ABSTRACT
This study aims at establishing the impact of the quality of the teacher to the performance of Mathematics in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Examinations in Busia Sub-County public secondary schools of Busia County in the examination years 2016- 2019. Six schools were sampled from the 19 public secondary schools in Busia sub-county. This sample is 31.5% of the public secondary schools in the sub- county.
In each school 15 students were sampled, 4 teachers and the principal. A total of 90 students, 24 teachers and 6 principals were sampled. The study mainly focused on form IV students.
The researcher identified four research objectives to guide the study: determine to what extend which teacher’s qualification and experience influence students’ performance, how teacher lesson planning and preparation contributes to students’ performance, effect of teachers teaching methodologies to student achievement in mathematics, and lastly effective use of assessment and evaluation tools in mathematics to promote students’ good performance in mathematics at KCSE.
The study methodology adopted descriptive survey design. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents and questionnaires were designed to collect the relevant data. The collected data was recorded in tables and analyzed using percentages.
From the research findings, it was deduced that teachers who employed effective learner teaching methods contributed to better student performance than those teachers who mostly used teacher-centred approaches. It was alos found that teachers with longer teaching experience have greater impact on student achievement in mathematics than teachers with less than five years teaching experience. The study also revealed that teachers with a good rapport and good communication skills contributed to higher student performance.
The study also showed that although the performance in these schools was generally low, those schools where teachers prepared the lesson notes and worked examples well, related well with the learners, observed the individual differences in learning mathematics by different students’, used relevant teaching resources quite often and gave students plenty of mathematics activities to practice acquisition of mathematics knowledge, skills and concepts showed marginally better performance than the other schools.
The research findings would be of great importance to mathematics teachers, students, county education quality assurance officers, college tutors and university lecturers towards improvement of Mathematics performance in our secondary schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objectives of the study and research questions. It further highlights the significance, limitations, delimitations, basic assumptions, definition of terms used and organization of the study.
Background of the study
The study of mathematics in and out of school is of great significance due to its academic and real-life application. Most industrialized and developed nations have experienced its contribution to science and technology towards making the world a better place. For this reason, even the developing countries are also promoting its study in our schools and tertiary institutions. The National council of Curriculum and Assessment (2005), observe that mathematics is used to describe, illustrate, interpret, predict, explain patterns, illustrate patterns and relationships in numbers so as to convey and clarify meaning of varied issues in life. The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) secretary Wasanga (2009) stated that the training of mathematics is vital due to the talents and skills acquired by the student which is relevant to everyday life use. It is also useful in the academic world due to its relationship to all the other subject, application in industrial and world of technology. Ramani (2004) and Siringi (2005), noted that despite the serious role played by mathematics in life there has always been the problem of poor performance at KCSE. The quality of the teacher is arguably identified by education stakeholders to be the most important factor affecting student performance and achievement in school (Motoko, Gerald, LeTendre & Scribner, 2007). Additionally, Fester (2014) states, that an effective educator should aim and promoting the student academic development while in school and in future. The educator
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should plan for now and what the student becomes after school. Wong & Wong found out that when learners come to school, they not only develop skills, gain insight, values and concepts in academic areas but also how they can apply this in life as responsible citizens contributing to nation building.
To realize better performance of students in school and productive citizens in the society, it is important to constantly review the standard of our teachers and teaching approaches used to pass learning instruction and evaluate student achievement from time to time.
A teacher has great influence on the performance of learners through the remarks, interest, attitude and methodologies used in the learning process (Fakinde,1978). Farrant (1980) in his study found out that mastery of content, use of learner centred approaches and develops the lesson in an orderly manner is able to realize the individual learners’ specific interests.
Leigh and Mead (2005), in their study on factors influencing students’ learning identified teachers understanding of the principles and concepts of a subject as the single significant factor. Omo (2011), in his study agrees that teachers’ quality largely affects students’ achievement. In another study by Goe (2007), found out the level of mastery of the subject by the teacher and approaches of delivery of the same content as the foremost qualities of a good educator.
In another study by Darling & Hammond (2000), found out that the quality of a teacher training and professional qualifications of the teacher play a significant role towards a student achievement in arithmetics. In a study conducted in primary schools in eastern Uganda to establish the relationship between teachers qualifications and pupils academic performance, Kasiisa & Bakaluba (2013) Kasiisa & Bakaluba (2013) found out that there is positive correlation between teachers experience and qualifications and pupils academic achievement. They thus went ahead and recommended that experienced teachers with professional qualifications be employed to teach Social studies in wester Uganda. Finally, in
a study by Kosgei, Jairo, Odhiambo and Ayugi (2013), in Nandi, Kenya to determine how teacher quality affects student performance. The researchers deduced that teachers experience has a significant effect on the performance of students however, their was no much correlation between teacher qualifications to students performance in academics. Education Permanent Secretary (PS) Professor George Godia (2010 Kenya) said an audit conducted after repeated below average students’ performance in arithmetic and science subjects revealed that most of those teaching the subjects are incompetent. The audit revealed that those teaching sciences including mathematics at primary school level scored as low as D (plain) grade within the subject at KCSE. This great emphasis on mathematics in class curriculum and the persistent dismal performance over the years within the subject has necessitated this study.
