Improvement of the Competencies of Early Childhood Education Teachers in Bicol Region Through Training

Socio-demographic profile, teaching methods, strategies used and training needs of Early Child Preschool Teachers (PSTs) and Day Care Workers (DCWs) in Region V (Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, and Albay) were studied. The level of improvement in the teaching competencies of PSTs and DCWs in Camarines Sur before and after the capability enhancement training was determined. Half of the PSTs were young (19 -30 years old). Almost all (92.5%) of PSTs are female. Half are married and half are single in status. Their monthly salary ranged from Php 3,000.00- Php 4,000.00. All of them finished college but lack specialization in early childhood education. Half of them had one to three years teaching experience. Contrary to the above findings, the DCWs belonged to the middle-age group (31-40 years old). Most of them are female and married. More than half of them received Php 1,000.00 – Php 2,000.00 monthly honorarium and are college graduates who lack early childhood education units. The rest are college undergraduate, high school graduate and high school undergraduate. More than half have worked as DCW for seven to 15 years and above. Early education teachers used demonstration method and behavioral modeling. Computer assisted instruction was never used. Their training needs were on framing behavioral objectives, lesson planning, teaching methodologies, development of instructional materials, and skills in music, arts and drama. Both PSTs and DCWs have fair level of teaching competency (LTC) and have developing level of teachers professional development (LTPD) along lesson planning, teaching methodologies and development of instructional materials before the training except for framing behavioral objectives among PSTs which was satisfactory and skills in music, arts and drama among DCWs was satisfactory. The LTC of PSTs and DCWs in all teaching competencies was high and have expert level of LTPD after the training except for lesson planning among DCWs which was satisfactory. Significant differences were observed in the level of improvement in all teaching competencies of PSTs and DCWs after the training.

Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Day Care Workers