Improving Anganwadi Teachers’ Competence in Introducing Science During Early Childhood Period: The Effectiveness of the Intervention Program

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is aimed to study the effectiveness of the intervention program for Anganwadi teachers to enhance their knowledge in introducing Science during early childhood period. The study group comprised of a total 60 Anganwadi teachers (30 experimental group and 30 control group) from urban and rural areas of Telangana State, India. The data was collected using an interview schedule, with Anganwadi teachers as the primary respondents. “A questionnaire to assess preschool teachers’ knowledge on Science” was used to study the knowledge and practices of Anganwadi teachers. The training programme consisted of a six hour face-to-face (F2F) training session for the experimental group, covering topics on how to introduce simple science experiments to young children and create interest in science. Pre and post test was conducted for both experimental and control groups and the data was analysed. The findings of the study revealed that teachers who received the training program achieved high score in the post test results compared to control group teachers (p-value = 0.0001). Urban Anganwadi teachers obtained higher scores in both the pre-tests and post-tests in comparison to their rural counterparts. Among the demographic variables, Anganwadi teachers' age has no significant difference, whereas their education and experience are significant, with a p-value of <0.05. In conclusion, the findings indicate that the training program proved to be effective, and Anganwadi teachers derived benefits from the intervention program.