EVALUATION OF TEACHER SUPERVISION PRACTICES AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EARLY YEARS EDUCATION PROGRAM IN KHWISERO SUB COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Early Years Education (EYE) is the crucial stage in the child’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. With the promulgation of the Kenya Constitution in 2010, the responsibility of EYE was delegated to County governments. This study, therefore, sought to evaluate teacher supervision practices and implementation of early years education programs in the Khwisero Sub-county, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were; to establish the effectiveness of teacher supervision practices in the implementation of the Early Years Education Program in Khwisero Sub-county; to find out the role of school administrators in the implementation of early years education program in Khwisero sub-county, Kenya, to suggest strategies for effective teacher supervision in the implementation of Early Years Education program in Khwisero sub-county. The study used contextual interaction and Supervision theories. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design. The population of this study consisted of 61 schools from the sub-county, 61 EYE teachers in charge, 61 head teachers, 67 assistant teachers, 61 parent representatives, 1 Program Officer, and 4 ward representatives from Khwisero Sub-County. From the result of Piloting, Cronbach reliability revealed that all constructs had a coefficient above 0.7 indicating that the instrument was reliable. Stratified random sampling was used in the selection of 10 schools from which purposive sampling was used to select 10 head teachers, 10 teachers in charge, 1 program officer, and 4 ward representatives while random sampling was used to select 50 assistant teachers. Instruments that were used to collect data were questionnaires and interview guides. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and the findings were presented in the form of frequency tables, bar graphs, and pie charts. From the research findings, in objective one, the majority of the respondents 5 (50%) noted that teacher supervision was effective, 3(30%) said teacher supervision was very effective while the remaining 2 (20%) said it was moderately effective. On inspecting centers, 40% noted is very effective, 20% said it was effective, 30% noted it was moderately effective while the remaining 10% said it was less effective. The majority of the respondents noted that it was an effective way to carry out supervision. On the issue of advising teachers, 50% noted it was very effective, 30% said it was effective while the remaining 20 said it was moderately effective. Monitoring the implementation, 60% and 40% noted that was it effective and very effective respectively. On evaluation, 50% of the respondents noted it was effective, 40% said it was very effective while the remaining 10% noted it was moderately effective. In summary, respondents thought that supervisory practices were effective in all cases. In objective two, administrators had many roles in effective supervision, staffing levels, and the attitude of teachers. In objective three, respondents noted they used several strategies. Under program and instruction, the respondents noted that they concentrate on ensuring that teachers were following the laid down program. Under schemes of work, the respondents noted that they observe the time the schemes were prepared. On the issue of records of work covered, the respondents noted that they look at how teachers keep and update their records. On teaching and learning facilities, the respondents noted that they check how teachers handle teaching aids. Teacher supervision practices were effective. In addition, school administrators had many roles in teacher supervision. Several strategies are used in teacher supervision. Future research is to be done in other sub-counties to compare the findings.