JASIKAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THROUGH

THE USE OF PLAY AS A LEARNING STRTEGY

CLEMENTINA YEBOAA

(JACE/ECE/18/0072)

A project work presented to the Education Department, Jasikan College of Education in

partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Bachelor Degree in Early

Childhood Education

OCTOBER 2022

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 DECLARATION

Candidate’s Declaration

I hereby declare that; this project work is the result of my own original research and that no

part of it has been presented for another Degree in Jasikan College of Education or elsewhere.

Candidate’s Signature:………………………… Date…………………………….

Name: …………………………………………

Supervisor’s Declaration

I hereby declare that the preparations and presentation of the project work was supervised in

accordance with the guidance on the project work laid down by Jasikan College of Education.

Supervisor’s Signature:………………….… Date:………………………………

Name:………………………………………………………..

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 ABSTRACT

This study aims at establishing the use of play as a teaching and learning strategy and how it

contributes to skills development in early childhood education. The study looked at influencing

factors on use of play as a teaching strategy. Qualitative research approach was adopted where

25 respondents including teachers and pupils using purposive sampling technique. The study

is exploratory in nature, data was collected using interviews and observations within five

weeks’ timeframe. Thematic framework was used to analysed the data to draw meanings. The

findings in this study suggest that, lack of access to a variety of play materials bring about a

loss of teachers’ interest in using play as a teaching strategy. It was also noticed that teachers

who went through Early Childhood Education tend to use play in their teaching than those who

did not. It was also deduced that creative play improves the cognitive skills of pupils but it is

been underutilized by the teachers but rather role play is the form of play often used in the

school. In other words, availability of material in terms of indoor space for play as well as

outdoor space and built structures for the purposes of play and the extent of teachers training

in terms of years that a pre-primary school teacher has been in the teaching profession before

or after training and experience in early childhood education influenced the use of play as

learning strategy and hence, impacted learning outcomes and skills development of children.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my fervent pleasure to acknowledge the efforts of all those who in diverse ways have

contributed towards my successful completion of the Degree in Early Childhood Education.

Special regards to my supervisor Mrs. Bernice Agbedor for her professional guidance and care

shown towards me to come out with this piece of work. May God richly bless her. My sincere

thanks to Mr. Samuel Kwatei for his encouragement and support throughout this journey.

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 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my family especially Augustine Kyereme who is my

brother and my mother Mrs. Agyeiwaa Georgina.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT PAGE

DECLARATION ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

DEDICATION v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER ONE 1

CHAPTER OVERVIEW 1

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1

PROBLEM STATEMENT 3

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 3

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 4

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 5

ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 5

CHAPTER SUMMARY 6

CHAPTER TWO 7

LITERATURE REVIEW 7

CHAPTER OVERVIEW 7

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 8

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 9

THE CONCEPT OF PLAY AS TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGY 10

PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT 11

TEACHERS’ ROLE IN CHILDREN’S PLAY 12

CHAPTER SUMMARY 14

CHAPTER 3 15

METHODOLOGY 15

STUDY DESIGN 15

STUDY LOCATION/AREA 16

TARGET POPULATION 17

SAMPLING METHOD 17

DATA COLLECTION METHOD / TECHNIQUE 17

INTERVIEWS 17

DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 19

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION 19

DATA ANALYSIS 20

CHAPTER SUMMARY 20

CHAPTER FOUR 21

CHAPTER OVERVIEW 21

AVAILABILITY OF PLAY MATERIAL 21

TEACHERS TRAINING EXPERIENCE 23

HOW PLAY INFLUENCE COGNITIVE SKILLS 24

TEACHERS USE OF PLAY 24

CHAPTER SUMMARY 24

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CHAPTER FIVE 25

CHAPTER OVERVIEW 26

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 26

CONCLUSION 27

RECOMMENDATION 28

CHAPTER SUMMARY 29

REFERENCES 30

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 LIST OF TABLES

TEACHERS USE OF PLAY………………………………………………………24

LIST OF FIGURES

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FIGURE 1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................... 8

FIGURE 2 STUDY SITE .................................................................................................. 16