Assessing the Enacted Kindergarten Curriculum in Ghana

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The intended curriculum is the content stated in the kindergarten syllabus, while the enacted curriculum is the content teachers implement in their kindergarten classrooms. The extent to which teachers implement the intended kindergarten curriculum in Ghanaian classrooms is unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to assess the enacted kindergarten curriculum in Ghana. METHOD: Participants were a purposive sample of 101 kindergarten teachers in one district of the Upper West Region of Ghana. They completed the Kindergarten Enacted Curriculum Scale (KECS) once. The KECS included 13 items (KG1) and 17 items (KG2) that assessed the extent to which participants taught content in four subscales: literacy and numeracy (LN), psychosocial skills (PS), environmental studies (ES), and physical development (PD). Participants responded to items on a 4-point Likert scale as major focus (scored 3), minor focus (scored 2), touched on briefly (scored 1), and not taught (scored 0). A higher score indicated alignment with the kindergarten syllabus and a lower score indicated non-alignment. Descriptive and inferential data were computed for the entire scale and for each subscale. RESULTS: The LN (2.81) subscale had the highest mean score followed by ES (2.64). Conversely, PS (1.94) and PD (2.02) had the lowest mean scores. Inferential tests revealed gender differences for the PD subscale. The data also indicated grade level differences in teaching LN and PD. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that kindergarten teachers in Ghana continue to focus on academics (LN and ES), despite the emphasis on the holistic development of the young child.