Abstract:
The overall objective of the study was to assess beliefs and practice of developmentally
appropriate teaching methods in public and private schools at Gondar City. In order to
attain the objectives of the study, this research had adopted both quantitative and
qualitative (Convergent parallel mixed method) research approach. The target
population of interest for this study was preschool teachers and principals working in
both government and private school at Gondar City. In total 60 preschool teachers had
become a part of the study. For qualitative part of the study 8 principals (for conducting
interview) and 14 teachers (for focus group discussion) were selected purposively. The
major instrument for collection of data for the study was questionnaire. In order to assess
the existing challenges in implementing developmentally appropriate teaching- learning
methods in Preschools of Gondar City focus group discussions (FGD), interview and
observation checklist were employed to gather data. Both quantitative and qualitative
data analysis techniques were employed in this study. In the quantitative data analysis
aspect descriptive analysis, such as means and SD and inferential statistics such as t-test
and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. Qualitative data collected through
interview and FGD were described using words by narrations and direct quotation. The
finding of the study shows that majority of preschool teachers in private and public were
not implementing child centered methods. The result shows that the mean score on level
of teachers’ belief on developmentally appropriate practice is 3.8329. (SD=.3249) which
is significantly higher than the expected mean, demonstrating that the selected preschool
teachers have high levels of belief on developmentally appropriate practice. The results
also show that the mean score of preschool teachers’ practice on developmentally
appropriate practice is 2.7017 (SD= 0.493). which is lower than the expected mean
value. Statistical finding also clearly depicted that belief and practice on developmentally
appropriate teaching methods did not show variation as a function of teacher’s
demographic characteristics. The existing challenges in implementing developmentally
appropriate teaching- learning methods in Preschools of Gondar City are inadequacy of
out-door playing materials, lack of playing ground and age inappropriate playing
material and insecure playing ground. Lecture-method delivery was mainly practiced as
normal lesson delivery.
