Mlaki S. R2024-06-052024-06-052023https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/6230Masters DissertationsIt is important to note that every child develops at their own pace, and that socio-emotional and cognitive development are complex processes that are influenced by a variety of factors, including age, sex, and school experiences. Understanding how these aspects play role in developing social emotional and cognitive skills of Pupils and the relationship between these skills, is important so as to improve a nurturing and stimulating environment that supports their child's development, while also being mindful of each child's unique strengths and needs. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess cognitive and socio emotional maturity of pre-primary pupils. Specifically, the study sought to measure levels of cognitive and socio emotional maturity of pre-primary Pupils and determine whether statistically significant exists between pupils by type of school, age and sex. In addition, it determined whether there is significant correlation between socio emotional maturity of pre-primary school pupils and their cognitive development. The research utilized a cross-sectional design to evaluate the cognitive and socio-emotional maturity of 213 pre-primary school pupils. The pupils were selected from 10 randomly chosen pre-primary schools in Morogoro Municipality. The International Development and Early Learning Assessment tool (IDELA) was used to assess the cognitive and socio- emotional skills of the pre-primary school pupils. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the levels of cognitive and socio-emotional skills. The study used the Mann Whitney U test to analyze the difference in cognitive and socio-emotional maturity based on the type of school and sex. Additionally, the Kruskal Wallis H test was applied to evaluate the difference in cognitive and socio-emotional maturity of pre-primary school pupils based on age. To assess whether there was a significant relationship between the levels of cognitive and socio- emotional maturity of pre-primary school pupils, Kendal tau b coefficient was utilized. Findings of the study indicated that pre-primary school pupils’ levels of maturity in cognitive skills were high in all dimensions, with a mean of 92% in early numeracy, 80% in early literacy and 90% in executive function. Furthermore, the study found that there is statistically significant difference in all dimensions of cognitive maturity of pre-primary school pupils based on the type of school they are in, their age and sex. In addition, the study found that 60% of pre-primary school pupils have high maturity levels in emotional awareness and 81% in empathy. Moreover 83% of pre-primary school pupils have high maturity levels in solving conflicts and only 20% of pre-primary school pupils scored high in friendship. Moreover, findings indicate that there is statistically significant difference empathy, solving conflicts and friendship of pre-primary school pupils on the basis of type of school and sex. Only self-awareness was not statistically significant on basis of type of school and sex. Moreover, findings indicate that there is significant correlation in all dimensions capturing cognitive and socio emotional skills. This is in spite of the fact that the extent of correlation differed from one dimension to another. The correlation coefficients between early literacy and dimensions of social emotional skills; empathy, emotional regulation and solving conflicts were high. However, correlation coefficient between early literacy and friendship was moderate. Furthermore, findings indicate that correlation between early numeracy and all dimensions of socio emotional skills were statistically significant. Moderate correlation coefficient was noted on the relationship between early numeracy and two dimensions of socio emotional skills; emotional awareness and friendship. The correlation coefficient between early numeracy and empathy were high, while that of solving conflicts was very high. Also, the study found correlation coefficient between executive function and three socio- emotional dimensions; empathy, solving conflicts and friendship were high. On the other hand, correlation coefficient between executive functions and emotional awareness was very high. The study concludes that pre-primary Pupils are developing important socio-emotional and cognitive skills that will serve as a foundation for their future social and emotional growth. However, findings proved that the quality and learning outcomes differ by age, gender and setting in terms of delivery and teacher experiences in public and private pre- primary classrooms The study recommends to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to create pre-primary school teaching environment where socio emotional and cognitive skills of pupils will be developed equally despite of their differences in sex, age and school. The Ministry should administer professional training to educators, where the existing relationship between socio emotional and cognitive skills is brought into their awareness.ensocio-emotionalmaturitypre-primary pupilsMorogoro municipalitysexageThesis