Assessment of professional development needs of teachers of agriculture in public secondary schools in Nyamira County

Abstract

Low interest among teachers of Agriculture and the students might can contribute to low achievements among the Agriculture students in the Kenyan secondary schools. This study sought to identify professional development needs of teachers of Agriculture, find out content areas where teachers of Agriculture require professional development in public secondary schools in Nyamira County. A survey research design with the ex-post facto research design was used in targeting teachers of Agriculture, Principals and Quality Assurance and Standards officers in Nyamira County. The study employed 167 public secondary schools with 210 teachers of Agriculture. Random sampling was utilized to sample 50 public secondary schools for the study. Simple random sampling was used to sample teachers of Agriculture and Principals while purposive sampling was used to sample Quality Assurance and Standards Officers.Questionnaires were administered on a total of 136 teachers of Agriculture while an interview schedule was administered on 50 Principals and 5 Quality Assurance and Standards officers for collection of primary data. Data collected was subjected to both descriptive and inferential analysis and presented using frequencies, percentages and tables. The study found out that there were professional development needs for teachers of Agriculture. Most schools did not have systems or processes in place for systematic professional development of teachers of Agriculture and these schools did not facilitate implementation of the new instructional practises covered in seminars/ workshops. Stakeholders should be made aware that there are professional development needs for teachers of Agriculture and these teachers should be allowed to participate and attend professional development programme.