School of Education

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL CLIMATE, UNREST AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BONDO SUB COUNTY, KENYA

2024-12-01T00:00:00Z

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL CLIMATE, UNREST AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BONDO SUB COUNTY, KENYA Simiyu, Marystella Nandako Schools are at advantage position to effectively assess and monitor school climate given their potential ability to enhance positive student outcomes and mitigate risk behaviors. When a positive school climate exists; students, staff members and parents feel safe, included and accepted. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship of students’ perception of school climate, unrest and academic performance in Kenya. The objectives of the study were; to analyze students’ perception of school climate in secondary schools in Bondo Sub-County; to establish the relationship between perceived principals’ leadership styles and students’ unrest; to determine the extent to which perception of students’ unrest interfere with academic performance in schools; and establish the intervention strategies used by schools to mitigate perceived students’ unrest. The study was guided by the theory of biologist Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, the System Theory. Descriptive research design was used in this study. The study adopted qualitative and quantitative methods. Population comprised of 3159 form 3 students, 49 principals, 49 teachers of guidance and counseling and 1 Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer in Bondo Sub-County. Stratified sampling, purposive sampling and simple random sampling were used to arrive at a sample size of 300 of form three students from sampled schools. All principals and guidance and counseling teachers of the selected schools participated in the study. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics results were presented as counts/tables, percentages, bar graphs, column graphs and pie charts. Further, chi-square tests and spearman correlation tests were run between school climate, principals’ leadership styles and students’ unrest. There was a weak positive correlation between principals’ leadership style and causes of students’ unrest in schools, which was statistically significant, rs=.297, p=. 000. In addition, there was no significance difference between student unrest and academic performance, chi-square statistics =40.527, p=0.001 and df=16. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the school administration, teachers and parents should work more in helping students build a positive school climate; both home and school factors should contribute in enhancing positive school climate for students.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OUTCOMES AND ENTRY TO TEACHER CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMMES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MATETE SUB-COUNTY-KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA

2024-11-01T00:00:00Z

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OUTCOMES AND ENTRY TO TEACHER CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMMES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MATETE SUB-COUNTY-KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA SASITA, GODWIN M. The study sought to find out whether performance appraisal outcome is used for entry into teacher capacity-building programmes in government high schools in Matete sub county, Kakamega County. The objectives of the study were to establish the relationship between application of professional knowledge, learner protection and innovation and creativity and entry into capacity-building programmes in government high schools in Matete Sub-County. The study used Yee and Chen's 2009 model on performance appraisal and reward of organizational employees. The accessible study population comprised 151 TSC teachers in the 16 public secondary schools in Matete Sub-County. A sample of 110 teachers was obtained using a stratified random sampling of schools and all teachers in the randomly sampled schools were included in the study. 122 questionnaires were fielded (110 for teachers and 12 for Principals). Data were entered using Epi InfoTm version 7.2.4.0 before being imported into Stata version 15.1 for coding, cleaning, and analysis. The reliability coefficient was 0.79 for the teachers’ questionnaires and 0.82 for the principals' questionnaires, which means the research questionnaires were reliable in collecting the information required. The count dependent variable was measured on the ratio scale. The research question for objective 1, is there any statistically significant relationship between application of professional knowledge and entry into teacher capacity building programmes? It was revealed that application of professional knowledge has significant relationship to entry into capacity-building programmes in Matete Sub-County and was rejected because the p-value for the total streams (p=.002) was statistically significant. ZINB findings showed that bigger schools are likely to take more of their teachers for capacity building programmes. Also a unit increase in evaluation increases chances of teachers doing the correct practice and needed no capacity building programmes at all. It is also worth noting that an extra year since posting to the current school increases the chances of a teacher’s performance gaps being identified but he/she has not gone for capacity buildings programmes. In objective 2, is there any statistically significant relationship between learner protection and entry into teacher capacity-building programmes? All the other explanatory variables were statistically non-significant, therefore, there is no statistically significant relationship between learner protection and teacher capacity-building programmes. Zinb findings revealed that an extra enrolment of a learner in a school is likely to result in more teachers attending capacity building programmes. Lastly, in objective 3, is there any statistically significant relationship between innovation and creativity and entry into teacher capacity building programmes? It was revealed that there is statistically significant relationship between innovation and creativity and entry into capacity building programmes. Zinb results showed that if a teacher was to increase his/her number of times of the use of ICT equipment by one, his/her rate ratio for courses attended on innovation and creativity would be anticipated to increase. In objective 1, it was recommended that smaller schools should merge so that these teachers can be able to attend capacity building programmes and long serving teachers be given priority for training. Objective 2, it is recommended that learner protection should be enhanced in schools to attract more enrolment of the learners which will result to more teachers attending capacity building programmes. Lastly, in objective 3, it was recommended that teachers should develop the desire to integrate ICT equipment in teaching so that they can be picked upon for such kind of training.

