transmission of African traditional culture in Ugandan

schools
 Foreign religions which sometimes preach against some aspect of African
traditional culture example Christianity and Islam.
 Some schools are founded by missions so their core values are predominant
 Preference for western culture rather than African Traditional culture in society
 Text books used in schools down play the African culture
 Schools are national or international hence the uses of local languages are
discouraged at the expense of foreign languages.
 Modernization down plays the African traditional culture
 Some aspects of African culture conflict with human rights.
The types of sub-cultures in a classroom setting
 Academic
 Fun
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 Delinquency
 Vocational
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Introduction
Stratification is a term borrowed from Geology; which refers to the arrangement of rocks
in layers or strata.
In sociology, social stratification refers to the division of the society into distinct layers
whereby the occupants of each layer have unequal access to social opportunities and
rewards. It is a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
In developed countries, stratification is typically described as a composition of three

main layers: upper class, middle class and lower class. In developing countries, there
may be more classed divisions than in the developed countries, because of many
dynamic experienced.
In a stratified society, inequality is part of the social structure and passes from one
generation to the next. This suggests that individuals in society are never and can never
be equal.
Characteristics of stratified system
 Ranking apply to social categories of people who share a common characteristic

without necessarily interacting or identifying with each other. For example
ranking people differently by race, culture, gender, and social class.
 People’s life experiences and opportunities depend on their social category. This
characteristic can be changed by the amount of work a person can put into their
interest. For example, the greater advantage had by the son or daughter of a
king to have successful life than son or daughter of a minimum-wage factory
worker.
 The ranks of different social categories change slowly over time.
 Ranking is universal but variable
 Ranking is not looked at as simply a reflection of individual differences.
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Social Class
The term class is etymologically derived from the Latin classis, which was used by
census takers to categorize citizens by wealth, inorder to determine military service
obligation.
A social class is a group of people who rank closely to one another in wealth, power and
prestige. It can also be defined as a group of people having the same social, economic
or educational status. For example, the working class or an emerging professional class
is a social class.
Wealth (capital and income)
The distribution of wealth in society is mostly concentrated in the small group at the top
of the hierarchy and this group perpetuates (reproduces) itself through inherited wealth
or high paying positions.
Power – the ability to make major decisions or to influence others to act on behalf of
one’s benefit. Wright Mills (1956) observed that the “power elite” that dominates the
society and controls the society with their educational position.
Prestige
The pride is also concentrated among the upper class and some middle class group of
the society. Whereby in terms of decision making in the society priority is given to them
first. Sometimes the working class groups are separated into those who are employed
but lacking financial security, and under class-those who are long term unemployed and
homeless.
Consequences of Social Stratification
A person’s class has a wider range of effects. It may determine the following:
 The kind of education and the schools one attend

 The job open to them
 Who to marry
 The treatment by law enforcement officers ( this include police)
 The life expectancy, health and nutrition received
Social stratification can cause many social problems that include the following:
 Homicide
 Infant mortality
 Obesity
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 Teenage pregnancies
 Emotional depression
 Teen suicide
 Prison population
All the above social problems and crimes correlate with higher social inequality.
Socio-Economic Status and Education
In terms of socio-economic status the society is divided into two social classes. i.e the
low socio-economic status and high socio-economic status. These classes are
determined by three key factors including:
 Level of education in the family and the community
 Types of the occupation of the family members
 Level of household’s incomes.
The status of the family affects the attitude, behavior, values and goals in the life of an
individual.
These will also determine how a family perceives school education which will in turn
affect the learner’s achievements at school.
Status is an individuals’ position within the social structure or organization. Socio-

economic refers to individuals’ position in society determined by the level of education
which influences occupation or type of employment and eventually ones level of
income.
Low socio-economic status families are characterized by low levels of formal education,
leading to poor jobs mainly in peasantry sector and eventually low and unreliable
income.
High socio-economic families are characterized by those who are mainly found in urban
areas with relatively high levels of education, better occupation and relatively stable
income.
Effects of socio-economic status on learners’ school achievements

 The age of attendance at school: Children from LSES families join school at an
older of 8, 9, or 10 years compared to those from HSES families joins at an early
age of 5, 6,or 7 years and also afford to attend kindergarten.
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 School requirement: because of low income of parents, children from LSES
families don’t get the necessary and sufficient scholastic requirements because
the parents lack financial means and are not willing to give text books, sets and
even uniform. This is rear for HSES parents.
 SES determines the nature of school attended by the child. Children from LSES
go to poor schools with no libraries, laboratories, resource centres and poorly
trained or untrained teachers. This affects the child’s school achievement.
 Back ground of English language: Children from LSES families often have a very
poor background of English language. They meet problems in grasping ideas
and concepts which are taught in English. Such children also fail to interact freely
with those who know English. They fear to communicate with their teachers
about their problems and at the end of it all they fail exams that set in English.
This is not always the case with children from HSES families who learn English
language earlier even before they join school.
 Interests in school activities: children from LSES families lack interest in school
activities a part from academics. Such children show less interest in sport, drama
and other social activities mainly due to their family background where they have
no opportunity to watch these on television, go to theatres or watch live music
performances social activities make children bored in school, Lack Company and
in most cases they perform poorly in academics.
 Academic and job aspirations: Children from LSES families lack academic and
job aspirations because they don’t have such people as doctors, lawyer,
teachers, engineer in family to initiate therefore, they lack inspiration and as such
they have limited outlook on education and achieve less in school.
 Expectations of parents: working class parents expect their children to behave
well in school, stressing conformity and obedience to authority. Such guidance is
not available for children from LSES families. These parents don’t care much
about their children’s performance and behaviors at school. Children continue to
perform poorly at school and this eventually affects school achievements.
Social mobility
As people say “No condition is permanent!” one can not remain in one socio-
economic status forever. i.e No one remains in low socio-economic status till death.
People usually strive hard to become better in life.
Social mobility is the movement of individuals or group in social standing position. It

may refer to classes, ethnic groups, or entire nations, and may measure health
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status, literacy, or education – but more commonly it refers to individuals or families,
and their change in income.
This movement can either be vertical mobility or horizontal mobility or lateral

mobility. Vertical mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups up or down
from one level of SES to another often by changing jobs or marriage. Horizontal
refers to the movement from one position to another within the same social level. E.g
changing school when you are a teacher. Lateral mobility refers to geographical
movement between neighborhoods, towns or regions. It is usually combined with
vertical and horizontal mobility.
Social mobility can be the change in status between someone or a group and their
parents or previous family generations - this is inter-generational mobility; or over the
change during one’s lifetime – this is intra-generational mobility. The change can
also be “absolute” – total amount of movement of people between classes, usually
over generation such as when education and economic development raises the level
of SES of the population. The change can also be “Relative” – an estimation of the
chance of upward or downward social mobility of a member of one social class in
comparison with a member from another class.
A higher level of intergenerational mobility is often considered a sign of greater

fairness, or equality of opportunity in a society.
Mobility is enabled to a varying extent by economic capital, cultural capital such as

higher education, human capital such competence and effort in labour, social capital
such as support from ones’ social network, physical capital such as ownership of
tools, or the means of production, and symbolic capital such as worth of an official
title, status class, celebrity, etc.
Wastage/Dropout problem in Education

Under the convention on the rights of the child (1989), every child has a right to
quality education that is relevant to his/her individual development in life.
The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set a target for all school going age
children to access education by 2015. Uganda’s action towards achieving this goal is
enshrined in the UPE, USE and ECD policy.
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Though enrolment in primary and secondary education increased due to the above
programme dropout rate has been a major challenge leading to wastage of
resources in the education sector in Uganda.
Why the concern about dropout?

i) Dropouts are costly to the nation because they are less likely to find and
hold jobs that pay enough money to improve their welfare and contribute
to national development.
ii) Research demonstrates that dropouts are more likely to have health
problems and engage in criminal activities.
iii) Studies have shown that children of mothers who receive lower secondary
education are 60% more likely to leave beyond the age of 5
iv) Research also indicates that an adult who has finished secondary
education is likely to earn 50% more than an adult who has never been to
school.
Reasons why learners dropout of school

There are two major theories that is used to understand the problem of dropping out of
school:
1. Institutional perspective
This perspective includes school, family, and political factors.
a) School factors
 Teacher-learner ratio affects the level of interaction with individual
learners
 The quality of teachers and their competences. This determines the
quality of education learners receive.
 Curriculum and assessment modes
 Teaching methods, material and equipment
 Unfriendly school environment to the learners
 Infrastructures, particularly classrooms, toilets and sanitation facilities
in schools
 Negative attitudes by teachers, especially on poor performance by
learners
 Negative peer influence and lack of supportive structures (Guidance
and Counseling)
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 Lack of time to reach out to children- i.e teachers are not made
comfortable enough to think of the children and concentrate on their
job.
b) Family factors
 Social and cultural factors which affect the behaviors and choices of
parents and pupils
 Economic factors such as poverty that incur direct and indirect cost on
education. Fro example tuition, scholastic materials, feeding, etc.
 Opportunity costs weighed against rate of return, especially for girls
who are more needed foe household or labour tasks.
 Parent’s low level of literacy and education- such parents don’t value
education.
c) Political factors
 Policy priorities- they must not be fixed. They should change based on
emerging issues that are critical. USE priority should be on keeping
children at school (retention) not recruitment.
 Staffing ( recruitment and deployment)
 Budget constraints and structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
 Political instability
2. Individual perspective
 Values attached to education
 Attitudes towards education
 Behaviors- such learners cannot cope up with school rules and regulations
and are always dismissed.
 Having low aspirations
How we can minimize dropping out of school

Dropouts have different characteristics and these call for different strategies to contain
the problem. Some of these strategies could be taken to reduce rampant dropping out
of school include:
i) Legislation – there should be a bill to compel all learners to remain in
school until they complete their education. Policies must be based on
research findings but not actions of politicians. Today, research in
education is extremely low.
ii) Improving internal efficiency of educational system – quality of
infrastructure and school facilities, quality of the curriculum, quality of the
teachers and quality of the teaching/learning methods.
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iii) Flexibility of programmes and schedules – programme and schedules of
the school should be made flexible according to the needs and conditions
of the community. Statistically understand what time is appropriate for
opening the school and closure.
iv) Involving parents in their own children’s schooling – intensive attendance,
monitoring and follow up of their children. Frequent teacher feedback to
parents regarding their children’s attendance and performance.
v) Guidance and counseling should be emphasized in schools.
vi) Creating child friendly school environment – i.e free from negative
punishments, criticisms based on academic weakness and improving
teacher – learner communication and interaction.
PARENT, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION

Introduction
Too many policy makers, community leaders and even parents still view schools
and student learning as the sole responsibility of educators. While educators
have taken their professional responsibilities seriously, they also recognize that
they cannot do it alone. They need and depend on the support from parents and
community.
One dynamic too often observed is that parent involvement in education tends to
decline as their children go up in grade, with a dramatic drop once students
reach middle school.
In fact, lack of parents’ involvement is viewed by teachers, administrators, the

public and even parents of school-age children, as the single biggest problem
facing our nation’s schools.
To promote student growth and school success at every grade and age, well
thought out parent-community school partnerships, linked to school improvement
goals, are needed in every community.
Community involvement in education

i) Parenting: assist families with parenting skills, family support,
understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home
conditions to support learning at each age and grade level. Assist schools
in understanding families’ backgrounds, cultures and goals of children.
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ii) Communicating: communicate with families about school programs and
student progress. Create two-way communication channels between
school and home that are effective and reliable.
iii) Volunteering: improve recruitment and training to involve families as
volunteers and as audiences at the school or in other locations. Enable
educators to work with volunteers who support students and the school.
iv) Provide meaningful work and flexible scheduling
v) Learning at home: involve families with their children in academic learning
at home, including home work, goal setting, and other curriculum-related
activities.
vi) Decision making: include families as participants in school decisions,
governance, and advocacy activities through school councils or
improvement teams, committees and other organizations.
vii) Collaborating with the school: coordinate resources and services for
families, students and the school with community groups, including
businesses, agencies, cultural and civic organizations, and colleges or
universities.
How to engage more stakeholders in education

Here are some specific ways that schools can engage more parents, families,
and communities in education:
i) Survey educators and families to determine needs, interests, and ideas
about partnering.
ii) Develop and pass family-friendly policies and laws (i.e leaves of absence
for parents/caregivers to participate in school or education-related
activities; Flexible scheduling to encourage participation by diverse
families).
iii) Provide professional development on family and community engagement
for school facilities.
iv) Offering training for parents and community stakeholders on effective
communications and partnering skills.
v) Provide better information on school and school district policies and
procedures.
vi) Ensure timely access to information, using effective communication tools
that address various family structures and are translated into languages
that parents/families understand.
vii) Hire and train school-community liaisons who know the communities’
history, language, and cultural background to contact parents and
coordinate activities.
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viii) Collaborate with higher education institutions to infuse parent, family, and
community involvement in education into teacher and administrator
preparation programs.
ix) Develop an outreach strategy to inform families, businesses, and the
community about school and family involvement opportunities, policies
and programs.
x) Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of family involvement programs and
activities. Like the parent-teacher home visit projects would be good.
Factors that hinders parent’s involvement in education

Parents see lots of roadblocks to getting involved in their children’s education. The
following are the hindrances:
i) Language or cultural differences of their own past experiences with the school.
ii) Lack of know- how and resources to help their children.
iii) Frustration with school bureaucracies or policies they find impossible to
understand or change.
iv) Communication gap
v) Incomprehensible information from the school due to either educational jargon or
language barrier.
vi) Lack of transport
vii) Health conditions.
The importance of involving community in schools

 Linking schools and communities
 Coordinating resources in education
 Helps in decision making
 Assessing the performance and academic excellence of the school
 Improving the welfare of teachers and learners in the school
 Ensuring proper management of the school.
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UNIT SEVEN
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS

Introduction
You have already been introduced to the units on Pre- Primary School Curriculum,
Teaching Methods, Assessment and Evaluation. These are very useful components for
your teaching profession. Throughout history, many educated people and professionals
like teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. use research to discover new knowledge and facts
to improve their work and other people’s lives. Have you ever heard of or read about
people like Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Einstein, Jean Piaget, etc. who did a lot of
research to make our lives, education and world better? Don’t you think it is very
exciting to become like them – wonderful Researchers? Research, especially “Action
Research,” will be part and parcel of your teaching profession. For your information, this
unit puts heavy emphasis on the importance of research-based decision-making, action,
policies, excellent teaching and learning practice as well as ethical conduct in research
that characterize your profession as an educator. Therefore, you are greatly
encouraged to study, understand and apply to daily life, the contents of Research in
Education.
Aim and objectives

