Relationship between Social Competence and Reading Skills Acquisition in Primary School Pupils: Teachers’ Knowledge, Perceptions and Practices.

Messo, Innocent Nasson (2023) Relationship between Social Competence and Reading Skills Acquisition in Primary School Pupils: Teachers’ Knowledge, Perceptions and Practices. Doctoral thesis, University of Dar es salaam.

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Abstract

This study set out to examine the relationship between social competence skills and reading skills acquisition in public primary school pupils. The key objectives of the study were to; explore the factors that hinder the acquisition of reading skills in pupils,establish teachers‘ knowledge of social competence skills, examine the perceptions of teachers on the role of social competence skills on reading skills acquisition, appraise the social competence and reading skills enhancing practices employed by teachers in schools, and analyse the association between social competence and reading skills acquisition by primary school pupils. The study was guided by the Socio cultural and Social Learning Theories. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, as well as convergent parallel design.The population of the study was standard four pupils, standard four class teachers, standard four Kiswahili subject teachers, head teachers and parents/guardians. The study was conducted in 17 purposefully selected schools, where 340 pupils were randomly (20 from each school), 42 teachers, and ten parents/guardians were purposefully selected. Data were collected using observation, interview, questionnaire, and documentary review techniques. The analysis of interviews, observations and documentary review proceeded through the following three main steps: preparing and organising data, creating categories/themes, and coding, presentation and interpretation. For quantitative data, logistic regression analysis was run to estimate the impact of social competence skills on binary outcomes, while Ordinary Least Square Regression (OLS) with multiple predictors was used to estimate outcomes of continuous variables. The findings show that there were a number of factors that hindered the acquisition of reading skills in the pupils. It was further revealed that all teachers knew the concept of social competence. It was found that pupils with social competence skills were in a good position to acquire and the reading skills faster than their counterparts. The participatory teaching method was mostly reported in enhancing reading skills in pupils; followed by pairing pupils, the use of extra hours, the use of libraries, parental involvement in the pupils‘ reading-related activities, and school feeding programmes. As for social competence skills, there were no specific practices that were solely meant to develop them. Rather, the practices fordeveloping social competence skills were coincidentally and unknowingly,embedded in those for developing the reading skills and other academic subjects. The most important social competence skills are communication skills, as other skills depend on the pupil‘s ability to communicate his/her ideas well. Findings from the questionnaire showed no significant relationship between social competence skills and the acquisition and mastery of reading skills. The study, however, concludes that social competence skills have a positive impact on pupils‘ acquisition of reading skills. The study recommends a reviewed curriculum that imparts pupils with social competence skills for an everlasting positive effect on the pupil‘s lives, positive social interactions and academic achievements.

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