Differentiated instruction and preschoolers’ numeracy skills acquisition in rivers south-east Senatorial district

This study examines differentiated instruction and preschoolers' numeracy skills acquisition in Rivers South-East Senatorial District. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study was anchored on the theory of learning by Lev Vygotsky and the theory of multiple intelligent and learning style by Howard Gardner. The study adopted quasiexperimental design. 2,684 respondents comprising of 2346 preschoolers in the transition class in the 1166 public early childhood education centres in Rivers South-East Senatorial District of Rivers State constituted the population of the study. A total of 61 preschoolers constituted the sample for this study. Checklist was used as instrument for data collection for this study, A validated instrument tagged “DIM (Differentiated Instructional Model) and TIM (Traditional Instructional Model) was used. The instruments were validated by 3 experts while the reliability of the instrument was established using Kuder Richardson (K21) test method to obtain a reliability coefficient value of 0.86. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study established that there was a significant mean gain in the acquisition of numeracy skills in terms of number sense, measurement skills using differentiated instruction in Rivers south-East Senatorial District. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that the differentiated instruction was more effective than the traditional instructional model in terms of enhancing the number sense, measurement skills and geometry skills of the pupils. This was evident in the mean gain of the preschoolers. Caregivers should strive to employ differentiated instructional model in preschool centres for the purpose of helping preschoolers effectively developed in their numeracy skills.