The major aim of “Educational Research,” is to help the student to become familiar with
different, but excellent ways of doing Research in Education as a pre-condition to
applying Educational Research in the teaching profession.
At the end of this course unit:
 The student should be able to precisely define Educational Research.
 The student can identify and explain trends in, types and purpose of research.
 The student can identify and explain the main components of Educational
Research procedure.
 The student can write an excellent Educational Research proposal.
 The student becomes familiar with, and he/she can practice the techniques of
data analysis and presentation.
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 The student can apply Educational Research process to “Action Research” in
Primary School settings.
Topics to be covered
Topic 1; The Nature of Educational Research (with special focus on definition, current
trends in Research, types of Research and the purpose of Research).
Topic 2: Procedure of Research.
Topic 3: Writing Research Proposal.
Topic 4: Data analysis and Presentation of Research Findings (Report writing).
Topic 5: Basics of Action Research.
Topic 1: The Nature of Educational Research (Research in Education)
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Research can be defined as a

careful and logical (methodical) study of a subject or problem. This is because everyone
wants to discover new facts or information about the problem in question.
Cohen Louis, Manion Lawrence & Morrison Keith (2007) view Research as a well
planned, systematically organized with well controlled irrelevant influences on the
problem in order to discover new facts that can be applicable to different concrete
situations.
Salkind Neil (2000, pp. 3-5) defines Research as “scientific process through which new
knowledge is discovered.” In Salkind’s view, Research is a human, academic and
practical activity as well as process of generating new knowledge that can benefit
society.
In relation to these definitions, do you think Research is very important in our daily lives
and profession or career?
Educational Research
In this unit, “Educational Research” and “Research in Education” mean the same thing.
What does “Educational” mean to you? For many other people, educational means,
“concerning, or connected to, related to and associated with education.” Do you think
they are right? Why? What is Educational Research?
Educational Research is a research activity carried out by students and professionals

such as educators, scientists, etc. in the formal education field to produce new
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knowledge which can improve teaching and learning in schools, lives of people in
different organizations, institutions and societies. As far as student involvement in
research is concerned, the above definition of Educational Research extends the
purpose of doing research beyond mere fulfillment of diploma or degree requirements in
an educational institution because good research can also improve teaching, learning
and lives of many poor people in society.
Similarly, professionals, who do Educational Research, should not entertain a parochial

or short-sighted view of the purpose of research, which is, “To do it in order to get
money from those who fund research” because good research, as stated above, can
benefit society in a variety of ways. Amin, E. Martin, in his book entitled, “Social Science
Research: Conception, Methodology & Analysis,” (2005, pp. 23-28), has beautifully and
precisely explained the meaning and purpose of Educational Research. He states, “In
Education, research can be considered as the systematic process of collecting
information (data), analyzing it and interpreting it with the aim of providing or finding
meaningful answer(s) to some educational issues of concern to society.”
Amin (2005, p. 24) also emphasizes that Educational Research is very important for
teachers because:
 it helps teachers to develop new knowledge related to a variety of educational
issues,
 the new knowledge can help teachers and students to improve teaching and
learning and
 it helps teachers to test existing theories and to develop new theories in
education.
ACTIVITY PES/4/1
(i) What type of research is very important in your teaching career?
(ii) With relevant examples, define Educational Research.
VARIABLES IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Educational Research questions and problems can involve the relationship between
or the correlation of two or more VARIABLES.
N.B: “To correlate” means to have two or more ideas, facts or things closely
connected, such that, one thing affects or depends on the other(s).
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What are variables?
In your village, county, district, school, region, country, continent or world, you might
have heard many people say, “One powerful idea or theory can change the world for
better or for worse.” What do you think about this statement? Suppose, through your
own research study, you discovered some powerful ideas that can change the way
farmers use the land for increasing food and cash crop production in your country!
Would that “powerful idea” be a variable? Why? Let us see how Sotirios Sarantakos
(2005, pp. 74-75) can help you understand the meaning of “variables.”
According to him, “VARIABLES” are concepts, ideas or things “of which you can have
more, less or different kinds.” In research, variables that are of the greatest importance
are those which can be measured. Examples of variables include: Sex or gender (male
or female), marital status (married or single), age, education level, height, weight, etc.
There are many types of variables, such as dependent, independent, intervening and
extraneous variables.
⇒ Dependent variable is the type of variable, which can be affected, changed and
modified by another variable called, “Independent variable.”
⇒ Independent variable causes changes in the dependent variable. For example, a

research on the effect of dirty water consumption on children’s health in your school,
involves the relationship between two variables, namely, (1) Dirty water and (2)
Children’s health.
Therefore, dirty water is independent variable because it causes changes in children’s

health in your school and children’s health is the dependent variable because it is
affected by the consumption of dirty water.
⇒ Intervening variable is also an independent variable, which can cause changes in

the dependent variable, but the researcher is not interested in studying its impact on the
dependent variable.
⇒ Extraneous variable is distinct or different from the researcher’s chosen

independent and dependent variables. It is irrelevant or not directly connected to the
research topic and problem.
ACTIVITY PES/4/2 In your environment (school or community/society), try to identify,
describe and define at least two dependent and two independent variables that you
consider important in any research project you would carry out as a student or
professional teacher. Why are variables important in any research topic?
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TYPES OF RESEARCH
N.B: The research questions asked and the method(s) used to approach research
problems determine the type of research projects you intend to carry out. Here below,
you will find different lists and explanations of types of research by various authors
(writers): Salkind Neil (2000, pp. 10-17) presents the following types of research:
(i) Non-experimental research

It is an approach to research where the researcher does not set up a scientific
experiment to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
This type of research uses the following methods:
(1) descriptive method (where the researcher describes and interprets current
characteristics of existing events, situations or happenings (phenomena) in
order to understand or make sense out of them.
(2) Historical method (herein, the researcher relates or connects events, which have
occurred in the past to current events).
3) Correlation method (the researcher examines the relationship between, for
example, the independent and dependent variables (see the above example about
the relationship between dirty water consumption and children’s health in your
school. Which of the two variables above is described as “independent” and
“dependent?” Discuss your answers with colleagues!
(ii) Experimental Research: This is a type of research in which the researcher

sets up an experiment to test cause-effect relationships between the independent
and dependent variables. In this case, the researcher has high degree of control
over factors which influence the outcome of the study and the people involved in the
study (Research Subjects). By the way, when you recruit or ask some students,
teachers, parents, politicians, school administrators like headmistresses, etc. to
participate in a research project you are conducting, for example, by asking them to
fill questionnaires and to answer interview questions, are these groups of people
called, “Research Subjects?” Why Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2007, pp. 167-313)
state that there are three types of research, namely, Non-experimental Research,
Experimental Research and Action Research.
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i) Non experimental Research: -Naturalistic and Ethnographic Research: In
this category of non-experimental research, the researcher spends a lot of
time in observing phenomena (events, situations and happenings). The
researcher uses interview, focus group discussion and photography as
instruments for data collection. Please, refer to the section on “Procedure of
Educational Research – Instruments of data collection, for detailed
explanation of interview, focus group discussion and photography, etc.
-Historical and Documentary Research: While using this type of non-experimental

research, the researcher relates past events to current ones and he/she uses primary
and secondary sources of data, for example, he/she uses library textbooks, journal
articles, video, audio and other relevant documents such as school manuals and
records about historical personalities and events related to his/her study. The
researcher can also utilize interview and focus-group discussion instruments to collect
relevant data for this study. For instance, a researcher, who wants to know the impact of
Dr. Milton Obote’s presidency on Uganda’s socio-political life, may use libraries,
archives, interviews, focus groups, etc. to thoroughly study this subject.
-Survey Research: In this approach, the researcher employs questionnaires (written

questions) in investigating opinions and behavior of a particular group of people (sample
group) in a community, region, country, continent or world. Responses (answers) to the
questionnaires can provide valuable data for such study. However, for these
questionnaires to prove effective herein, the researcher must ask excellently clear,
precise and unambiguous questions. As the old saying goes, “Call a-spade, a-spade,
but nothing else!” The researcher can study one group of people over a long period of
time, may be, for more than a year. This type of research is longitudinal survey.
Sometimes, the researcher wants to study the attitudes or behavior of several groups of
people over time. This is referred to as cross-sectional survey research. Lastly too, the
researcher may wish to study some factors that bring about change in groups of
people’s opinions, attitudes and behavior over time. Such research is called trend or
prediction survey research
ACTIVITY PES/4/4
Think of a group of people whose attitudes, opinions and behavior you would like to
study (It can be your class, all pupils in your school, the communities around your
school, etc.). How would you go about composing excellent questions, which elicit
relevant data from your respondents? If you are teaching in a primary school now, how
would you help your class to practice survey research techniques?
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- Computer-Internet-based Research: Have you ever used a computer for typing
essays, sending e-mails or finding some written documents/articles? How was your
experience in using it? Would you prefer using the computer-internet connection for
doing research to using the library? Today millions of people in Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, Rwanda, America, Asia, Europe, etc. use computer-internet access for
Educational Research. Would you like to join them in doing computer-internet-based
Educational Research? Why? In this type of research, the researcher can use
computers, especially the internet surveys to carry out research. The researcher can
use internet to distribute questionnaires and interview questions to respondents and to
receive responses (answers). More so, the researcher can utilize the internet resources
(written materials like journal articles and many other original research materials, which
researchers have already posted or put on the internet websites).
-Case Study: It is a type of non-experimental research, which focuses on “specific
instances,” for example, in it, the researcher carefully and thoroughly studies a person,
class, school or community. Because of this focus, case study is highly descriptive,
detailed, narrow-focused, subjective as well as objective, and in it, the researcher is a
serious participant, especially in critically observing characteristics of phenomena
(events, situations and happenings).
ACTIVITY PES/4/6 Give some examples of case study research you would carry out in
your school. Why would this type of research be important in your teaching career or
profession?
(ii) Experimental Research. You might have participated in the past or you currently
participate in Science practical in your school laboratory to investigate some scientific
problem. Wasn’t that or isn’t this action a scientific experiment connected to Educational
Research? Why do you think so? In Experimental Research, the researcher carries out
an experiment to test cause-effect relationships between variables (see definition of
variables in this unit) and he/she deliberately controls and manipulates conditions and
factors to determine the study outcomes or results. The purpose of such an
experimental research may be:
(1) to confirm or support an educated guess, which is often called, “Hypothesis” and
(2) to discover new knowledge which can ultimately benefit certain groups of people,
communities, institutions, organizations, industries and countries.
(iii) Action Research It is a type of research that can both be Non-experimental and
Experimental in nature. Kurt Lewin (1935, 1943 & 1948) was one of the founding fathers
of Action Research.
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By definition, Action Research is a research strategy for generating new knowledge for
the purpose of taking action, that is, for empowering stakeholders in order to promote
social change in society (Greenwood, J. Davydd & Morten Levin, 2007, p. 5). It
emphasizes the need to apply new knowledge to solve daily problems of life.
In Educational Research, Action Research is very valuable for professionals such as

teachers and scholars because it is a human activity and research process that
provides new knowledge intended for improving the quality and effectiveness of
teaching and learning in educational institutions. Woolfolk, E. Anita (1998, pp. 12-19)
also concurs (agrees) with the above stated purpose of Action Research. That is the
reason why she (Woolfolk) emphasises the need for quality Educational Research to
understand and to improve teaching and learning in schools. According to Cohen et al,
(2007, p. 298), the purpose of Action Research is to bridge the gap between theory and
practice.
Some important characteristics of Action Research:
- It generates new knowledge for solving practical problems of life.
- It empowers both participants and stakeholders.
- It is collaborative (in the research process intended for understanding a social

problem or situation, every participant’s view is respected).
- It helps in understanding particular social situations.
- It emphasizes the process of change in society.
- It aims at improving the quality of human action such as teaching.

- It often uses “case study” approach.
- It focuses on social problems which are of immediate concern to researchers and

stakeholders.
TRENDS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH TODAY
The current-general ways of doing things or behaving can be called “TRENDS.” In
Educational Research, there have also been many recognizable “trends.” For example,
in the past, most researchers had relied on either qualitative or quantitative research
approaches. In qualitative approach, information or data collected was and still is largely
of “non-numerical nature,” however, that does not mean that numbers are not useful in
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describing research findings. On the other hand, data in quantitative research approach
was and still is “numerical” (Amin, 2005, pp. 42-62). Currently, there is a new trend in
Educational Research called, “TRIANGULATION.” The next two paragraphs below will
define this concept and explain its value for you. Please, try hard to understand and
internalize it so that you can apply it to Education Research as a student and in your
teaching profession.
Triangulation Approach in Educational Research

Today, trends in Educational Research emphasize triangulation approach. Triangulation
is a research approach/strategy/procedure in which information is collected and
analyses using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. It can also refer to a
research procedure, which employs a mixed research information sources and analysis
to produce new knowledge.
Importance of Triangulation Approach in Educational Research

Triangulation is very valuable because of its use of mixed techniques (both quantitative
and qualitative approaches in information gathering, analysis and presentation) helps
researchers to cross-check information, ascertain or check validity/truth of research
results and to minimize bias in research (Amin, 2005, pp. 64-77).
ACTIVITY PES/4/7 (i) Define Triangulation.

(ii) In your teaching, would you apply triangulation approach to Educational
Research project? If yes, why? If no, why?
The Purpose of Educational Research
- To produce new knowledge which can improve teaching and learning in schools,
lives of people in different organizations, institutions and societies.
- To test existing theories in education.
- To develop new theories in education.
- To help researchers to cross-check information, ascertain or check validity/truth

of research results and to minimize bias in research.
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ETHICS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Ethics is a branch of philosophy, which examines the moral rightness and wrongness
of human conduct in society. For the sake of order and human relationships
characterized by mutual respect, care, justice and peaceful co-existence in society,
Ethical-moral principles are important.
Since Educational Research is a human activity involving human relationships and well
being (relationships among researchers themselves, between researchers and research
subjects as well as researchers and society), researchers ought to be very ethical, that
is, they ought to strictly adhere to ethical/moral values and principles in the entire
research process.
Ethical Principles and Educational Research

Researchers should adhere to Ethical Principles in Educational Research .Some of the
most common Ethical Principles are:
(1) The researcher should protect all those who participate in a research project
(research subjects) from both physical and psychological harm,
(2) The researcher should maintain privacy of research subjects (do not reveal any
information the research subjects do not want you to reveal to the public, that is,
let the research subjects remain anonymous by not sharing their records with the
public when you present the research findings),
(3) Respect each research subjects‟ informed consent, that is permission (let them
give you either written or verbal permission to participate in your research, for
example, to secure a written permission, you can have them sign a consent
form),
(4) The researcher should maintain confidentiality (the researcher should have strict
control over data collected so that everything about the research subject is kept
confidential),
(5) The researcher should share his/her research findings with the public, especially
with your research subjects.
(6) The researcher should be very unselfish by sharing research study benefits with
groups involved in the research (control and experimental groups).
Please, try as hard as possible to apply these Ethical Principles in any research projects
you do in order to ensure order, harmony and respect in Educational Research.
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The Researcher’s moral obligation (duty) to Research Subjects
In Educational Research, the researcher has a moral obligation (duty) towards research
subjects (people the researcher has requested to participate in a research project).
The researcher ought to respect them as human beings with dignity and protect their
lives instead of inflicting harm on them.
Secondly, the researcher ought to get the research subjects‟ consent (agreement or
acceptance) either in a verbal or written form before they participate in the research
project. Using force and lies to make research subjects to participate in a research
project is ethically/morally wrong and disrespectful because it denies research subjects
the exercise of their will and reason to make informed choice either for or against
participation in a research project.
Thirdly, in an Educational Research involving the collection and analysis of sensitive

information from research subjects, the researcher ought to embrace the ethical
principles of respect and confidentiality (maintain anonymity and privacy). For example,
the researcher must avoid revealing sensitive information that is private and only dear to
the individual research subject. The researcher too must avoid using the research
subject’s identity, name or HIV/AIDS status without permission in order not to expose
the research subject to serious ridicule, insult, social stigma and physical as well as
psychological harm). In other words, the researcher must respect research subject’s
right to life, privacy and anonymity.
Researcher’s moral obligation (duty) to fellow Researchers

