Parental background and the learning of concepts by children

Project Abstract

<p> This study sought to identify the concept learning achievement of children aged 3-6based on parental background factors in Plateau State, Nigeria. Five research<br>questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. Ex-post factor or causal<br>comparative research design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of<br>4003 pre-primary school children in the 60 pre-primary schools in the Northern<br>education zone of Plateau State. A total of 200 pre-primary school children drawn<br>through multistage sampling approach from public and private pre-primary schools<br>in Plateau State were used for the study. Two instruments namely – Concept<br>learning achievement tests for 3 – 4 and 5 – 6 year old children were developed,<br>validated and used for the study. The internal consistency reliability of the<br>instruments were estimated using Kudder-Richardson 20 formula and reliability<br>coefficients of 0.72 and 0.73 were obtained for the concept learning achievement<br>tests for 3 – 4 and 5 – 6 year old children, respectively. Data were analyzed using<br>means scores, standard deviations, and multiple regression analysis. The t-test and<br>ANOVA statistics were used to test the hypotheses. Findings indicated that<br>concept learning achievement of children aged 3-6 differed significantly based on<br>educational status of parents; concept learning achievement of children aged 3-6<br>differed significantly occupational status of parents; there was significant<br>difference in the concept learning achievement of children aged 3-6 based on<br>housing location; there was significant difference in the concept learning<br>achievement of children aged 3-6 based on parent-child interaction; concept<br>learning achievement of children aged 3-6 did not differ significantly based on<br>gender. A major educational implication of the findings was that parents could<br>show positive attitude towards the education of their children by providing for<br>them, not only in terms of material needs of the children but also allow their<br>children to interact freely with them. It was thus recommended that emphasis<br>should be given to parents providing the material needs of their children and also<br>allowing their children to interact freely with them without gender discrimination. <br></p>

Project Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>Background of the Study</strong></p><p>Children learn concepts best when they are given a wide range of<br>experiences with the object and situations that their developing vocabulary<br>expresses. In this early processing of the world around them children aged 3-<br>6 year, who are still at the pre-primary school level, may begin to classify<br>objects and instances, and these classification tasks are essential to concept<br>formation. Munn in Mangal (2011) defined concept as a process which<br>represents the similarities in otherwise diverse objects, situation, or events.<br>Similarly, Ross (2005) said that concepts are patterns, schemas or mental<br>categories which enable people to interpret the objects of their thoughts;<br>whether perceptual or imaginative. One can conclude that concept is a<br>generalized idea about things, persons, or events. It stands for a general class<br>and not for a particular objects or event. It is a common name given on the<br>basis of similarities or commonness found in different objects, persons or<br>events. It is also a mental disposition that helps in understanding the<br>meaning of the objects of people’s thinking (Ugoji, 2000).<br>After looking at some of the characteristics of concepts above, one<br>may easily conclude that a large portion of the words used and other<br>symbolic expressions in human language represent concepts. The names:<br>horse, tree, dog, table, chair, represent concept of things; father, mother,<br>teacher represent concept of persons; honesty, truthfulness, cleanliness,<br>redness, goodness represent concepts of qualities and characteristics and so<br>on.<br>Judging the importance of concepts in human lives, one must try to<br>pay due attention to their proper development from a very early age of live.<br>In every sphere of human life, people are very much helped by the<br>identification, classification, categorization and naming of the objects, ideas<br>or events provided by their acquired concepts. Human environment is full of<br>tremendously diverse things. It consists of an infinite number of living and<br>non-living objects. Similarly, there are limitless ideas, thoughts, principles,<br>formulae, theories and so on related to various aspects of human life and the<br>environment. In such an environment of tremendous diversity one can adjust<br>only if one has adequate power and ability to discriminate, classify, and<br>categorize the things around one (in view of their similarities and<br>dissimilarities) in specific groups (Wilson, 1997). Concept learning helps<br>one a lot in this gigantic task of categorizing and classifying the<br>environmental objects. Moreover, the concepts regarding people, objects,<br>places, ideas or events provide human symbolic and verbal behaviour.</p> <br><p></p>