Application of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Philosophy of Education to Teaching and Learning in Primary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the application of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy of education to teaching and learning in public primary schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The area of study was Nsukka Education Zone. The population of the study was 2,107 public primary school teachers in Nsukka Education Zone. The sample of the study was 600 primary school teachers, consisting of 300 male and 300 female teachers selected using stratified proportionate random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-designed questionnaire titled “Child-Centred Learning and Learning by Skill Questionnaire (CCLLSQ). The instrument was face-validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The trial testing of the instrument to determine its internal consistency was carried out in Obollo-Afor Education Zone, using 20 respondents (teachers) in public primary schools. The trial testing was computed using Cronbach alpha statistics. The overall reliability score for the trial yielded 0.82. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that child centred and skill acquisition methods of teaching were highly recommended by both male and female teachers in public primary schools in Nsukka Education Zone. Secondly, the respondents noted that child-centred and skill acquisition method of teaching in public primary schools in Nsukka Education Zone has some challenging problems which include but not limited to teachers’ negative attitude, lack of skilled teachers on inservice training opportunities for teachers on the use of skill acquisition method and curriculum structure not allowing enough hours for practical works in the school.