According to Sotirios Sarantakos (2005), while doing Educational Research, the
researcher ought to be honest, truthful and respectful towards fellow researchers. For
example, he/she must avoid copying the work of fellow researchers without
acknowledging their intellectual or academic contribution.
This way of copying someone’s ideas/views and claiming these ideas are your own is
called plagiarism. Many researchers have already been accused of plagiarism in many
parts of the world. Similarly, many college and university students have already been
accused and worse still, dismissed from school due to plagiarism without getting their
certificates, diploma and degrees. A good researcher can avoid this plagiarism-trap,
especially by having a list of references and footnotes indicating the researcher used
and directly or indirectly quoted ideas, phrases and sentences from the academic work
of other researchers.
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Secondly, the researcher must carry out research projects without personal bias
because this can affect, invalidate and render the research results unreliable. Thirdly,
the researcher must use accurate methods and reliable information collection, analysis
and interpretation techniques, that is, be very objective in order to produce unbiased,
accurate, reliable and valid results that can benefit both fellow researchers and society.
In any Educational Research, the researcher must not fabricate or falsify information
(become a liar), which can produce unreliable research results because this earns
him/her distrust, disrespect and loss of good reputation from fellow researchers and
society.
TOPIC 2: PROCEDURE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

The procedure (ways) of doing research can further be sub-divided into two stages:
The initial stage

The initial stage has the following major components or parts:
(1) The researcher identifies a research problem that can motivate him/her to carry
out research.
A problem can be a burning issue affecting people in society for which the
researcher needs to find answers/solutions. How does a research project with or
without a clearly identified research problem(s) look like? A simple illustration and
comparison such as this may help you understand it better. Think of a human
being or any other animal without a natural heart! How would he/she or it
survive? Would he/she or it be alive or dead? That is what can happen to any
research if it does not have a clearly identified and defined research problem.
The researcher makes the problem become a topic for his/her research. The
research problem is like the heart of research activity without which it is hard to
conduct research. There are many ways of discovering and identifying research
problems before you carry out any research. Can you name four of them? Do
you think the following could be good sources of research problems: “Reading
written materials such as textbooks, journal articles, magazines, newspapers;
watching television, listening to radio or any audio machine, interacting with
people, for instance, attending Church/Mosque services, seminars or
professional development conferences, community empowerment sessions and
political rallies; observing nature and the environment around yourself, etc?”
How? Why?
(2) The researcher precisely defines the already identified research problem.
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Very often this approach or activity by the researcher is called, “Statement of the
problem” because the researcher describes the problem in such a way that it is
well understood before he/she proceeds with the research project. The
researcher can too define the variables (refer to definition of variables and types
of variables) that are included in the research problem because it is always
important to know what variable is related to what other variable before carrying
out research. For instance, does your research topic and problem have any
independent and dependent variables clearly identified and stated?
(3) The researcher must plan how to solve this problem.

At this stage, he/she may try to find more information about the problem
identified by consulting some resources such as expertise of some people,
textbooks, journal articles, videos, audios, internet websites, previous research
by other researchers, etc.
(4) The researcher must provide both the general and specific objectives of the
research he/she wants to do.
Indicate very precisely what you want to do and how you will do it. For example,
Fatuma lives in a remote village in Kabarole District. She had not gone to
Kampala before. She wants to go to Kampala to see her relatives. “Going to
Kampala to see her relatives” can be the main or general goal. However,
specifically how can she reach Kampala? What are the necessary things that can
enable Fatuma to reach her relatives in Kampala? These necessary things can
be Fatuma‟s specific goals. For example, she will need transport money, pocket
money, guidance from a friend, escort to Kampala, go by bus, taxi or fly. What
else does she need to reach Kampala?
(5) The researcher then formulates (writes out) research questions related to his/her
specific research objectives to guide the whole research process from choice of
resources, methods of data collection, analysis and presentation of research
findings or results.
Remember that good questions that are understandable can easily guide you to
good answers. Therefore, good research questions can be comparable to
excellent road maps, efficient map readers and interpreters that enable you
reach your destination with ease.
(6) If necessary, the researcher can formulate research hypothesis (singular form) or
hypotheses (plural form).
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Hypothesis is an educated guess or an assumption (belief that something is true
yet without proving it) a researcher makes about the issue he/she is
investigating. This assumption can be tested by the findings or results of the
research. For example, if you are investigating, “The impact of pre-marital sex on
the academic performance
of In-Service and Pre-Service Teachers in Uganda’s PTCs: Case study of Loro
Core PTC in Lira District,” you may generate hypothesis like this: “The number of
times Pre-Service and In-Service students engage in pre-marital sex in Uganda’s
PTCs does not negatively affect their academic performance in class
assignments and final examinations.”
(7) The researcher also describes for his/her readers the significance of the research
study. Basically, this sub-division focuses on the importance of the research
study. For example, this sub-division answers the question, “Who benefits from
the results or findings of the research to be conducted? Schools, Teachers, Local
communities, Government, Students, Employees, Employers, Police, Army,
Parents, Children, Patients, etc?
(8) Excellent researchers often consider and choose certain types of methodology
and method(s) for carrying out research.
Methodology means “approaches to research,” for example, the question which must
be answered here is, “What kind or type of research should the researcher undertake in
order to find good solutions to his/her research problem?” The answer to this question
leads the researcher to identifying specific “Research Designs” or “Types of Research,”
which suite his/her study. According to many authors or researchers such as Amin E.
Martin (2005, p. 144), “Research Design” is a “master plan for research study” (a
detailed plan that makes a complicated research work end successfully). It is the master
plan for systematic data or information collection for analysis. The researcher may
decide to use any of the following designs, but for definition of the types of research or
designs identified below, see previous pages on “Types of Research:”
 Case study
 Ethnographic Research
 Historical and Documentary Research
 Survey Research
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 Computer-Internet-based Research
 Experimental Research
 Qualitative Research
 Quantitative Research
 Action Research
Method refers to or means the wide range and variety of ways of data (information)
collection, analysis and presentation of research results. For data collection purposes,
research method(s); that is, “Instrument(s) for data collection,” may be utilised by any
researcher any time. According to you, what are some of the data/information collection
tools or instruments you are familiar with in your school and community? Are these the
same as some of the examples of instruments of data collection (research methods)
provided here below? How? Why?
(i) Questionnaire
(ii) Interview
(iii) Focus Group Discussion
(iv) Observation
(v) Photography
(vi) Documentary Analysis
(vii) Tests
ACTIVITY PES/4/9 (i) Identify at least four major components of the initial stage of
procedure of research. (ii) Define “Methodology” and “Method.” (iii) Define the following
methods of data collection: (a) Questionnaire (b) Interview (c) Documentary analysis (iv)
Why are Research subjects‟ photographs difficult to include in an Educational Research
report or presentation of research results?
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THE ADVANCED STAGE
TOPIC 3: WRITING RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A Research Proposal is a formally written suggestion or detailed plan about what you
want to study (research problem), what resources or literature you want to use and how
you want to study the research problem.
Components/features of a good Research Proposal

A well-written Research Proposal should have:
(1) A specific topic
(2) Introduction (background of the research study, problem statement, research
objectives, research questions and hypotheses, significance of the research
study, limitations of the research study and definition of important concepts),
(3) carefully chosen “Literature Review (resources used, for instance, textbooks,
journal articles, magazines, previous research, manuals, documents and internet
websites) and
(4) Methodology for studying the research problem, which includes data collection,
analysis and presentation (Research design, study population and sample,
instruments for data collection and plan for data analysis and presentation).
The above four main components can be expanded into three chapters as illustrated
below:
TOPIC: An example - “An investigation of the relationship between student- teacher

rapport and academic performance of upper primary school pupils in science: Case
study of five primary schools in Wakiso District.” The most important concepts in this
research topic are:
(1) Student-teacher rapport and
(2) Academic performance.
What are the indicators or aspects of student-teacher rapport and academic

performance that a researcher can directly observe and measure? For example, a
researcher can directly observe kind teachers, who share their smiles, sweets or roast
groundnuts and sugar cane. You can even calculate the number of times a teacher has
been kind to his/her students and measure the effects of this gesture on students‟
attention in class, performance on class assignments and final examinations. Can you
not observe and measure the number of times teachers counsel students about
success in school? Sometimes also the school atmosphere is so good that students feel
free and fearless to interact with their teachers. Aren‟t these very observable
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characteristics of students in a good school environment? Can‟t you measure the
number of times such interactions can occur in a year? Surely, as a researcher, you too
can measure the effects of these kinds of student-teacher interactions! Can‟t you? In
other words, your research topic must be specific, clearly understood, measurable,
realistic and doable within a certain amount of time or period (it is feasible).
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
A few months ago, Christine Auma and Samuel Mugaga had interviews for teaching
positions in Kampala area government-aided schools. The interviewers asked both
teachers to talk about their background. Christine said: “My father was an influential
tycoon in Lira town. He supported many orphans who had lost parents during the Kony
war. Now he pays school fees for thirty students in his community. Some of the children
consider him to be their own daddy. I see my daddy as a wonderful Christian. I want to
be like him.”
Mugaga said: “My back is aching because I was kicked by an opponent team member
during a football match in Arua town. I was rushed to a near-by hospital for treatment,
but I still feel sickly now. I hope that in a few days, I shall become alright. Thank you for
asking my background. Any further questions?” All the interviewers briefly kept silent
while writing a lot on their interview scripts. Later on, they continued with their questions
for the two candidates. What do you think of the responses of Christine Auma and
Samuel Mugaga? Suppose you were the one interviewed for the teaching position, how
would you respond to the same question? Why? Do you think Auma and Mugaga
passed the interview? Why?
To some extent, the background of an Educational Research project can be compared
to the above story. For example, the researcher should learn to give correct answers to
research questions and learn to correctly describe the background of his/her research
project.
A good research background should focus on the issues related to the research topic
otherwise, it is a totally disconnected work and wasted effort on the part of the
researcher. For instance, when you are doing a research project on the relationship
between student-teacher rapport and academic performance of upper primary school
pupils in science, you should emphasize the importance of investigating the very
relationship the topic deals with.
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In this case, the background cannot be about “the influence of President Idi Amin Dada
on Uganda‟s economy and politics in the 1970s” because the two topics are completely
unrelated. The researcher needs to introduce the research project in such a way that
the topic is clearly stated and explained. Remember that the research proposal is a
formally written piece that is also read by someone other than the researcher
him/herself.
Problem statement
Before the researcher goes out to investigate something, he/she should have a serious
problem that needs answers or solutions. What is this particular problem? Pinpoint it
and precisely describe it in a sentence or short paragraph. Suppose many researchers
in your district have been attributing poor upper primary pupils‟ academic performance
in science to student laziness or lack of exposure to laboratory work, but you notice that
the same pupils in other neighboring districts who seem lazy and lack exposure to
laboratory work still pass science. I guess that you too would be intrigued by this
scenario. Wouldn’t you? Perhaps, you would question these researchers‟ claims, and
you would also want a new investigation into this problem! If you did so, then, it would
mean that you have discovered a gap in approaching this same problem, and this
intellectual conflict has motivated you to come up with new assumptions for a fresh
investigation into the problem. Describe this problem. State why it is important to study it
and to arrive at a meaningful solution about it!
Research Objectives
In Research, objectives play an important role of indicating your intention (what you
want to do and how you want to do it). In other words, objectives guide and direct the
researcher in the whole research activity.
There are two types of research objectives: The first type of research objective is the
general or main objective. It describes what the researcher wants to do.
The second type of research objective is called the specific objective. It describes how
the researcher wants to accomplish what he/she wants to do. The above example on
the impact of student-teacher rapport on upper primary school pupils‟ academic
performance in science can still help in distinguishing the two concepts (general or main
and specific objectives). In this example, the researcher’s main objective is to
investigate the impact of student-teacher rapport on upper primary school pupils‟
academic performance in science. However, how can he/she accomplish this academic
work? The answer(s) to this question can help the researcher to identify some specific-
measurable objectives to guide his/her research. For example, the researcher may want
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to examine the measurable indicators (things or ideas) of student-teacher rapport such
as:
 To find out whether when teachers are kind to their upper primary school pupils,
the pupils‟ academic performance in science greatly improves or not.
 To examine whether Teachers‟ timely giving of excellent feedback to their upper
primary school pupils has a positive impact on the pupils‟ academic performance
in science or not.
 To find out whether the punishment teachers give to their upper primary school
pupils has a negative impact on the pupils‟ academic performance in science or
not.
 To examine the impact of regular upper primary school pupils‟ counseling by
teachers on the pupils‟ academic performance in science.
Research Questions
Research questions are very important in any research project because, like specific
objectives from which they are derived, they guide and direct the research process to
the end. To make it easy, the researcher investigating the impact of student-teacher
rapport on upper primary school pupils‟ academic performance in science, could
transform or change the above specific objectives into good research questions. For
example:
 Does teacher’s kindness to their upper primary school pupils greatly improve the
pupils‟ academic performance in science?
 Does teachers‟ timely provision of excellent feedback to their upper primary
school pupils have a positive impact on the pupils‟ academic performance in
science?
 Does the punishment teachers give to their upper primary school pupils have a
negative impact on the pupils‟ academic performance in science?
 Does regular upper primary school pupils‟ counseling by teachers lead to
positive academic performance in science?
Hypotheses
As indicated earlier, hypotheses are assumptions (educated guess) a researcher makes
on the basis of available evidence or facts so that he/she can test them after data
collection.
According to Amin E. Martin (2005, pp. 128-129), since scientific research, that is, an
organized and systematic research tries to answer very complex questions, its
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hypothesis only provides temporary or tentative solution to the research problem under
investigation.
In some qualitative research, a lot of researchers prefer using research questions to

hypotheses because they believe that their research does not require hypothesis-
testing. In such cases, it is good to use your own judgment to determine and justify
whether hypotheses are required for your type of research project or not. However, in
the absence of hypotheses, you should have excellent specific objectives and research
questions to guide and direct your research project.
In the above example where the researcher is “investigating the relationship between
student-teacher rapport and academic performance of upper primary school pupils in
science, you could easily transform the specific objectives into good hypotheses as
follows:
 Teachers‟ kindness to their upper primary school pupils can greatly improve the
pupils‟ academic performance in science.
 Teachers‟ timely provision of excellent feedback to their upper primary school
pupils has a positive impact on the pupils‟ academic performance in science.
 The punishment teachers give to their upper primary school pupils has a
negative impact on the pupils‟ academic performance in science.
 Regular upper primary school pupils‟ counseling by teachers can lead to positive
academic performance in science.
Significance of the study

