Result

This study is concerned with an assessment on the level of perception of pre-service

teachers’ of Early Childhood Education towards knowledge acquisition n the 21st century.

Ninety (90) questionnaires were administered and were successfully filled and returned (100%).

The data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for Social-Sciences (SPSS 16.0)

window version. The result of the analysis presented below:

Answering of Research Question

One research question was generated, and was answered with the use of mean and

standard deviation. The results were presented in the table below:

Research Question: What is the perception level of Early childhood education Pre-service

teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century?

In order to answer this research question, mean of responses of the pre-service teachers to

each items on the questionnaire that addressed the perception level of Early childhood education

Pre-service teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21 st century were computed. In other

to get the cut-off mark, the average of the total point was calculated to be 2.5. any item with the

mean value less than 2.5 is negative perception, while item with mean value greater than 2.5 is

positive perception.
Table 1: Mean and Standard deviation showing the perception level of Early childhood
education Pre-service teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century.
S/N ITEMS SD X Remark
Rank
1. ECE pre-service teachers training for knowledge 2.67 1.14 1st Positive
acquisition are channel towards the use of ICT
2. ECE pre-service teachers training are not inclined 2.57 1.04 4th Positive
towards the use of ICT
3. Most ECE pre-service teachers are ICT compliance 2.59 1.02 3rd Positive
4. ECE pre-service teachers are not expose to 2.37 1.06 10th Negative
technologies during teaching and learning process
5. ECE pre-service teachers have sufficient knowledge 2.52 0.50 6th Positive
of how to use ICT equipment
6 ECE pre-service teachers have insufficient knowledge 2.14 1.16 15th Negative
of how to use ICT equipment
7 Various technologies devices are used by ECE Pre- 2.51 1.07 8th Positive
service teachers during teaching and learning process.
8 ECE lecturers rarely used technological devices to 2.50 1.10 9th Positive
train ECE pre-service teachers
9 ECE lecturers use of ICT makes teaching and learning 2.37 1.14 10th Negative
process of pre-service teachers more difficult.
10 ECE lecturers use of ICT makes teaching and learning 2.57 1.06 4th Positive
process of pre-service more interesting
11 The use of ICT has nothing to do with Pre-service 2.23 1.11 12th Negative
teacher’s knowledge acquisition during teaching and
learning process
12 Knowledge acquisition of ECE Pre-service teachers 2.52 1.10 6th Positive
provides motivation and better learning environment.
13 The use of ICT produces better learning for ECE pre- 2.63 1.14 2nd Positive
service teachers
14 The use ICT certainly discourage ECE Pre-service 2.17 1.14 14th Negative
teachers from effective knowledge acquisition
 15 Interaction of students and teacher is always difficult 2.20 1.15 13th Negative
through the use of ICT
Gran 2.54
d
mean
The table above revealed the perception level of Early childhood education Pre-service

teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century. This is evident by the mean value of

all the items in the table above, which are all greater than 2.5 except the mean value on the items

4, 6, 9, 11, 14, and 15 which are less than 2.5. It was revealed that ECE pre-service teachers

training for knowledge acquisition are channel towards the use of ICT, the use of ICT produces

better learning for ECE pre-service teachers, and most ECE pre-service teachers are ICT

compliance, which are all ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 4th respectively in accordance with their mean

values.

Determining the Level of Perception

In order to determine the level of perception of Early childhood education Pre-service

teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century, the total response of each of the pre-

service teachers which was in continuous data were converted to discrete data and were summed

up, having a total minimum of 15, maximum of 60 and the range of 45. This was categorized

into three categorical form, which are (low, moderate and high) level of perception and the cut-

off was 15. Scores between 15 – 30, 31 – 45, and 46 – 60 were categorized as low, moderate, and

high level of perception of Early childhood education Pre-service teachers towards knowledge

acquisition in the 21st century. The result is presented in the table below;

Table 2: Summary of the level of perception of Early childhood education Pre-service

teachers towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century.

Range f % Remark
15 – 30 15 16.7% Low
31 – 45 50 55.6% Moderate
 46 – 60 25 27.7% High
The above table revealed that 15 (16.7%) of the total responses showed pre-service

teachers’ low level of perception towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century, 55 (55.6%)

of the total responses showed pre-service teachers’ moderate level of perception towards

knowledge acquisition in the 21st century, while 25 (27.7%) of the total responses showed pre-

service teachers’ high level of perception towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century. This

revealed that majority (55.6%) of the responses from the pre-service teachers showed moderate

level of perception towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century. This can therefore be

concluded that, pre-service teachers of Early Childhood Education have moderate level of

perception towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century.

Testing Research Hypotheses

Two research hypotheses were raised, and nalysed with the use of t-test and Analysis of

Variance (ANOVA) at a significant level of 0.05.

HO1: There is no significance difference in the perception ECE Pre-service teachers for

knowledge acquisition on the bases of the level of students.

Table 3: Summary of Analysis of Variance (ONE-WAY ANOVA) showing the significance

difference in the perception ECE Pre-service teachers for knowledge acquisition on the

bases of the level of students.

Sum of DF Mean Square F Sig. Decision

Squares
Between Groups 26.492 21 1.26 1.0 .38 Not significant

8
Within Groups 90.508 68 1.16
Total 117.000 89
Sig. >0.05

From table 5 above, result showed F value = 1.08, degree of freedom (89). The null

hypothesis is accepted since the significant value of .38 is greater than 0.05 of Alpha level (p
value .38 > .05). This means that, pre-service teachers’ level perception towards knowledge

acquisition in the 21st century. Therefore, the null hypothesis above which stated that there is no

significance difference in the perception ECE Pre-service teachers for knowledge acquisition on

the bases of the level of students is hereby accepted.

HO2: There is no significance difference in the perception ECE Pre-service teachers for

knowledge acquisition on the bases gender.

Table 4: Summary of t-test showing the significant difference on the perception ECE Pre-

service teachers for knowledge acquisition on the bases gender.

Gender N X SD DF t. value Sig Decision

Male 43 48.32 4.45
88 0.18 0.07 Not Significant
Female 47 52.68 4.72
Sig. 0.07 > 0.05

From table 4 above, result showed t value = .18, degree of freedom (88). The null

hypothesis is accepted since the significant value of 0.07 is greater than 0.05 of Alpha level

(Sig .07 > .05). This means that, pre-service teachers’ level of perception towards knowledge

acquisition in the 21st century is not affected by their gender. This reveals that, level of

perception male pre-service teachers is not different from their female counterpart. Therefore, the

null hypothesis above which stated that there is no significant difference on the perception ECE

pre-service teachers for knowledge acquisition in the 21st century is thereby accepted.

Summary of Findings

Findings from this study revealed that:

1. There is moderate level of perception of pre-service teachers for Early Childhood

Education towards knowledge acquisition in the 21st century.

2. There is no significance difference in the perception of Early Childhood Education Pre-

service teachers for knowledge acquisition on the basis of the level of students.

3. There is no significance difference in the perception of Early Childhood Education Pre-

service teachers for knowledge acquisition on the basis of the gender of students.