Unpacking Instructional Strategies of Early Childhood Teachers: Insights from Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Even though previous research points to the significance of early childhood teachers’ practices that take into consideration the nature of children and how they learn, there is limited research regarding how instructional strategies impact children’s development in diverse ways. To close this gap in literature, a qualitative multi-case study into the perceptions and classroom practices of four kindergarten teachers in two Ghanaian schools, Tata and Kariba, was carried out over a six-month period. One research question guided the study, namely, which instructional strategies do teachers use in a kindergarten classroom? Data used were semi-structured individual interviews and pair-based interviews and fieldnotes of classroom observations. Both within and across case interpretative analysis, as was used. The findings of this study revealed these teachers believed that instructional strategies impacted children’s development in different ways; they pointed to play-based instruction and integration as well as specific strategies such as picture-walk and think-pair-share that they believed promoted effective teaching and learnng in kindergarten classrooms which in turn, enhanced and promoted children’s multiple intelligencies in terms of socio-emotional, physical, cognitive and language development.