By this time, the researcher has demonstrated or shown that he/she has a topic and
burning issue to study. However, he/she also needs to convince the readers about the
importance of this research project. What categories of stakeholders will benefit from
this particular research project? The question about the importance of the research
project is also directly related to the significance of the research study. In other words,
the research project is significant because it is important and beneficial to certain
groups of people, institutions (schools, businesses, health facilities and government)
and communities. For example, investigating student-teacher rapport and academic
performance of upper primary school pupils in science can be important because the
results of the study may help teachers to improve teaching and learning for their pupils.
In the final analysis, both teachers and pupils are the immediate beneficiaries of such a
research project.
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Limitations of the study
Do you know of certain conditions or things or people that/who prevent you from
achieving what you want in life? Could you name and describe them? Similarly, you will
realise that any honestly and carefully planned Educational Research project may have
certain limitations (problematic conditions) that need to be acknowledged or accepted
by the researcher. For example, the researcher may not have clearly identified and
explained how the variables included in the topic are related, and this lack of clarity
factor, can lead to poor and unreliable results that are difficult to generalize or apply to
different situations in life. Sometimes, the researcher mistakenly uses wrong
instruments of data collection that can adversely affect the research project and
findings. More so, the researcher may choose a wrong research design that does not
suit his/her research, and that too affects data collection, analysis and presentation, and
it can also lead to unreliable results. It is recommended for all researchers to specify
such limitations so that other researchers may later on improve the current research
project. Researchers can also suggest possible ways for overcoming the limitations
related to their research work because that demonstrates their level of awareness,
maturity and academic development in the field of research.
Definition of important/key terms or concepts

Since the research proposal and indeed, the whole research process is to be read and
evaluated by some reader(s) or supervisors, it is important for the researcher to clearly
define key terms or concepts used in the research project. The concerned researcher
can compile a list of concepts and define them for the readers.
For example, the researcher can define the following concepts that constitute his
research topic:
(1) “Student-Teacher rapport” and
(2) “Academic performance” because these definitions can render the topic
understandable.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is an academic activity in which a researcher critically examines the

written and published work of other researchers and writers. In other words, the
researcher analyses available written information published in textbooks, journal
articles, magazines, theses, dissertations, documents and internet websites. Today,
much of this written information can be available in local libraries nearest to the
researcher. However, a lot of the same information is also available in the internet
websites where you can access with ease and speed, libraries around the world using a
computer.
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Advantages of using Literature Review in Educational Research
 Literature review helps researchers to narrow down wide topics and issues into
manageable and researchable projects. The researchers can accomplish this
aspect of research by analyzing the available-written
 It helps researchers to become familiar with the information related to their
research topics or issues.
 It enables researchers to connect current research to previous ones so that they
can do comparative analyses of the issues at stake.
 It helps researchers to identify and to critically examine theories, methods and
techniques which suit the current research they want to undertake.
 It helps researchers to think deeply and critically about issues they are wrestling
with and questions that arise in the preliminary stages of the research process
 It enables researchers to develop excellent and logical arguments on the basis
of concrete evidence emerging from the written materials read.
 It also helps researchers to discover gaps between what is known through
previous research and what is unknown in relation to the issues they are
studying. In this case, the research conducted by researchers either attempts to
fill the gap between what is known and unknown or it simply attempts to replicate
(repeat) previous research by other researchers.
In an Educational Research proposal, the researcher should carefully organize the

literature review on the bases of the specific research objectives and the researchers‟
chosen theory (theoretical framework) because these research components or aspects
clearly describe what the researcher intends to do about the research issue at hand and
why he/she does it that way.
In simple terms, the literature review must be sequentially and logically organized in
order to strongly and effectively bring out the researcher’s arguments rooted in concrete
evidence. The evidence must be supported by literature or previous research and
commentaries that are documented in form of textbooks, journal articles, theses,
dissertations, internet websites, etc. The researcher can also summarize the literature
review materials and write out a brief conclusion at the end of this chapter.
ACTIVITY PES/4/12
(i) Why must a researcher pay attention to “Literature Review?”
(ii) (ii) How must the researcher organize the Literature Review?
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Having a specific, clearly understood, measurable, doable and feasible topic is not yet
enough in a good Educational Research. Similarly, having written down a well
organised and clearly defined research problem, objectives, questions, hypotheses,
significance of the study, definition of terms and literature review is not enough.
The next step is to explore research methodology because it provides detailed account
of how and why the researcher approaches the research topic and problem the way
he/she does it. In this section, you will become familiar with research design, research
population and sample, data or information collection instruments and plan for data
analysis and presentation.
As indicated in the previous section on “procedure of research” – methodology, you will

notice that Educational Research must have a good research design because the
design serves as “master plan or model” to guide the researcher to successfully
complete data collection, analysis and presentation. When doing Educational Research,
the researcher is often advised to choose the type of research design that suites his/her
research problem. Wrong choices related to research design can lead to serious
frustration in data collection, analysis and presentation, misleading research results and
conclusions. In order to help you to become familiar with the types of research design, I
have included some of the commonest examples here below:
 Case study
 Ethnographic Research
 Historical and Documentary Research
 Survey Research
 Computer-Internet-based Research
 Experimental Research
 Qualitative Research
 Quantitative Research
 Action Research
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N.B: Please, this is not an exhaustive list of research designs! As you read more
Research methodology textbooks and articles, you might discover many other research
designs. Feel free to include them in your detailed list of research designs.
Description of the Research Area and Population

It is almost impossible to imagine a research population without research area because
a population must exist within a certain geographical location. Because of this close
relationship between research population and research area, it is important for a
researcher to clearly identify and describe the chosen research area and population.
What is a research population? A research population is a group of people and things
with the same characteristics, which a researcher wants to study in a particular
area/location. For example, primary school pupils, secondary school or tertiary students,
Members of Parliament, The Bagisu of Uganda, White people in Uganda, UK Premier
football players, Mukwano Employees, Toyota cars in Uganda, etc. The researcher
must clearly define and describe the population he/she wants to study because a good
definition and accurate description helps the researcher to focus on a particular group in
a particular location with particular issue(s). Moreover too, each population may have
different characteristics. In Educational Research also, population refers to a group of
people or things you want to study and about whom/which you want to draw reliable
conclusions. Besides being the focus of a research study, research population is also
important because from it, a researcher is able to draw or select a sample to facilitate
his/her research.
Description of the Research Sample

What is a research sample? A research sample is the number of people or things
selected from a larger research population that can be studied. According to Amin E.
Martin (2005, p. 155), a research sample is representative of a selected research
population which helps the researcher to make general conclusions about the whole
research population. Like the research population, the sample must be precisely defined
and described in order to avoid confusion and lack of focus on the part of the
researcher. Herein, it is important for the researcher to select appropriate sample for
research. Use your personal judgment to come up with a good research sample size
that is not either too small or big to manage. If the sample size is too small, it may not
represent the larger research population about which you draw reliable conclusions. In
this case, your research findings may become unreliable because the sample is not
representative of the research population. If the sample size is too large, it may become
too difficult, time- consuming and costly for you to manage and to administer, for
example, interviews. Is it easier and less costly to interview fewer people (research
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subjects) than too many of them? Why? Suppose the research sample you intend to
select is sparsely spread over a large-remote geographical area, how would you
effectively deal with the sample size, time-factor and financial-cost issues in Educational
Research? In this case, your good choices and judgment regarding sample size, time-
factor and financial-cost issues, your ability to correctly describe the research sample
and to give good reasons for selecting it, will demonstrate or indicate how intellectually
mature and original you are in doing research. You are now familiar with research
sample selection, how a sample is related to a given research population, appropriate
research sample size and how size affects both the researcher and reliability and
validity of research results. Congratulations! In the next section, you will study the
procedures or ways of selecting research samples. There are several ways or
procedures of research sample selection. For example, purposive sampling, simple
random sampling, stratified random sampling, cluster sampling, snowball sampling and
volunteer sampling (Bouma, D. Gary & Atkinson, G. B. J., pp. 139-152; Sotirios
Sarantakos, 2005, pp. 151-175 and Cohen Louis, Manion Lawrence & Morrison Keith,
2007, pp. 100-118).
(a) Purposive sampling is a procedure in which the researcher hand-picks a particular

sample (group of people or things) because he/she needs it or it serves a specific
purpose in his/her research study. Though it may indicate some bias on the part of a
researcher because he/she has purposively chosen a sample that does not effectively
represent a particular research population, purposive sampling is good for selecting key
informants who have extensive knowledge and experience in the area you want to
study. For example, if you are studying factors that contribute to heavy smoking in your
school, purposively, you can select a group of student smokers in your school.
(a) Simple-random sampling is a procedure in which every member of a selected

population has the same chance or probability of being chosen by the researcher to
form a sample for a research study. If you have a population of 1000 student smokers in
your school to interview, you will realize that this number is too big for you to interview.
Therefore, you need a smaller number of student smokers from the total of 1000
student smokers. Each student smoker has an equal chance of being selected by you
(researcher) to form the sample for research study on factors contributing to heavy
smoking in your school. You can randomly (without thinking of who to pick) select 50
student smokers from the list of 1000 student smokers for you to interview.
(b) Stratified random sampling involves the selection of a sample from homogeneous
groups or strata that represent the target population. In the above example of student
smokers, you could have divided the population into two homogeneous groups (each
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group having the same characteristics), that is, male student smokers and female
student smokers before selecting a sample of 50 students for you to interview.
(c) Cluster sampling is often used by researchers in areas where the target population
is large, but very sparsely scattered over a huge territory, and collecting data from the
group is time-consuming and costly. For example, if you wanted to know how the
people of Kampala city feel about Joseph Kony’s guerrilla war, you would sub-divide the
whole city into different groups or clusters with similar characteristics such as Nakawa
division, etc. From each division, you could apply random sampling to select the
representative sample you want to study.
(d) Snowball sampling is sampling procedure whereby the researcher, for various
reasons such as difficulty in accessing certain regions, poor communication network
and the topic being very sensitive, cannot directly reach or access important informants
(research subjects) for interviews, questionnaires,
Observation, photography and focus group discussion. The best approach may be to
identify a small sample through which the researcher can also identify people of the
same characteristics he/she is interested in studying so that the same process can be
repeated till the desired sample size is obtained.
(e) Volunteer sampling involves selecting some volunteers (personal friends, friends of
friends, classmates, your students, church members, etc.). Because of this approach,
Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2007, p. 116) caution researchers to be vigilant about the
motives or interests of each volunteer which may disqualify them from representing the
wider target population to be studied.
Which of the above discussed sampling procedures would you use in any Educational
Research you intend to conduct? Why? What other sampling procedures would you like
to add to the above list? How will you collect data/information about the research
sample you have chosen? The answer to this question comes from good use of certain
instruments of data collection. You will study this in the next section (Instruments of data
collection).
Instruments of data collection

When the researcher has already identified, defined, described and justified the choice
of research design, population and sample, he/she can proceed to selecting appropriate
instruments (methods) of data collection (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007, pp. 47-48).
In a similar manner, he/she must define, describe and justify the choice of the data
collection instrument(s). There is a wide range of data collection instruments. However,
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the researcher must employ both critical and creative thinking in choosing the most
appropriate instrument(s) because “one pair of shoes cannot fit every person.” Here
below, you will find some examples of instruments of data collection:
(1) Questionnaire is a set of closed or open-ended questions, which the research

respondent fills or completes in writing.
(2) Interview is a technique for data collection in which the researcher verbally asks
respondents questions to be answered verbally.
(3) Focus Group Discussion is data collection instrument where the researcher
uses verbal questions directed at a particular group or groups of respondents
who in turn give the researcher verbal answers.
(4) Observation is data collection technique where the researcher uses vision to
collect data.
(5) Photography is another data collection instrument in which the researcher takes
photographs of people and things he/she is studying.
(6) Documentary Analysis is data collection procedure where the researcher

studies and analyses a variety of documents such as school manuals, report
cards, employee books, constitutions of different countries, etc. in order to derive
reliable information about a research topic.
(7) Tests are academic assessment tools employed by many researchers to collect
data. These tools are very common in experimental research where, for instance,
the researcher pre-tests the academic ability of a group he is studying before
introducing a new variable that can change the group’s academic performance
on either class assignments or final examinations. If a researcher wanted to
know whether primary seven pupils‟ perform academically better when taught by
grade five teachers or not, he/she would pre-test the pupils to gauge their
academic level before bringing in grade five teachers to teach them in
preparation for PLE examinations. After PLE results are published, the
researcher can then compare the pre-test results with the PLE results in order to
check for any differences in academic performance of the pupils due to using the
services of grade five teachers (the new variable). The experiment can help the
researcher answer the question whether the newly introduced teaching services
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of grade five teachers in his/her primary school made the pupils perform
academically better or not.
Validity and Reliability of the data collection instruments

The data collection instrument(s) chosen by the researcher must be valid and reliable.
In Educational Research, a data collection instrument, for instance, a questionnaire, is
said to be valid when it is designed to measure what it is supposed to measure. For
example, a researcher, who uses a thermometer for measuring poor-malnourished
children’s weight in his/her village clinic, is terribly wrong because a thermometer is not
validly used to measure weight, but temperature. Similarly, if a researcher administers
questionnaires to poor-illiterate-village people for collecting data on the effect of dirty
water consumption on rural people’s health, he/she is not going to get any written
response because these people cannot read and write. The questionnaire is designed
for literate people only. Therefore, the use of questionnaires in this situation is wrong
and invalid. It is also important for Educational Researchers to pay close attention to the
reliability of any data collection instrument because an unreliable information collection
instrument can produce unreliable research results.
Any data collection instrument is reliable because it is dependable or trusted, widely

acceptable and used by and among researchers.
To ensure that there is reliability and validity of a research design and data collection
instruments, Amin E. Martin (2007, pp. 202-3) suggests that the researcher should test
both of them in a pilot study (preliminary study in which the researcher tries out the
effectiveness of a selected research design and data collection instruments on a smaller
sample in order to see if he/she can use them on his/her intended research sample).
For the sake of validity and reliability of a research design and data collection
instruments, the researcher should also consult the expertise of relevant people like
statisticians, psychologists, scientists, historians, geographers, etc. who know a lot
about his/her area of research to provide feedback.
ACTIVITY PES/4/13
Identify an Educational Research topic related to teaching and learning in your school
and write a detailed proposal including: “Background of the study,” “Literature Review”
and “Methodology.”
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TOPIC 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH
RESULTS/FINDINGS
What does the verb “analyze” mean? What similar words would you use to replace the
word “analyze?” Consult any nearby dictionary or encyclopedia for the meaning of the
verb “analyze.” Suppose your friend tells you that to analyze means to examine the
structure of something by separating it into its different parts in order to explain and
understand it, would you believe him/her? Why? The next paragraphs will provide you
with detailed description of data analysis and show you how data analysis is very
important in Educational Research. Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2007, pp. 184-186)
provide a beautiful and meaningful definition of data analysis as follows: “Data analysis
involves organizing, accounting for, and explaining the data; in short, making sense of
data in terms of participants‟ definitions of the situation, noting patterns, themes,
categories and regularities.” As a keen researcher, you will notice that keeping,
protecting and managing collected data is very difficult because of the possibility of
losing data or computer data getting corrupted. Because of these safety issues, the
researcher needs to take absolute control over collected data. One way to do so is by
immediately preparing collected data for analysis.
Preparation for data analysis
(a) Edit data as soon as you have obtained responses from your research subjects or
respondents. Editing means that you critically examine the data for content errors,
meaning and omissions.
(b) Transcribe (transform audio and video data into written form) your recorded data so
that you can analyze them in a written form.
(c) If you want to use computer software such as SPSS (Statistical Package for Social
Sciences), etc. for data analysis, you need to code the data. Coding means that you
transform or change data by assigning numbers and symbols for a computer to easily
recognize when you enter that data into the computer database (information store or
storage) for later analysis.
Steps in data Analysis
(a) You organize and summarize your collected data under certain meaningful sub-
headings and themes. You can use the independent and dependent variables, specific
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research objectives, research questions and hypotheses to achieve these summary and
organizational goals.
(b) You need to identify emerging similarities and differences in the collected data
patterns. This approach helps you as the researcher to answer the question, “What are
the differences and similarities between the research respondents‟ answers to
questionnaires and interviews?”
(c) You, the researcher must carefully, critically and creatively examine the relationships
between various aspects of the data collected in order to draw reliable conclusions
about the research results.
(d) You, the researcher needs to utilize different approaches such as frequency tables,
graphs and pie charts in data analysis as indicated in the following pages under
“presentation of research results.”
Presentation of Research Results/Findings After editing, transcribing, coding,

organizing and summarizing collected data, you, the researcher, should present the
research results in a logical and meaningful manner. There are many efficient ways of
managing data presentation. You can use frequency tables, graphs and pie charts to
summarize and present your research
TOPIC 5: BASICS OF ACTION RESEARCH