INFLUENCE OF SELECTED FACTORS ON THE INTEGRATION OF PRACTICAL SKILLS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF AGRICULTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MATAYOS SUB COUNTY, BUSIA COUNTY, KENYA

2024-11-01T00:00:00Z

INFLUENCE OF SELECTED FACTORS ON THE INTEGRATION OF PRACTICAL SKILLS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF AGRICULTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MATAYOS SUB COUNTY, BUSIA COUNTY, KENYA Shabani, Rehema Nanyama Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of any nation as it is the background on which most of the activities emanate from. Throughout history, agriculture has had a significant impact on civilization, serving as one of its primary drivers. The purpose of the study was to investigate selected factors influencing the integration of practical skills in the teaching and learning of agriculture in secondary Schools in Matayos Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya. The study was guided by three main objectives namely: To establish the effect of curriculum guidelines on integration of practical skills in teaching and learning of agriculture in secondary schools; to determine the teacher related factors and their influence on integration of practical skills in teaching and learning of agriculture in secondary schools and to determine the influence of institutional-related factors on integration of practical skills in teaching and learning of agriculture in secondary schools.The study was guided by the experiential learning theory as postulated by John Dewey. The study used the descriptive survey design. Data was collected using questionnaire, interview schedules and observation. The study sampled a total of 367 respondents which comprised of 23 principals sampled using saturated sampling, 23 agriculture teachers sampled purposively and 320 students sampled through random and 1 quality assurance and standard officer. Quantitative data was cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 26 and data presented using tables and charts. Qualitative data was coded and themes identified then presented alongside quantitative data. The study revealed that curriculum guidelines were very clear on the scope of practical integration and hence, influenced integration of practical skills but teachers lacked proper implementation measures. Additionally, the study revealed that teacher related factors like teaching methods and teacher competency influenced integration of practical skills. The teaching methodology deployed by teachers did not favor integration of practical skills as most teachers prefered lecture method. Finally, the study established that institutional related factors like availability of resources, administration support and collaboration with other stakeholders influenced integration of practical skills. The schools faced various challenges which hampered integration of practical skills in teaching and learning of agriculture in secondary school in Busia Sub-County, Kenya. The study teachers be provided with regular professional development courses to enhance their teaching methodology. Additionally, adequate resources should be allocated for practical purposes in teaching and learning of agriculture.

INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON LEARNERS’ LITERACY OUTCOMES IN EARLY YEARS OF EDUCATION IN BUNGOMA CENTRAL SUB- COUNTY, KENYA.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON LEARNERS’ LITERACY OUTCOMES IN EARLY YEARS OF EDUCATION IN BUNGOMA CENTRAL SUB- COUNTY, KENYA. WASIKE, PHYLLIS KHAKAALY Teachers efforts coupled with stimulative learning environment has a high influence on academic achievement in education for learners in primary schools. This academic achievement is imperative for learners in early years of education because it lays the foundation for later education success. Learners in schools in early years of Education in Bungoma central experience low literacy achievement which in turn affects their academic progression. Factors such as social economic status,language of instruction and Learning resources have been documented in the previous literature.These were some of the determinants of levels of environmental factors that influenced literacy outcomes in learners of early years programmes.The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of learning environment on learners’ literacy outcomes in early year’s of Education in Bungoma Central Sub County Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to establish the influence of teacher characteristics on learners’ literacy outcomes in Early year’s of Education in Bungoma Central Sub County, Kenya , determine the influence of physical design of the classroom on learners. literacy outcomes ,examine the influence of supportive learning variables on learners’ literacy outcomes and find out the influence of teacher’s perception of parents involvement and engagement on learner’s literacy outcomes. Optimizing descriptive cross-sectional survey design is used to measure influence of learning environment while criterian test measured Grade three learners’ literacy acquisition.The study employed mixed approaches. The target population was 4615 respondents ,drawn from 72 public primary schools that where selected using simple random sampling technique. The sample size consisted of 97 respondents consisting of 48 learners of grade three, 24 Grade three teachers, 12 head teachers, 12 Grade three parent representative and one Sub County Education Officer of TSC. This sample size was obtained using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire,semi- structured interviews and observation were used for data collection. Validitiy of the questionnaires and interview schedule were ascertained through expert judgement of lecturers in the Department. To ensure reliability of the questionnaire and criterian test the instruments were pilot tested in schools not included in the study. Their responses were subjected to Cronbach’s Apha Coefficient reliability test which is established by test retest set at > 0.7 which yielded a value of 0.801. The quantitative data is analyzed using descriptive statistics consisting of frequencies, mean, percentages and standard deviations while inferential statistics used Pearson product coefficent correlation. Qualitative data is analyzed thematically by building themes which were reported. The results of the study indicated that influence of learning environment has a significant influence to learners literacy (r) of =(0.9852) p=0.015). The findings revealed that there existed a significant positive relationship between teacher characteristics on learners’ literacy outcomes (r=.469, p<.05) in primary schools in Bungoma Central Sub-County. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were proffered: teachers should partake in cluster workshops both at zonal and school level, because this will improve their teacher characteristics if possible,classroom teachers should individualise teaching based on assessment results, embrace whole-class curriculum materials, and recognise individual differences in order to improve on learners’ literacy achievement. This is very important because teacher characteristics and parents engagement can only be effective in a classroom that have a safe,sure and conducive learning environment.