Perceptions of teacher management approaches on students’ academic achievement in public secondary school education in Migori county, Kenya

Abstract

Education is a fundamental human right which promotes acquisition of knowledge and fosters skills for development. Knowledge and skills are the drivers of economy and where education is not qualitative, the out-put may not spur development. In Kenya, despite efforts by policy makers, administrators, and teachers to improve student‟s academic achievement, performance remains poor. The poor performance is replicated in Migori County. The findings of this research can add to the valuable interventions to be considered by stakeholders in secondary schools to improve performance. The purpose of this study was to establish perception of teacher management approaches on promoting student‟s academic achievement in public secondary school education. The research was guided by objectives which considered influence of teacher professional development, relationship of supervision to performance, impact of teacher induction and role of motivation on student‟s academic achievement. This research incorporated concurrent triangulation research design. Population for this research were ten (10) education officers, One hundred and eighty four (184) public secondary schools, teachers were one thousand two hundred and thirty three (1233), and students were 73,385. A sample involving 8 education officers, 56 public secondary schools, 56 principals, and 370 teachers were drawn from target population. Simple Random sampling was used to sample 56 schools. After clustering teachers by gender, stratified random sampling was used to get 370 teacher respondents. Data for the study was collected by the use of questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis. Validity of questionnaires was achieved through consultation with supervisors while reliability of questionnaires was tested during piloting in three schools in Migori County. A split-half correlation test was conducted whereby a coefficient of +0.80 or greater is considered good internal consistency. Pearson‟s r for reliability of piloted data was +0.83 for principals, and +0.86 for teachers which indicated good internal consistency. Quantitative data was collected, summarized, analyzed and presented in Tables, bar-charts, and pie-charts. Qualitative data analysis involved identification and interpretation of patterns and themes. Document analysis was used to generate literature review, performance indices and understanding policy guidelines. Inferential statistics was used whereby Regression analysis was used to gauge influences of Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Induction and Teacher Experience; Chi-square test was used to gauge relationship of supervision to students‟ academic achievement while Anova Test was used to appraise role of motivation, and impact of induction. The findings revealed that teacher PD, teacher qualification and teacher experience influenced student achievement in secondary schools; On the contrary, the study noted that supervision, evaluation, induction, and motivation had no significant impact on students‟ academic achievement. Further, the findings indicated a weak relationship between inductions (coefficient 0.011), motivation (coefficient 0.368) and student academic achievement. Therefore, the study concluded that administrators should put in place measures to enhance strong areas such as teacher Professional development (PD); teacher qualification, and teacher experience and recommends that institutional managers should design proactive processes to enhance supervision, teacher evaluation, induction, and motivation. The research which focused on perceptions of teacher management approaches on student‟s academic achievement in Migori County recommends that enhancing teacher management methodologies would strengthen student‟s achievement in public secondary school education.

Education is a fundamental human right which promotes acquisition of knowledge and fosters skills for development. Knowledge and skills are the drivers of economy and where education is not qualitative, the out-put may not spur development. In Kenya, despite efforts by policy makers, administrators, and teachers to improve student‟s academic achievement, performance remains poor. The poor performance is replicated in Migori County. The findings of this research can add to the valuable interventions to be considered by stakeholders in secondary schools to improve performance. The purpose of this study was to establish perception of teacher management approaches on promoting student‟s academic achievement in public secondary school education. The research was guided by objectives which considered influence of teacher professional development, relationship of supervision to performance, impact of teacher induction and role of motivation on student‟s academic achievement. This research incorporated concurrent triangulation research design. Population for this research were ten (10) education officers, One hundred and eighty four (184) public secondary schools, teachers were one thousand two hundred and thirty three (1233), and students were 73,385. A sample involving 8 education officers, 56 public secondary schools, 56 principals, and 370 teachers were drawn from target population. Simple Random sampling was used to sample 56 schools. After clustering teachers by gender, stratified random sampling was used to get 370 teacher respondents. Data for the study was collected by the use of questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis. Validity of questionnaires was achieved through consultation with supervisors while reliability of questionnaires was tested during piloting in three schools in Migori County. A split-half correlation test was conducted whereby a coefficient of +0.80 or greater is considered good internal consistency. Pearson‟s r for reliability of piloted data was +0.83 for principals, and +0.86 for teachers which indicated good internal consistency. Quantitative data was collected, summarized, analyzed and presented in Tables, bar-charts, and pie-charts. Qualitative data analysis involved identification and interpretation of patterns and themes. Document analysis was used to generate literature review, performance indices and understanding policy guidelines. Inferential statistics was used whereby Regression analysis was used to gauge influences of Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Induction and Teacher Experience; Chi-square test was used to gauge relationship of supervision to students‟ academic achievement while Anova Test was used to appraise role of motivation, and impact of induction. The findings revealed that teacher PD, teacher qualification and teacher experience influenced student achievement in secondary schools; On the contrary, the study noted that supervision, evaluation, induction, and motivation had no significant impact on students‟ academic achievement. Further, the findings indicated a weak relationship between inductions (coefficient 0.011), motivation (coefficient 0.368) and student academic achievement. Therefore, the study concluded that administrators should put in place measures to enhance strong areas such as teacher Professional development (PD); teacher qualification, and teacher experience and recommends that institutional managers should design proactive processes to enhance supervision, teacher evaluation, induction, and motivation. The research which focused on perceptions of teacher management approaches on student‟s academic achievement in Migori County recommends that enhancing teacher management methodologies would strengthen student‟s achievement in public secondary school education.