Animated film as a catalyst for child-centered education: The Kings and Queens Nursery and Primary School Nkpor experience.

Abstract

One of the major objectives of education is to focus on the individual child’s development and the impact on society. For this reason, it is necessary to consider the techniques and forms of teaching from pre-schools to higher schools. Traditional, which is the old method of imparting knowledge appears weak and insufficient to match the changes of our time. Therefore, the problem of this study is to evaluate the traditional teaching technique and its limited pedagogic impact in the face of geometric digitization of the contemporary society. The active use of media technique, specifically, animated film, is considered a method that will help children move from passivity to active learning. This study aims at evaluating the potentials of animated film as a catalyst for child-centered education. It is set to find out the extent to which animated film can stimulate effective child-centered education, using The Honest Girl as a case study. This work is based on the ReuvenFeuerstein’s Mediated Learning Experience Theory. The theory emphasizes that the learner’s needs and abilities are the central issue of planning and achieving effective classroom instruction. The researcher adopted qualitative methodological approach for this research since it involved collection of qualitative data from a sample that was drawn from a given population. The findings showed that a strong participatory method of teaching like animated media, when used effectively, will take care of bringing out the children’s potentials more than traditional method. The study recommends that animations be properly linked to existing curriculum as a vital medium of imparting knowledge to children to help improve the quality and standard of education in Nigeria and inculcate cultural identities and values to young children. This study concluded that educators are not to do away completely with traditional teaching techniques but instead to update their current style of teaching to include animated technique.