Introduction
Joyce is an excellent biology teacher in one of the best performing day secondary
schools in Kampala city. Her senior four class has 50 students. For five consecutive
years, the lowest O’Level UNEB (Uganda National Examinations Board) biology result
was a C3 (Credit Three) while the rest of the 49 students obtained D1 (Distinctions).
Towards the middle of first term, she noticed something very unusual with ten of her
students in class. These students kept yawning, feeling drowsy and sleepy. They were
very inattentive in class. Joyce pondered over the issue, but she had no ready answer
to it. To get to the heart of this problem and to solve it made her conduct a serious
research involving the ten students, their relatives, friends and communities. Her topic
was, “A critical examination of the causes of student sleep in my class.” She sent out
questionnaires to twenty relatives and friends of her class to fill. She also selected a
sample of 100 relatives and friends of her class to be interviewed. Altogether, her
sample size was 1100 respondents. After data collection and analysis, she wrote a
detailed report on the problem affecting her class. Joyce‟s research results indicated
that 96% of the people interviewed and those who completed the 1000 questionnaires
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strongly believed students sleep in her class because they spend too much time
watching television late at night. Many parents and teachers in her school did not know
this behaviour of students living in Kampala city. Because of this groundbreaking
research results (new knowledge), Joyce‟s headmaster and the teachers called all
parents and guardians of the students to hear the report and to take action against
children who watch television late at night. They also counselled students in their school
to watch television with moderation and to rest enough every night. Parents, guardians
and the students responded positively to the anti late-night-television-watching
campaign by the headmaster, his teachers, parents and guardians of the students.
What a story!
☞ ACTIVITY PES/4/15 (i) What do you think of Joyce‟s Educational Research? (ii) Did
she solve the problem in her class? (iii) What type of Educational Research did Joyce
carry out? (iv) Why do you think so?
Definition of Action Research

Action Research is a research strategy for generating new knowledge for the purpose of
taking action, that is, for empowering stakeholders in order to promote social change
(Greenwood, J. Davydd & Morten Levin, 2007, p. 5). It is a type of research that can
both be non-experimental and experimental in nature. Kurt Lewin (1935, 1943 & 1948)
was one of the founding fathers of Action Research. Action Research emphasizes the
need to apply new knowledge to solve daily problems of life. In Educational Research,
Action Research is valuable for professionals such as teachers because it is a human
activity and research process that can generate new knowledge intended for improving
the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning in educational institutions.
Woolfolk, E. Anita (1998, pp. 12-19) also agrees with the above stated purpose of
Action Research. That is the reason why Woolfolk emphasizes the need for quality
Educational Research to understand and to improve teaching and learning in schools.
Like Woolfolk, Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2008, p. 298) also strongly believe that the
purpose of Action Research is to bridge the gap between theory and practice because
new knowledge from research is intended for solving practical problems of education
and society. In Unit 3, Action Research has already been thoroughly described in
relation to teachers, teaching profession and learning, but in order to refresh your
memory, I will re-state it:
Action Research is a process in which participants examine their own education
practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research. This reflective
practice is very good for researchers and teachers because it helps them to evaluate
what they are doing in order to make necessary changes or improvement. Action
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Research is a collaborative activity among colleagues searching for solutions to every
day problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction and
increase learners‟ achievement. Rather than dealing with the theoretical aspects of
knowledge, action research allows practitioners to address those concerns that are
closest to them. For example, if you find out that learners are not performing well, you
can conduct research on the cause of poor performance and then take action
immediately to improve it. Action Research is not a library kind of thing where you have
to go and open books. It is you to realize a problem and take action for better results.
Some important characteristics of Action Research (Cohen et al, p. 299):
- It generates new knowledge for solving practical problems of life.
- It empowers both participants and stakeholders.
- It is collaborative i.e. in the research process intended for understanding a social

problem or situation, every participant’s view is respected.
- It helps in understanding particular social situations.
- It emphasizes the process of change in society.
- It aims at improving the quality of human actions such as teaching.
- It often uses “case study” approach.
- It focuses on social problems which are of immediate concern to researchers and

stakeholders.
- According to Greenwood J. Davydd & Morten Levin (2007, p. 108), one of the
characteristics of Action Research is that it takes a lot of time to do it because it
involves mobilization of participants and effective communication with them in
order to build consensus (agreement) on research-problem definition, planning
and implementation of decisions.
- Action Research stresses the researcher’s skill in linking new knowledge to
research participants‟ problems of life so that these practical problems can be
addressed and effectively solved (Greenwood & Levin, p. 108).
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- When a researcher intends to use Action Research design or type in addressing
and solving a practical problem affecting people in communities, he/she must
select a sample size between 20 and 100 because this number of participants is
easy to interview and mobilize.
- Similarly, for easy mobilization purposes and understanding between the

researcher and participants, the researcher should involve participants who have
either the same or similar interests in the social problem he/she has identified.
- Effective communication, analytic, critical and creative skills are vital in Action
Research because the researcher must have a dialogue with and effectively
mobilize all participants to make quick-excellent decisions and to implement them
well.
Action Research and Educational Research Methods

As a type of Educational Research, Action Research utilizes research methods already
described earlier in “Procedure of Educational Research.” The major difference lies in
the fact that Action Research strongly emphasizes collaborative action of all
stakeholders in defining the research problem, carrying out the intended research,
planning and decision-making related to what actions to take in order to implement
social change or reform. Greenwood & Levin (2007, pp. 92 & 93) state this additional
emphasis as follows: “In Action Research projects, all known social science methods
are applicable as long as they are set in a context that aligns them with the values of
participative and democratic knowledge construction.” In this statement, collaboration
between the researcher and all those who are involved in the research and the
community where they come from, is considered to be very important in Action
Research because knowledge derived from Action Research project is used in solving
the research participants‟/ stakeholders‟ social problems. In other words, the researcher
and the other research participants or subjects team up to carry out Action Research in
order to solve a social problem affecting the stakeholders mentioned herein. Therefore,
when you do Action Research, you can judiciously (make choices based on good
reasons and judgment) use any or many of the previously explained Educational
Research procedures, i.e. see the following: Initial stage, Advanced stage, Data
analysis and Presentation of research results of unit four.
Educational Action Research often addresses the following issues:

 The school.
 Classroom management.
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 Students/learners.
 The Curriculum; teaching and learning.
 School administration.
 Community development.
 Liberation movements.
 Organizational change.
 People’s behaviour change.
Researchers, who are interested in this type of research strategy, heavily apply critical
and creative thinking. For example, in their attempts to address and solve the above
problems, they ask tough questions whose answers provide good and concrete facts,
which can be creatively used to solve these seemingly difficult social and educational
problems.
Therefore, whenever you get involved in Action Research, which addresses and solves
such identified social problems above, you are encouraged to apply your critical and
creative thinking skills, and try as much as possible, to effectively communicate with and
to involve all stakeholders in the project because the research project undertaken is for
the good of these stakeholders.
ACTIVITY PES/4/16
If you intend to carry out Educational Action Research in your teaching career in future,
what educational issues will you include? Why?
The Purpose or significance of Educational Action Research

Educational Action Research, if well implemented, can help researchers to generate
valuable new knowledge about the socio-educational problems, which knowledge can,
for instance, improve the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning, school
administration, community development, organizational change and personal behavior.
The new knowledge derived from Action Research can help researchers to empower
people through effective communication, education, understanding and mobilization
(human resource capacity building) to cooperate in solving socio-educational problems
which abound in their communities.
Educational Action Research has the potential, especially when it is carried out well and
it generates new knowledge, of informing, motivating and empowering education policy
makers to reform schools, teaching, learning, school administration, school-community
relationships and PTA (parents-teachers associations).
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Conclusion
Having read, understood and internalized this unit on Educational Research, you should
be lucky, enthusiastic, intrigued and curious about research, its procedure and value to
students, professionals and society. Your appetite for doing Educational Research
should be very high now because you have discovered the importance of research in
daily life.
How many people in the world make serious decisions based on just hear-say,
rumours, emotional appeal, lies, tradition, a book, what an influential politician says, etc.
while disregarding truth, facts and concrete evidence? Have you ever used this
approach to decision-making in your past life, teaching career or any other thing you do
today? If you want to be like professional researchers, who make critical and life
transforming or changing decisions based on concrete evidence, truth and new
knowledge derived from systematic Educational Research, you are blessed to have this
wonderful exposure to the unit on “Educational Research.” If you want to become an
excellent teacher who is current, critical and creative thinker in your profession,
Educational Research is very important for you because it will strengthen your
academic and professional development.
Do you feel that way now? If no, then re-read this unit and discuss it with colleagues
and your lecturers. If yes, then, I congratulate you upon a successful study and
completion of the course unit. However, success on this Unit does not mean the end of
research in your life. Try your level best to practice the Educational Research
procedures and skills learnt by applying them to real-life; educational and social
problems or issues in society. In your professional career, for example, as a teacher,
may the decisions you make, actions you take, policies you participate in writing and
implementing and your teaching activities be informed by genuine Educational Action
Research!
ANSWERS TO UNIT ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY PES/4/1
(i) The type of research that is very important in your teaching career is Educational
Action Research.
- It is valuable because it encourages action intended for improving education,
especially in the areas of teaching, learning, curriculum, school administration, school
discipline, school-community relationships, teachers-parents associations, education
policy both locally and nationally, etc.
(ii) Educational Research:

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- It is a systematic process of collecting information (data), analyzing it and interpreting
it with the aim of providing or finding meaningful answer(s) to some educational issues
of concern to society.
- It is research done by students and professionals such as teachers, scientists, etc. in
the formal education field to produce new knowledge which can improve teaching and
learning in schools, lives of people in different organizations, institutions and societies.
ACTIVITY PES/4/2 Two dependent and independent variables: Dependent variables:

- Students‟ academic performance on National Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
- Student strikes in school (It can be violent or peaceful demonstration). Independent
variables:
- Good teaching by well trained teachers (variable which can change PLE results).
- Embezzlement of school funds by the headmaster (variable that can lead to strikes in
primary and secondary schools).
- Variables (concepts/ideas) are important in any research topic because they help the
researcher to precisely define, narrow down and clarify a topic so that he/she can focus
on the topic’s measurable and specific aspects.
ACTIVITY PES/4/3 Historical and Documentary Research: In this type of research, the
researcher relates past events to current ones. Examples include:
- The role of Early Christian missionaries in the development of education in Uganda. -
An assessment of the political influence of Obote and Amin on Uganda‟s economy
between 1962 and 2009.
- An investigation of the number of students who passed in division one in your primary
school between 1959 and 2008.
ACTIVITY PES/4/4
- When conducting a survey research, a researcher should ask clear, precise and
unambiguous questions which appeal to respondents and can elicit relevant data from
the respondents.
- You would help your primary school pupils by becoming a role model, who is
interested in survey research and does it well. You can also coach them in asking
precise, understandable and meaningful questions. Lastly, you should involve them in
conducting mock survey research among themselves in the school or in the surrounding
communities.
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ACTIVITY PES/4/5
- Computer internet based Research can be possible, but it depends on where you are
located, your level of income, donor support, availability of electricity, internet access,
etc.
ACTIVITY PES/4/6 Examples of case study research you would carry out in your
school:
- The effect of teasing on Lower Primary School pupils‟ social interaction with Upper
Primary School pupils; Case study (Your own school or neighboring school).
- An analysis of the relationship between primary school pupils‟ exposure to scientific
laboratory experiments and pupils‟ performance in science in UNEB Examinations:
Case study … (Your primary school or primary schools in your sub-county). This type of
research could be important in your teaching career because it gives you an opportunity
to do an in-depth and detailed study of the issues, things and people you want to study
so that you can come up with reliable research results.
ACTIVITY PES/4/7 (i) Triangulation is an Educational Research approach in which

information or data is collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative
techniques.
(ii) Because of its importance in Educational Research, you could apply it in your
teaching profession.
Highlights on its importance: It uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches in data
collection, analysis and presentation. Because of this approach, it helps the researcher
to compare knowledge, facts and data, to cross-check information and to verify
information in order to minimize bias in research.
ACTIVITY PES/4/8 (i) Educational Research is important in your teaching career

because it can help you to develop new knowledge related to a variety of educational
issues, (2) the new knowledge can help you and your students to improve teaching and
learning, (3) it can help you to test existing theories and to develop new theories in
education.
(ii) The six Ethical Values that are extremely important in Educational Research include:
(a) Protection of research subjects (people recruited to participate in research) from

harm.
(b) Respect people’s right to privacy.
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(c) Informed Consent.
(d) Confidentiality.
(e) Share research findings with community of researchers and stakeholders.
(f) Honesty.
- Truth
- Justice
- Care
(iii) As a researcher, you should have an Ethical/moral obligation (duty) to research
subjects because they have human dignity as you do, therefore you need to respect
them, respect their decision, right to privacy, life, care for them vis-à-vis harming them
physically and psychologically. Fellow researchers are also human beings with dignity,
thus respect them and their intellectual work by acknowledging their ideas versus
plagiarism. You should avoid telling lies and lack of commitment to doing excellent
Educational Research. Society is made of human beings with dignity. Therefore, you
ought to respect and care for these people in society. Let your good research results be
your utmost contribution to improving society.
(iv) Alex violated the Ethical principles of respect, justice, care and informed consent. It
is not good to force research subjects to complete questionnaires and to do interviews
because force is a criminal assault on a person’s freedom and life. In this way, the
research subject, who feels assaulted by the researcher, may withhold vital information
needed for the ongoing research. In the end, the researcher obtains false and unreliable
information. That is really wrong approach to Educational Research because unreliable
data can also generate unreliable research results.
PES/4/9 (i) The four major components of the initial stage of procedure of Research are
 Identify the research problem,
 Define the research problem,
 State the main and specific objectives and
 Describe the Research questions or hypotheses.
(ii) Methodology is an approach to research. It refers to research types and designs.
Examples include: Case study, Ethnographic Research, Historical and Documentary
Research, Survey Research, Computer-Internet-based Research, Experimental
Research, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research and Action Research.
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- Method means the wide range and variety of ways of data (information) collection,
analysis and presentation of research results. Examples of data collection instruments
are: Questionnaire, Interview, Focus Group Discussion, Observation, Photography,
Documentary Analysis and Tests.
(iii) Definition of the following methods of data collection:

(a) Questionnaire is a set of closed or open-ended questions, which the research
respondents fill or complete in writing.
(b) Interview is a technique for data collection in which the researcher verbally asks
respondents questions to be answered verbally.
c) Documentary analysis is data collection procedure where the researcher studies
and Analyses a variety of documents such as school manuals, report cards,
employee books, constitutions of different countries, etc. in order to derive reliable
information about a research topic.
(iv) Research subjects‟ photographs are difficult to include in an Educational Research
report or presentation of research results because research subjects‟ permission is
required before publishing the photographs. Worse still, some research subjects may
not give the researcher permission to publish their photographs. Publishing their
photographs without permission would mean disrespect to them and violation of their
right to privacy.
ACTIVITY PES/4/10 Yes, the above topic is realistic and doable, but it must be
precisely defined so that the measurable indicators of the two variables (independent
and dependent variables), that is (a) student-teacher rapport and (b)academic
performance, are emphasised. You are free to list educational topics within your
immediate school environment, neighbourhood, community, county, district, etc.
ACTIVITY PES/4/11 other specific objectives you would add to the above list may
include:
(a) To find out whether giving students enough time for extracurricular activities can
improve their academic performance in science or not.
(b) To examine the impact of more time allocated for laboratory experiments on
upper primary school pupils‟ academic performance in science.
(c) To study the effect of giving upper primary school pupils well trained science
teachers on the pupils‟ academic performance in science.
ACTIVITY PES/4/12 (i) Educational Researchers should pay a lot of attention to

literature review because;
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 Literature review helps them to narrow down wide topics and issues into
manageable and researchable projects.
 It helps researchers to become familiar with the information related to their
research topics. (c) It enables researchers to connect current research to
previous ones so that they can do comparative analyses of the issues at stake.
 It helps researchers to identify and to critically examine theories, methods and
techniques which suit the current research they want to undertake.
 It helps researchers to think deeply and critically about issues they are wrestling
with and questions that arise in the preliminary stages of the research process.
 It enables researchers to develop excellent and logical arguments on the basis of
concrete evidence emerging from the written materials read.
 It also helps researchers to discover gaps between what is known through
previous research and what is unknown in relation to the issues they are
studying.
ii) Literature review must be organized on the basis of specific research objectives
and the researchers‟ chosen theory (theoretical framework).
ACTIVITY PES/4/13 Try to identify an educational topic (topic related to teaching,

learning, school discipline, administration, academic performance, school funding, etc.)
and write a detailed research proposal. For guidance, see topic: “Procedure of
Educational Research.”
ACTIVITY PES/4/14 (i) Data Analysis is an Educational Research procedure of

organizing, accounting for, and explaining the data; in short, making sense of data in
terms of participants‟ definition of the situation, noting patterns, themes, categories and
regularities (similarities and differences).
(ii) Ways of analyzing data in Educational Research:
(a) After collecting and preparing data for analysis, the researcher should organize
and summarise the data under certain meaningful sub-headings and themes. For
example, he/she can use independent and dependent variables, specific
research objectives, research questions and hypotheses to achieve these
summary and organizational goals.
(b) The researcher should focus on identifying emerging similarities and differences
in the data patterns because these patterns can help him/her to answer the
stated research questions or evaluate the stated hypotheses.
(c) (c) The researcher must carefully, critically and creatively examine the
relationships between various aspects of the data collected in order to draw
reliable conclusions about the research results.
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(d) (d) The researcher needs to utilize different approaches such as frequency
tables, graphs and pie charts in data analysis and presentation.
(iii) Why do you think using frequency tables, graphs and pie charts is very effective
in both data analysis and presentation of research results? Using frequency
tables, graphs and pie charts is very effective in both data analysis and
presentation of research results because these techniques are very graphic
(colourful and beautiful) and they can clearly show the similarities and
differences in the data patterns for a researcher to draw conclusions with ease.
ACTIVITY PES/4/15 (i) What do you think of Joyce’s Educational Research? Joyce’s
Educational Research is very intriguing (thought provoking) and it can rightly be
categorized as Action Research because its results were used for solving students‟
sleep problem in class and for sensitizing parents of the students in Kampala about late
night Television watching by students.
(ii) Did she solve the problem in her class? She seemed to have solved the class sleep
problem, but the story does not provide details about it.
(iii) What type of Educational Research did Joyce carry out? She carried out “Action
Research.”
(iv) Why do you think so? Because her research generated new knowledge about
student sleep related to late night television watching and parents‟ ignorance
about their children’s behaviour at home, which new knowledge, was utilized for
solving the problem in her class and in Kampala city homes.
ACTIVITY PES/4/16
You are likely to include the following educational issues in your research:
 Poor school environment,
 Classroom management,
 Students/learners,
 Irrelevant Curriculum or teaching and learning,
 Lack of teamwork in school administration,
 Education and Community development, etc.
Why? May be, because you want to offer some solutions to these problems so that your
contribution as a teacher and good citizen of your country, can earn you promotion,
good reputation, hone your research skills, etc!
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END OF UNIT EXERCISE
1. What is Educational Research?
2. Identify and explain the current trends in Educational Research.
3. Mention and describe types of Educational Research.
4. What is the purpose of Educational Research? (v)
5. Identify and explain the main components of Educational Research
procedure.
6. Choose an educational topic and practice writing an Educational Research
proposal.
7. Discuss the major techniques of data analysis and presentation.
8. Why are the data analysis and presentation techniques important in
Educational Research?
9. Define “Action Research.”
10. Using a concrete example, how would you apply “Action Research” in a
Pre-Primary School setting?
REFERENCE
Amin, E. Martin. (2005). Social Science Research: Conception, Methodology &
Analysis. Kampala: Makerere University.
Bouma, D. Gary & Atkinson, G. B. J. (1996). A Handbook of Social Science

Research: A comprehensive and practical guide for students. (2nd Ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Cohen Louis, Manion Lawrence & Morrison Keith. (2007). Research Methods in
Education. (6th Ed.). London, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. Freire Paulo.
(1970). The pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder & Herder.
Donald Kisilu Kombo & Delno L. A. Tromp. (2016). An introduction to Proposal

and Thesis writing. Nairobi: Pauline’s publication
Greenwood, J. Davydd & Levin Morten. (2007). Introduction to Action Research:

Social Research for Social Change. (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
Larossi Giuseppe. (2006). The power of survey design: A user’s guide for
managing surveys, interpreting results and influencing respondents. Washington
DC: The World Bank.
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Minium, W. Edward; King, M. Bruce & Bear Gordon. (1993). Statistical reasoning
in Psychology and Education. (3rd Ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Salkind, J. Neil. (2000). Exploring Research. (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Sotirios Sarantakos. (2005). Social Research. (3rd Ed.). New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Wilcox, R. Rand. (2001). Fundamentals of modern statistical methods:

Substantially improving power and accuracy. New York: Springer-Verlag New
York, Inc.
Woolfolk, E. Anita. (1998). Educational Psychology. (7th Ed.). Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
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UNIT EIGHT
ENTREPRENUERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SKILLS

1.0 INTRODUCTION
This field of study supplies the trainee with the skills of business and adventurous skill
of starting up an enterprise. Along side educational institution, one should have some
other things to supplement the school projects so this unit will give the answer to such
wonder. At the end of the course unit the student will be in position to define the term
entrepreneurship, know who an entrepreneur is, procedures of starting up a business,
decision making and management processes in business.
DEFINITION
Entrepreneurship refers to the spirit of taking a risk to set up a business to sell

products to meet the demands of the customers (society) with the aim of making profit.
An entrepreneur is a person who has the ability to see and evaluate business
opportunities from his/her environment, collect all the necessary resources to start,
operate and manage the business successfully.
1.2 PURPOSE OF STUDYING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
1. To provide one with the skills and knowledge of setting up, operating and
managing the business successfully.
2. To work towards job creation and reduce job seeking.
3. To provide students with the skills of mobilizing resources needed in production
process.
4. It provides one with the skills of how to expand the business, increase
productivity and profitability which is the major aim of operating a business.
5. To reduce poverty within the country through innovation, production and
provision of services.
6. To support modernization of Agriculture and food production in the country.
7. To enable the growth develops positive attitudes and culture towards work,
business and self-employment.
8. To encourage creativity and self-sustenance into students and communities so
as to be able to take moderate risk.
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9. It provides one with the skills of preserving environment by knowing business
legal requirement for the smooth running of the business without interferences by
legal authority.
1.3 FUNCTIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
The following are the functions of an entrepreneur:-
 To identify his/her needs in relation to what kind of business you need to start.
 To identify the needs of the customers so that you can select the best business.
 To conduct market survey to determine the best business opportunities.
 To monitor the operation and performance business regularly to find out whether
it’s performing or not.
 To carryout innovation in business.
 To carryout decision making regarding setting of business goals.
 Mobilizing the necessary resources needed to start and operate the business.
 To manage the business operation by employing workers and purchasing raw
materials.
1.4 CHARACTERTICS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
a) Risk taker
In every day running of the business, you get a lot of problems and challenges
which you need to decide on them. So, if you are not a risk taker then you are not
an entrepreneur.
b) A leader
To become a good entrepreneur you must be a leader who is able to guide,
influence and direct people and by doing so you will be able to handle all your
business activities.
c) Smart
You have to show your mental ability and intelligence so that you can win favor
and trust of customers.
d) Self-confidence
This means trusting your own powers and capability. You have to get courage to
face any challenge that may be encountered in the world of business.
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e) Competitive
The world of business is very competitive and as an entrepreneur you should be
aggressive enough to achieve your goals despite of the competitors.
1.5 TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS

1. Innovative entrepreneurs
This is an entrepreneur who introduces new goods, brings in new methods of
production and discovers new market
2. Imitative entrepreneur
These are characterized by readiness to adopt successful innovation brought by
successful innovating entrepreneurs. They do not innovate the changes by
themselves but only copy the techniques brought by others.
3. Fabian entrepreneurs
These are entrepreneurs who do things with a lot of care in trying any change in
their businesses and they only imitate when it becomes very clear that failures
would not result into a loss.
2.0 LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN BUSINESS

Leadership is the ability of a person to influence others to work willingly towards
achieving the set business objectives.
It involves guiding and encouraging people to follow a course of action in order to
achieve a common objective.
2.1 QUALITIES OF A GOOD LEADER

Entrepreneurs are leaders by the nature of their responsibilities but become successful.
He/she must possess the following qualities.
a) Responsibility and readiness to complete work. A good leader should be
consistent in a particular piece of work for him to be successful.
b) He should have the ability to deal in new situation. He/she change according
to the nature of situation.
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c) Self-confidence and self-esteem. He/she should have the ability to a strong
belief or confidence in one self and ability to complete a difficult task.
d) Should be exemplary. A good leader should lead by good example to others.
e) Should be willing to accept the consequences of his decisions and actions
made. One should be ready for any outcome of his/her decision.
f) Knowledgeable of subject matters. One should knowledgeable in the field he
is operating.
g) A good communicator. A good leader should be a good communicator in terms
of speaking and listening inorder to facilitate effective communication.
h) Co-operative. A good leader is the one with ability to co-operate with others in
doing work, controlling people with different moods and tempers.
i) Intelligence. He should have the ability to think of himself, make decision and
get the best way of doing a particular task.
j) Should be ready to cope up with stress. A good leader should work hard and
be ready to cope up with the stress of hard work.
2.2 LEADERSHIP STYLES

These are the behaviors a leader exhibits to others when he/she tries to influence them.
The following are some of the common leadership styles.
1. People centered.
This is where the participation of subordinates in decision is normally encouraged and
this would encourage the sense of belonging and responsibility of employees.
2. Task oriented style.
This is where there is title consultation and the leader has less concern for other
people’s welfare provided the objective of the organization is being realized.
3. Contingency style.
This involves the use of both people centered and task oriented style where the
organizational performance is possible through balancing the necessities to get work
done While maintaining the moral of the people at a satisfactory level.
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2.3 LEADERSHIP SKILLS
The following are skills needed by an entrepreneur
1. Adapting skills.
A leader should be flexible and sensitive to Changes and this will make him/her to
manage the changing customers taste and preferences.
2. Communicating skills.
A leader should have the ability to understand and be understood by others both orally
and writing.
3. Technical skills.
These skills involves the knowledge and full understanding of business production
process and system including equipment’s in order to produce good results.
4. Decision making skills.
The success of any business depends on the decision made, so a leader should make
decision even if they may appear unpopular as long as they are made in the interest of
the business.
5. Interpersonal skills.
This is the ability to work with others effectively and in harmony. She is expected to
have good public relations respect subordinates and customers.
6. Conceptual skills.
A good leader should be in a position to know and understand the mission, goals,
objectives and targets of the business.
7. Diagnosing skills.
This is the ability to set and understand situation being faced with. It involves an
analysis of what situation is new and prediction of how it will be in the future
3.0 RISKS IN BUSINESS

A risk is a situation where one is required to make a choice between two or more
alternatives which may result into different rewards for success or penalties or failures.
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3.1 TYPES OF RISKS IN BUSINESS
There are basically three types of risks that are classified on the basis of levels.
They include:-
I. Low risks
These are risks that are very minimal which do not yield a lot of benefits to the
entrepreneur. Intends to discourage entrepreneurs from investing resources into new
businesses due to fear or failure and low risks have low profits.
II. Moderate risks
These are risks that can be calculated and managed by an entrepreneur. There are
high chances of managing and ensuring such risk such risk do not take place and affect
the business e.g. Machine damages, accidents, fire outbreak etc.
III. High risks
These are risk whose chances of happening are very high and entrepreneurs have little
or no control over them e.g. dodging government taxes, selling prohibited goods.
3.2 RISK ASSESSMENT
This is the process of determining potential success that will arise of the risk not
happening or potential loss arising out of the failure. In business, the higher the risk the
higher the profit; and the lower the risk, the lower the profit.
Risks can be assessed basing on the following factors:-
 Viability of the idea
This refers to the process of knowing whether the idea chosen would be profitably done
the area given the available resources, technical skills and competitions.
 Availability to market
This would lead to a potential success in business while absence of a market will
lead to a potential loss.
 Experience and abilities
The experience an entrepreneur when carrying out business that are profitable will
lead to easy potentials success compared to when the entrepreneurs had no
experience and abilities.
 Pricing policies and strategies
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Businesses whose prices of products are affordable by customers are likely to have
potential success and businesses whose prices of products are very expensive are
likely to have potential loss.
 Flexibility of the business
Businesses that are flexible always have no negative effects on the resources
invested have always potential success and vice- versa.
 Honest and credibility of the business

These are the processes of knowing whether people whom the business is `
dealing with are honest and reliable.
 Cash flow
This refers to the process of establishing the business will generate enough cash to
finance the planned business expenditure. Or raise some cash from other sources to
fill the gap and if so, what will be the implications to the business.
3.3 MANAGING RISKS IN BUSINESS