Table 1: Analyzed KCSE Mathematics Examination Results for Busia Sub-County
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Points out of 12 | 2.817 | 2.589 | 2.428 | 2.197 |
| Grade | D (plain) | D (plain) | D- (minus) | D- (minus) |
Source: Busia Sub-County Education Office
The data in table 1.1 for analyzed KCSE Mathematics results for the years 2016 – 2019, reveal that in 2016 the mean score in mathematics was 2.197 (D- minus), 2.428 (D- minus) in 2017, it slightly rose to 2.589 (D plain) in 2018 and remained at 2.817 (D plain) in 2019. This trend shows a very low performance in mathematics.
Table 2: Grades attained in KCSE Mathematics Busia Sub-County in 2019
| Grade | A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | C- | D+ | D | D- | E | X | TOTAL |
| Number | 39 | 33 | 25 | 32 | 40 | 43 | 59 | 57 | 50 | 280 | 584 | 736 | 1 | 1,978 |
| Percent% | 2 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 2 | 2.2 | 3 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 14.1 | 29.5 | 37.2 | 0 | 100% |
Source: Busia Sub-County Education Office
The percentage of students who scored grade E (37. 2%), D- (29.5%) and D (14.2) account for 57.9% of the total 1,978 candidates who sat the exam in 2019. The above poor results in mathematics could be attributed to teacher and student factors affecting performance in mathematics. The continued trend of below average results in KCSE mathematics prompted the researcher to conduct this study.
Statement of the problem
Many researchers in academics have found out that the success or the failure of a learning programme relies a lot on the implementor of the curriculum who is the teacher. As such low performance of students in arithmetic’s is always attributed to the lack of skills and ability of the teacher to transfer mathematics knowledge and concepts to the learners (Adeniyi & Ayinha, 2012). The researcher seeks to examine teacher quality factors and their effect on student’s achievement in mathematics in Busia sub-county public secondary schools of Busia county in Kenya. Four factors considered were: teacher’s professional qualifications and teaching experience, lesson planning and preparation of the teacher, teaching techniques employed by the teacher and assessment of student level of achievement in mathematics.
Purpose of the Study
The main aim of the study was to determine how teacher quality influences teacher quality influences student’s achievement for public secondary school Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Mathematics Examinations of Busia Sub county.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of teacher quality to the achievements of students KCSE Mathematics examination in public secondary schools in Busia sub-county.
The researcher identified four specific objectives to guide the study in Busia Sub-county.
- To establish how teacher qualifications and experience influences achievement of public secondary school students in KCSE mathematics Examinations.
- To investigate how lesson planning and preparation of a teacher in public secondary school affects students’ performance in KCSE mathematics Examinations.
- To determine the extend to which the teaching methodology used by the teacher affects the performance of students in KCSE mathematics in public secondary schools of Busia sub-county.
- To investigate how assessment and evaluation of mathematics activities by the teacher affects students’ achievement in KCSE mathematics in public secondary schools in Busia sub county.
Research Questions
The researcher developed the following research questions to direct the study
- How are the teacher’s professional qualifications and experience affects the performance of students in KCSE Mathematics Examinations in Busia sub county public secondary schools?
- To what extend does a mathematics teacher lesson planning and influence the performance of students in KCSE mathematics Examinations in Busia sub county?
- How does teaching methodology relate to student’s performance at KCSE mathematics examinations in Busia sub county public secondary schools?
- To establish the degree to which assessment and evaluation of mathematics activities by the teacher affect the performance of students in mathematics Examinations in Busia sub county public secondary schools?
Significance of the Study
The research findings are expected to provide useful information on the relationship of teacher quality factors to the performance of students in mathematics at KCSE. This will further assist mathematics teachers to embrace learner centred teaching methodology towards higher achievement of students in the subject and the other subjects.
The principals and Mathematics Heads of Department shall use the findings of the study to look for ways of supporting mathematics teachers to better their performance in mathematics in their schools.
Furthermore, the findings will help teacher training institutions to adopt better practices in training of mathematics teachers for better performance of students in mathematics.
Finally, the findings will provide relevant knowledge to the Ministry of Education on which teachers quality factors should be reinforced to realize better performance by the students in the subject that determines advancement to further careers at tertiary level.
Limitations of the study
The researcher limited the study to one county from the seven sub counties in Busia county. The researcher considered only public secondary schools because they all engage TSC registered teachers. And are also expected to promote quality in all aspects of education.
Delimitations of the study
The researcher selected six schools from the 19 public secondary schools in the sub county. The respondents included six principals, 24 teachers and 90 students equally drawn from the six schools. Therefore, these studies cannot be generalized to other schools outside the sub- county.
The researcher also aimed at investigating only four of the teacher quality factors as it is logically impossible to study all the teacher quality factors affecting performance of students in mathematics.
Assumptions of the study
- All the respondents shall give honest and accurate responses to their understanding.
- All six schools sampled have engaged qualified teachers registered with the TSC.
- All students in selected schools have equal study time
- All the schools under study use the same syllabus books.
- Data on students’ performance at KCSE math in the years 2016-2019 is available.
