Institutional factors Influencing Effective Teaching of Agriculture Subject in Public Secondary Schools in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Abstract

Effective teachers use a range of assessment data to differentiate the curriculum as needed and engage learners in purposeful learning through a range of media and resources. Therefore, for the agriculture teachers to be effective they must be accorded emotional, administrative and technical support. The purpose of this study was to identify institutional factors influencing effective teaching of agriculture subject in public secondary schools in Tharaka Nithi County. The study targeted a total of 136 public secondary schools in the County where a sample of 30 schools were selected by use of stratified random sampling. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from the sampled students and teachers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results indicate that teaching and learning resources were fairy adequate in most of the public secondary schools as stated by majority of the respondents (60%). Further, majority of the teachers (60%) taught between 14 and 28 lessons per week although a few were overloaded. Most of the teachers (40%) taught agriculture to between 45 and 74 students in a form one class. However, the number of students declined in form two because most of teachers (37%) taught a class of between 15 and 44 students. the results also indicate that most teachers handled very few students in form three and form four. The study also revealed a positive between adequacy of teaching/learning resources and effectiveness of teaching agriculture with a coefficient of 0.480, established a negative relationship between work load and the effectiveness of teaching agriculture with a coefficient of –0.257 and a positive correlation between class size and teaching effectiveness with a coefficient of 0.381. Overall, the effectiveness of agriculture teachers in public secondary schools in Tharaka Nithi County was fairly good however, it could have been better if the teachers were provided with adequate teaching and learning resources and a conducive work environment. In order to ease teacher overloading in form one and two TSC should be hired to reduce overload especially in form one and form two. This will as well minimize the work load of the teachers and therefore improve his/her effectiveness.