These are measures taken to control and ensure that the risk does not occur and if they
happen, it would not affect the business. There are two ways of managing a risk in
business.
i. Minimizing risks
This refers to the process of reducing the chance of the risk happening. He/she take
preventive measures that will minimize them and they include:-
 Employing experience personnel to reduce on the problem of faulty managerial
decisions regarding the use of capital machines and materials.
 Maintaining and upgrading production technology and products to minimize the
problems of changes in customer’s tastes and demand.
 Extensive training of self and staff on new equipments to reduce the risk of being
behind technology.
 Maintaining adequate security to check on the risk of theft and breakup.
ii. Shifting the risk
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This refers to the process of shifting the burden of the risk to the insurance company by
insuring the property/business.
4.0 DECISION MAKING IN BUSINESS

Decision making is the process of identifying and selecting a course of action to deal
with the problem. It is important that an entrepreneur must possess decision making
skills.
4.1 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DECISION MAKING
 Nature of the situation
The situation that requires a decision to be taken affects the kind of decision that an
entrepreneur can make.
 Availability of resources
Decision making always depends on the availability of resources, so if the resources
required to implement the decision are readily available, then the process of decision
making will be easy and faster.
 Environmental factors
Depending on the type of business for which decisions are being made, the
environment in which the business is allocated will affect any decision to be made.
 Expected benefits
The benefits to be realized from the outcomes of the decision once implemented are
another factor that normally influences a decision.
The decision will be made basing on how much will the decision improve the market
and profits.
 Costs involved
The cost to be met in the process of making decision and implementing it will definitely
have to be considered before a decision is made.
 Time pressure
Time normally influences an implementation of any decision. If the decision taken
requires urgency, then it will have to be taken rather faster.
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4.2 STEPS IN DECISION MAKING
When an entrepreneur is making decision, he/she considers the past experience,
presence and future expectations the most effective steps in decision making includes:-
a) Investigating the situation
Under this it has three aspects as noted below:-
i. Identifying the problem
It is always important that the problems is identified in terms of business objectives that
are being blocked and this will help to avoid confusing symptoms with problems.
ii. Finding out the cause of the problem
It’s easy to identify symptoms unlike causes of a problem because it is not easy for
entrepreneurs to identify and some time they rely on others to identify them whole views
of the situation are safe by experiences and responsibility and may have very different
causes of the problem.
iii. Identify the reasons for taking a given problems
Once the problems causes are identified then the next is to take a step on how to solve
it. Most problems consist of many elements and an entrepreneur is likely to take one
solution that will work for all of them.
b) Developing alternative solutions
This may be simple for most decisions but not simple for complex decision especially
when time and resources are a problem and to prevent this, no major decision should
be made until several alternatives have been developed to get a better decision.
i. Selecting the best alternative solution
Ones an entrepreneur has come up, with alternative solution, she should try to find out
whether it can solve the problem at hand.
ii. Implementing and monitoring the decision
Once an entrepreneur has selected the best solution, then she can make plans that will
match with the requirement and problems that may be used to solve the problem.
5.0 BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
5.1 BENEFITS
 Social recognition
Successful entrepreneurs are highly respected and recognized in society due to
their innovations and creativity.
 Increased incomes
When business operations are run successfully, an entrepreneur enjoys
increased and unlimited income arising out of his productive decision made.
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 He/she enjoys flexibility in decision making. Does not need to consult any one
when making decision.
 He/she develops self-confidence one develops a strong belief in him/herself and
ability to do difficult task and meet various challenges.
 Self-employment. One is assured of a job security, job satisfaction and improves
earnings as long as the business succeeds.
5.2 CHALLENGES
 He/she normally experience long and irregular working hours which leads to
stress and fatigue.
 He/she experience low levels and insecurity of his/her incomes as it can be used
up at any time in case need arises in order to meet the demand of the business.
 He experiences low life style and this is because he/she overworked him/herself
 There is potential loss of all resources that were invested into the business.
5.3 SUCCESS IN BUSINESS
Success refers to the realization of a worthy intention. This implies that one becomes
successful each time he/she takes a step towards achieving a pre-determined goal,
objective or target.
5.3.1 INDICATORS OF SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

Indicators are signs that can be used to show the level of achieving the business goals.
They includes:-
a) An increased in assets
A successful business will have its operations increasing every time due to increase in
demand and this will call for additional assets to handle the business talks.
b) Increased profits
A continuous increased in the level of profits indicates success of a business and may
be due an increase in the volume of operations.
c) Expansion of a business
A business that is successful will have the volume of business operations and profits
growing and expanding overtime. This may be reflected by the expansion of the
business, market share, production lines, qualify of goods improved, increase in number
of employees.
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d) Recognition of the business in the community
The level of respect and recognition an entrepreneur and his business gets from the
community also reflects how well the business is doing.
e) Reduced operational cost a successful business will have the capacity to
reduce the cost per unit output of goods produce.
f) Increased number of consumers
g) Increased number of employees
5.3.2 FACTORS LEADING TO SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

There are several factors that lead to success of a business which includes:-
a) Effective and efficient business planning
Planning is important because it enables a business to set its target, methods and
resources to be used in the process.
b) Personal entrepreneurial qualities of the business owners and
management
For any business to be successful, the owner and the management staff must
possesses entrepreneurial qualities like planning, budgeting etc.
c) Clear objectives
For any business to be successful it should have a clear and defined objective and once
they are made, the owner should make sure that he/she closely follows the guidelines
that were set to achieve the objectives.
d) Proper location and plan layout
Appropriate location helps a business securing the required raw material at minimum
cost.
e) Availability of support services
These factors greatly influence the success of the business. This support services
includes financial institutions, security of the area, transport and communication, water
power
f) Availability of market.
Production of goods and services may be meaningless when customers to buy the
products at the price that can yield profit to the business are few or not available.
g) Conducive governmental policy
Incase government policies are conducive, it will lead to business growth and success
compared to unfavorable government policies that may affect business growth and
success.
5.3.3 BENEFITS OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS TO AN ENTREPRENEUR

There are a number of benefits that an entrepreneur can enjoys through running a
successful business.
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They include:-
a) Self-reliance and fulfillment
When an entrepreneur operates a successful business, he/she gets to do things for
him/herself, maintain self-confidence and make independent decisions.
b) Increased income and further investment.
A successful business generates more profits and part of which can be used for
personal purpose and part of the profits can be for further investments.
c) Recognition in the community
A successful business and its owner are highly respected in the community because of
goods and services being provided and this will attract more customers into the
business.
d) Improved standard of living
A business that is successful generates a lot of profits and this will enable him/her to be
in position to meet all his/her needs and has such improves on the standards of living.
e) Motivational speaker it opens up the opportunity in the society.
5.4 PERMANENT ADDRESS FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR AND THE WORKER

A successful business is the one which is well established and provides a permanent
address for the owner and employees.
5.4.1 FACTORS THAT LEAD TO BUSINESS FAILURE
There are many businesses that are started and disappear before celebrating their
anniversaries. The failures are due to a number of factors which includes:-
a) Lack of market for the business products
When the business is not having enough customers who can buy its products, it will
slowly collapse and disappear.
b) Inadequate stocks
Failure to maintain adequate quantity of stocks in the shop will drive away customers
because competitions will be ready to serve them.
c) Poor handling of customers
A dissatisfied customer will inform other customers about the negative experience of
the business and this will discourage potential buyers.
d) Misuse of business funds
The common and big factor is diversion of business funds to other purpose yet the
business would be in need of the funds.
e) Poor/low quality products for sale.
Low quality products in terms of customer’s expectation as well as competing firms
reduces the number of customers leading to business failure.
f) Poor management of business stocks
g) Unsuitable business location
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Location of a business is very important and one needs to take note of the following.
i. Availability of cheap labour
ii. Transport and communication facilities
iii. Nearness to the source of raw materials
iv. Near to the market
These factors when not considered may lead to business failures
6.0 PURE MANAGEMENT OF THE BUSINESS

Businesses which are poorly managed by the owner will fail and close up examples no
proper records kept, giving credit facilities to customers who are not trusted may lead to
business failure.
Mistakes made by the entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs sometimes lose interest in the business because it does not suit her
personal characters and as a result he reduces his/her commitment in terms of
supervision, funding, and sometimes wrong decision made may affect the business.
6.1 BUSINESS STARTUP PROCESS

Before starting any business you must first generate different business ideas before
electing and implementing the best option. You must also access the strength and
weaknesses of the business idea and collect information about the different aspects of
starting the business.
The business startup process involves the following:-
 Conducting business idea.
 Spotting and selecting a business opportunity.
 Conducting a market survey.
 Selecting a form of business preparing a business plan.
 Getting the sources of the business fund.
 Selecting technology and machinery.
 Locating business.
 Registering licensing a business.
 Putting structures for the business creating.
 Starting the business operation.
6.2 CONDUCTING A MARKET SURVEY

A market is where sellers and buyers come into contact either directly or indirectly for
the purpose of exchanging goods and services.
A market survey involve spoiling a good business opportunity and accessing its
strength, weakness, opportunity stress (SWOT analysis)
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To turn the business into profitable ventures, the entrepreneur should gather more
information from the customers, suppliers and competitors, concerning the business i.e
finding more about the features of your product and seeking advice from various
experts.
The information gather is prepared in a written report.
6.2.1 IMPORTANCE OF CONDUCTING A MARKET SURVEY

A market survey is conducted for the following reasons.
 To know whether there are enough customers willing to buy the production on
regular basis.
 To established the location of the target customers.
 To focus the level of customers demand in future.
 To established the income level of the target customers.
 To determine the market gap of the unsatisfied customers.
 To established the suitable distribution channel in the business.
 To determine the effective marketing strategies for the business.
 To determine the strength and weaknesses of the existing competitors.
6.2.2 PREPARATION FOR CONDUCTING A MARKET SURVEY

Before conducting a market survey, you need to find the followings:-
 Where to obtain the information required.
 Amount of time required for the survey.
 Amount of money required.
 The methods you will use to gather information.
 The tools required to gather information.
 How you will interpret the acquired information.
6.2.3 METHODS OF COLLECTING INFORMATION IN A MARKET SURVEY

1. Interviews
You can find out many business ideas by talking to people. Interviewing is like a
conversation with people where you ask them for information or their opinion
about a business ideas and records response. It is usually face-face interaction.
2. Observation
Under this you collect information about products by watching, listening and
studying how things works in the area you are interested in. as you observe,
you should write down findings for a careful study later. You can also observe by
taking note, using a video recorder or taking photograph.
3. Questionnaire
This is a document with a list of questions where you can ask people to complete
with or without your assistance. It enables you to collect a lot of information and
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can be given to many people. Here people can be guided on how to complete the
questionnaire or they can do it on their own.
4. Writing for information
You can also collect information by writing to different organization and business
requesting for particular information related to your business.
6.2.4 SOURCE OF MARKET INFORMATION

Market information can be got from the following sources.
1. Trade association: like Uganda manufactures association (UMA) Uganda
women entrepreneur association.
2. Uganda national chamber of commerce and industry
3. Government agencies like export promotion board, Uganda investment authority
(UIA), ministry of trade, tourism and industry, Uganda bureau of statistic.
4. Publications such as magazines, newspapers, books and etc.
5. The community including friends, likely customers, suppliers, competitors and
etc.
6. Regional private sector development Centre.
7.0 BUSINESS PLAN

A business plan is a written document of the proposed business ventures including it’s
operational and financial details. It helps the entrepreneur answering question like.
 Can I do it?
 Can I sell it?
 Can I learn from it?
7.1 COMPONENTS OF A BUSINESS PLAN

Mission statement is a brief statement that indicates the purpose of the business
1. Goals and objective of a business I,e. A goal is aim of achieving something while
objectives are specific targets that an entrepreneur set to enable him/her to
achieve his/her goal.
2. An assessment of the entrepreneur’s marketing plan i.e. strength and weakness.
This involves marketing survey analysis of competitors, establishing accurate
and effective controls.
3. Production plan. Ie. What to produce how to produce, when to produce, how
much to produce etc.
4. Organization plan. Ie. The organization structure, recruitment of people,
motivation of workers, etc.
5. Financial plan.ie. Focus of profit and loss account, cash flow statement, etc.
6. Action plan that shows how the business will be implemented.
225

7.2 IMPORTANCE OF A BUSINESS PLAN
To Entrepreneurs:
 It assists the entrepreneur to select the best business opportunity from the many
possible opportunities.
 Guides the entrepreneur in his/her day to day business operation.
 Provides adequate preparation to an entrepreneur to start business.
 Facilitates monitory of business performance.
 Encourage an entrepreneur to remain focused while carrying out business.
 It helps to defined specific goals and objectives of the business.
 Acts as a time table for the implementation of the business activities.
To employees:
 Provides employees with information about where the business is going on and
their role in business.
 Helps them to know their expected production targets.
 Enables them to know their benefits.
 Enables them to know their tasks and responsibilities of their workers.
8.0 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

A career refers to what one gets involved in for survival and to achieve his/her goals.
Or what one wants to be in future. Any decision you make regarding for the career
choice may be influenced by the personal interest, family back ground and academic
performance can choose a career opportunity they include:-
a) Education Sector: in this sector, one can choose to become a teacher of any
grade or level of his/her choice. There are different types of educational
institutions operating from different level from pre-primary to university.
b) Health Sector: the different opportunities in health profession include Doctors,
Mid-Wives, Nurses, Laboratory Technicians and Dentist.
c) Security: the career opportunities under this sector include Army, Police, Prison
and different private security companies.
d) Law Sector: under this Sector, one may choose to become a layer, magistrate,
judge or prosecutor.
e) Media: the career opportunities under this include newsreader, news reporter,
news editor, and journalist.
f) Commerce and manufacturing: in this Sector one may choose to become a
manager, an accountant, an auditor, banking officer or an engineer.
g) Hotel and tourism: the career opportunities in this sector include travel agents,
tourist guide, marketing chiefs, or room attendants.
h) Construction: in addition to purely business jobs, there are other opportunities
like Plumbers, Contractor, Builder, Architects.
226

8.1 TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT
There are two types of employment:-Self-employment and paid employment.
8.1.1 SELF-EMPLOYMENT
This is the type of employment where one goes privately by way of utilizing resources to
start his/her own business.
ADVANTAGES OF SELF-EMPLOYMENT
 It creates independence since one is her/his own boss and has no interference
from anybody.
 He/she is a leader not a follower; this gives him/her a chance to exploit his/her
resources well by commanding others.
 One gains status by being self-employed. He gets respect from the community.
 It allows one to be creative and innovative through making his/her own decision
without consultation.
 There is improvement in one is standard of living due to high income earned.
 There is improvement and security of one’s job and income, he is assured of his
income and job.
 It leads to economic development as more entrepreneurs get knowledge and
guidance from others and start their own business.
 It leads to provision of goods and services to the community.
DISADVANTAGES OF SELF-EMPLOYMENT
 The owner is subjected to long and irregular working hours leading to fatigue or
exhaustion.
 There is uncertainty of income as he is not sure of his/her income as the end of a
given period.
 One has broad responsibilities and hence finds him/herself doing a lot of things.
 He/she bears all the risks of the business in case of failure.
 His/her income is unstable and the rewards depend on the success/profitability of
the business.
 There are no fringe benefits like medical allowances, transport allowances with
self-employment.
8.1.2 PAID EMPLOYMENT

This is where one gets employed by another party like Church, Business,
Organizations, and NGOs.
ADVANTAGES OF PAID EMPLOYMENT

 Workers are assured of his/her regular payment at the end of a specified period.
227

 One is allocated specific responsibility depending on the agreed payment.
 He/she may enjoy fringe benefits as may be agreed like transport, medical from
his/her employer.
 One incurs minimum risks since the business is not his/hers.
 It reduces fatigue of employers as they have fixed and favorable working hours.
DISADVANTAGES OF PAID EMPLOYMENT

 Lack of independence by the workers they normally follow order and instruction
from his/her employer.
 There is a set span control since one has to follow or consult before implement
his/her own decisions.
 He receives fenced rate of payment and cannot exceed even if the profit of the
business increases.
 One has limited and specific responsibility and does not go beyond doing work
that is not specified in. the job specifications, this hinder creatively and innovation
of new ideas.
 It increases operational cost as a result of allowance given to the employees who
has responsibility.
228

UNIT NINE
SCHOOL PRACTICE
Dear student, welcome to this Unit of this module, which is on School Practice. Here
various aspects of school practice are discussed, but you will be expected to reflect on
other parts of this module and on other modules to realize the diversity of learning
needs in your classroom. One whole term will be devoted to your first school practice
and another to your second school practice in the final year.
One or two supervisors will be appointed by the University to guide you and make
assessment on your performance. Please, consult this unit each time you are preparing
yourself for teaching. Also, be close to fellow teachers and school administration of your
school for advice and help.
Aim
The aim of this unit is to give guidance on how best to apply knowledge, skills and
attitudes you have acquired in this course so that you meet the government challenges
of improving education standards in primary schools.
Competences
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
 Explain the importance of school practice.
 Prepare the files to be used in school practice.
 Develop schemes of work from various syllabi.
 Teach well or better than you have been doing.
 Keep records of the learning process.
Topics to be covered
Topic 1: Preparation for school practice.
Topic 2: Assessment of performance of school practice.
229

Subject Orientation
In order to read and internalize this unit effectively, you need to collaborate with your
classmates and fellow teachers in your school. Be honest with yourself as you try to
implement these suggestions in your daily teaching.
Study Requirements
You will need a pen/pencil and a notebook when working throughout this unit. You also
need to refer to teaching materials and consult your peers for comparisons.
Topic 1: PREPARATION FOR SCHOOL PRACTICE

You should prepare two files, preferably, box files smartly wrapped.
File 1: Teaching Practice file (Professional File)
File 2: Information/Basic file (Record File)
What do you put in Teaching Practice file?
a) Table of Contents.
b) Daily routine or General class time table
c) Schemes of work arranged in order From Yearly Plan, Termly Plan, and
Fortnight Plan. All these must be approved for use by the Head of
Department, Principal or School practice coordinator
d) Lesson plans (Daily plan): the most current or the top-most.
e) Approval sheets signed by the head of Department or Head-teacher.
f) Supervisor’s sheet
g) Records of work covered.
h) Teacher’s collection. These are materials and sample work given to learners.
For example Rhymes, story, poems, pictures books
What do you put in Information/Basic file?
a) Table of Contents.
b) School map with compass direction.
c) General class timetable of your class.
d) Personal information sheet.
230

e) School profile.
f) Class register.
g) Record of marks/progress sheet.
What is a Scheme of work?
a) Broad plan of what is to be taught.
b) An interpretation of syllabus.
c) Breaks syllabus up into teaching weeks and lessons in sequential manner.
d) Has sections to be implemented termly.
e) Is relevant to subjects and the curriculum.
f) Is written on acceptable format of subjects.
g) Should be approved by the head of the subject taught or Head-teacher.
h) Shows remarks made by the teacher on each lesson taught.
i) Indicates the lesson for the day.
Is a Scheme of work necessary?

Yes, because it will enable you to:
 Form a good sequence of topics or work to be covered.
 Budget for the available time.
 Read ahead.
 Ensure that all the materials are included.
 Unify topics through integration.
231

 Keep a good record for the next teacher.
 Make good lesson preparation.

In ECE the scheme consists of the yearly overview, Termly Plan, and Fortnightly Plan
WEEK: Refers to the time in weeks available in the term/year. This appears in the
Termly and fortnightly plan of ECD scheme of work
LESSON: Indicates a particular lesson in the week.

TOPIC/ Learning outcome: The material to be taught.
OBJECTIVE/COMPETENCES (ECD Class): What you hope to achieve by the end of

the lesson! OR What the learners are able to do at the end of the activities
CONTENT: Main points of the topic/sub-topic.
TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES
Your role during the lesson, including the steps and procedures you follow to teach the
topics.
LEARNERS’ ACTIVITIES
Refers to what you expect learners to do as you teach. Make sure that they are involved
in the learning activities e.g. answering questions, writing, drawing and listening
individually or in groups. Though listening is an activity, it can be passive learning
unless it is used carefully and followed by questions to check students‟ comprehension
of what has been taught.
T/L AIDS
These are instructional or learning materials that enrich the lesson and facilitate the
learning process, for instance, use of charts, pictures, maps, etc. improvised or real
objects.
REFERENCES
Books or other resources to be read during preparation of lessons or those to be read
during or after the lesson.
232

REMARKS
There is usually very small space left for this, leading to writing of one word “taught” or
“covered” which is not very helpful. An explanation should be given! Therefore, you
leave enough room for remarks.
LESSON PLAN
A lesson plan is extracted from the scheme of work and it is the one that can be used in
actual teaching or learning. A good lesson plan calls for careful thinking over a period
time. It should be such that learners should acquire new knowledge or skills. That is,
learning should take place. It is prepared in order to:
 Bring out essential parts of the lesson.
 Help consider individual differences among learners.
 Identify teaching/learning materials to have them ready for the lesson.
You should include: School, class, date, time, duration, subject, topic, number of
learners and objectives.
CONTENT
This is the outline of the topic/sub-topic arranged in correct sequence, and will be
divided into teacher’s and learners’ activities.
OBJECTIVES
Define what the teacher expects the learners to gain during and by the end of the
lesson.
They should be “SMART.”
S = Specific i.e. specifies precisely and in concrete terms what the learner is able to do.
M = Measurable i.e. it is possible to determine whether or not the objective has been
achieved.
A = Achievable i.e. it suits the resources, the teacher and learners.
R = Realistic i.e. it defines the circumstances under which the objective constitutes an
achievement.
233

T = Time bound i.e. it is within the required timeframe. These are some of the verbs you
should use when stating lesson objectives: “By the end of this lesson, the pupils should
be able to describe, explain, say, state, name, define, draw, analyze, list, write, recite,
etc. Avoid verbs such as “understand” and “know” because these are vague and cannot
easily be measured. Write a separate/single statement for each objective. The more
statements you formulate, the better chances you have of making your teaching
interaction more clear.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
What is the role of instructional materials? Instructional materials stimulate learners‟
interest and thus, reinforce learning. They make learning more realistic as they appeal
to human sense. They capture learner’s attention and tickle his/her imagination. They
also encourage creativity, thus enhancing learning. Instructional materials encourage
discovery; leading to independent learning and can be used to teach more than one
concept.
To achieve the above roles, what should be the characteristics of instructional

materials? Instructional materials should be easy to make, colourful, flexible and
timeless. Reality – real object is best used with care.
Types of Instructional materials

Audio aids: Using sense of hearing:-learners listen to the radio, tapes, cassette
recorders, record players, CDs and telephones.
Visual aids: Using sense of sight: – learners see slides, pictures, objects and models.
Audio-visual aids: This strategy brings together audio and visual experiences, for
example, television, video tapes, DVDs, cinema, etc.
DISPLAY OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN THE CLASSROOM

Bear in mind the following points when determining your classroom environment:
Selection of relevant classroom materials, relatedness of materials to the subject of
classroom curriculum at the given time, organization and arrangement of materials,
charts displayed at learner-reading level, demarcated subject corners/areas with
appropriate materials, neatness of writing, labelling and indication of pupils‟ activities on
display materials including both teacher and learner made/contributed materials,
attractiveness and allowance of room for movement, both two and three-dimensional
materials are displayed/used. Include class rules, routines, ground maps or
234

constructions that are original and accurate, and an interest corner reflecting learner
interests.
Conclusion/closure of a lesson
You should put a lot of emphasis on this point because this is where you evaluate the
success of your lesson by deciding whether or not the objectives were achieved.
Therefore, give an activity, which will help you to discover this. You may ask oral or
written questions to enable pupils to make notes, do homework or fill in blanks.
ACTIVITY
How would you tell whether a primary school pupil has learnt what he/she has been
taught? Check for the answer at the end of this Unit.
Self-evaluation Statements
Ask yourself, “How did the lesson go? Were all the objectives achieved? Is it proper to
go on to the next lesson or to re-teach following a new approach? What went on well?
What is the way forward?” Note: The supervisor will look at the comments you have
made in the previous lessons in order to assess you.
The Student Teacher

You as a student teacher should practice and perfect the following, which form your
personality: Decent appearance, modest dressing, audibility, clarity and specificity.
Presentation as a teacher: Be very confident, have good communication abilities –
language control, use of verbal and non-verbal signals, writing, pronunciation, spelling
and other grammatical aspects, high reasoning level, emotional maturity, internal
alertness, good manners, mannerism and mood of teaching (attitude), good teacher-
pupil relationship, good sense of humour – crack some jokes, good class
management/control and be active. The following will also help you in your actual
teaching:
Be organized, prepared, learn and master the subject content, use methods of purpose,
which allow learners to participate, make sure content is correct and comprehensive,
arrange content in correct sequence, use many local examples, which the pupils know
and can understand, make meaningful movements and positioning in the classroom,
make appropriate use of classroom environment, remember to bring and use
instructional materials as planned, make an effort to help learners use their senses and
to think, have a strategy for attending to learners with special educational needs, learn
names of your pupils and use them, use effective methods of classroom control, assess
235

and evaluate achievement of objectives, soon after the lesson, make meaningful self-
evaluation – comments – strong points/weak points and the way forward before you
forget how the lesson went.
TOPIC 2: ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL PRACTICE
Introduction
In this section, you will learn about the administration of school practice and supervision
criteria that will be used during the teaching practice. During school practice period, you
will be supervised by either the lecturers of the University or responsible persons
appointed by the University. You may remain teaching in your school.
Administration of school practice
During this period, you are expected to adhere to Uganda Teachers Code of Conduct:
The Head teacher of your school is your immediate supervisor. If you are the head, then
you supervise yourself, as we know that you are a responsible person. Your dressing
and other mannerisms should be responsible and decent. Your moral conduct should
be acceptable as usual. Files, Schemes of work, Lesson plans and progress records
should be prepared according to format. Keep them available all the time. Try to
maintain good working relationship with school administration, fellow teachers and
pupils. For more information or assistance, contact any of the following persons in
addition to your Head teacher: School practice coordinating centre school or college,
Ndejje University lecturers or officers appointed by the University. During school
practice, you will be assessed for grading by supervisors appointed by the University.
You are expected to be available and ready all the time during this period. If you have
any pupils with special needs, list them, indicating the area of special need for each, for
instance, low vision, partially hearing, lame in hand, and include this sheet in the
information file.
SUPERVISION CRITERIA
When a supervisor comes to supervise you, what do you think he/she will be
assessing? If you have mentioned the following, you are right: General preparation,
Presentation, Mastery of content, Classroom management and General conclusion. Let
us review them briefly:
236

General Presentation
Presentation
You should present all documents used, i.e. see documents listed at the beginning of
this unit, for example, schemes of work and lesson plans. Other areas the supervisor
will assess include the following: your review of the previous lesson, introduction of the
lesson, instruction resources, how you creatively use a variety of teaching techniques,
effective communication between you and pupils and effective involvement of your
learners with special needs if any.
Pupils’ participation
Motivation and involvement of pupils in the learning process is important. This is
possible when you, the teacher, use meaningful learning activities, have the ability to
organize group or individual work and you cater for the diversity of special learning
needs of the pupils.
Mastery of Content
You, the teacher, should understand the subject matter very well so that you can give
accurate information in correct sequence and help pupils to learn it. You should be
competent in applying good teaching and learning strategies and provide timely and
appropriate feedback to the pupils.
ACTIVITY
What are some of the things you, as a teacher, should not do to the pupils you teach?
Class control
What is class control? Class control is the art of engaging learners in a learning
situation without disruption from the learners. How would you achieve good class
control? You maintain your dignity – avoid trying to be popular with the pupils, be
consistent - always strict, but never take action on a child when you have lost your
temper, be firm with your instructions, use punishment and reward wisely, know the
pupils‟ names, use eye-contact, vary your voice – raise or lower it where necessary,
use a variety of teaching methods, keep pupils busy doing something and maintain their
level of interest in the lesson.
237

ACTIVITY
I recommend that you seek permission to sit in the class of an experienced teacher in
your school as he/she is teaching. What sort of things would you pay particular attention
to and wish copy?
CONCLUSION
In this unit, you have equipped yourself with the tools to enable you to do school
practice successfully. We have discussed preparations for teaching, actual teaching and
assessment of performance. We also went through performance assessment form to
remind us of the major areas of concern. In case of any difficulty, there are chances of
getting help and advice from College or Ndejje University.
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Success and Good luck!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... iii

UNIT ONE ............................................................................................................................................... 2

TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES ....................................................... 2

UNIT TWO ............................................................................................................................................. 21

SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION ........................................................................................................ 21

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CURRICULAR (3-6 YEARS) ........................................ 32

UNIT FOUR ........................................................................................................................................... 80

ASSESSMENT, MONITORING AND EVALUATION ..................................................................... 80

UNIT FIVE ............................................................................................................................................. 92

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION ....................................................................................................... 92

UNIT SEVEN....................................................................................................................................... 168

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS ...................................................................................... 168

UNIT EIGHT ........................................................................................................................................ 211

ENTREPRENUERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SKILLS ...................................................................... 211

UNIT NINE........................................................................................................................................... 229

SCHOOL PRACTICE ........................................................................................................................ 229

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TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

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THE CONCEPTS OF TEACHING METHODS, STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

understand and use knowledge, skills and promote values.

Approaches: These are general ways of organizing or carrying out teaching.

TOPIC 1: GENERAL METHODS OF TEACHING

Advantages of play way method

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Consideration for story telling

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How to implement group work!

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Advantages of group work

Teachers’ role in project learning

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For effective use of demonstration, you should:

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When using discussion method in a lesson, you should

ix) Fieldwork or field visits

TOPIC 2: GENERAL APPROACHES

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It is very important to reinforce self-esteem, self-confidence, empowerment and

Knowledge or information is not the goal. Self-realization is the goal. Personality

Advantages of learner-centred approach

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Disadvantages of learner-centred approach

ii) Teacher-centred approach

The following characteristics are evident in the teacher-centred approach:

Advantages of integrated approach

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iv) Participatory approach

Participation is an important democratic principle and essential part of being human.

There are different levels and forms of participation:

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 Children Conference: A children conference is similar to a children’s

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Participation requires adults to accompany children.

Participation requires interaction based on equality and partnership.

Participation cannot happen without any consequences or rewards.

Participation should be based on the children’s living environment.