Teacher Factors and the Use of Collaborative Instruction of English in Secondary Schools in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

THESIS TITLE: Teacher Factors and the Use of Collaborative Instruction of English in Secondary Schools in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Student’s Name: KUNYU HARRIET NASIKE.

Supervisors

1. Dr. Edwin Masibo
2. Dr. Ben Nyongesa

ABSTRACT

Educational reforms in Kenya seek to enable the learner to get quality instruction. Collaborative instruction is a significant concept in the field of English language teaching that involves teachers in sharing expertise, decision-making, lesson delivery, and assessment. The purpose of this study was to investigate selected teacher factors and the use of collaborative instruction in the teaching of English language in public secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to determine the influence of the teacher’s gender on the use of collaborative instruction in English, to ascertain the influence of teacher’s teaching experience on the use of collaborative instruction in English, to examine the extent teacher’s level of training affects the use of collaborative instruction in English and to evaluate how teacher’s workload affects the use of collaborative instruction in English. The study was guided by the Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey design which used a mixed method. The target population was of 314 respondents that were Heads of Department languages, Heads of Subject English and Teachers of English in Kwanza Sub-County. Simple random sampling was used to sample the respondents from the target population. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used as instruments for data collection. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Before the actual data collection, a pilot study was carried out to establish the reliability of the research instruments. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was transcribed and reported in verbatim and thematically using percentages. The findings of the study in line with teacher’s gender yielded a Chi-Square value of 2. 252 at 3 degrees of freedom and p-value of .522 >.05. On teacher’s teaching experience, a Chi-Square analysis yielded a value of 5.879, at 9 degrees of freedom and p-value of .752 > .05. Under teacher’s level of training, majority of the respondents advocate for participation in training to enhance use of collaborative instruction. High workload affects the effective use of collaborative instruction as it limits planning time, leads to stress and burnout and other responsibilities makes work overwhelming. From the findings it was concluded that, teacher’s gender has no significant influence on the use of collaborative instruction, teacher’s teaching experience has no statistically significant influence of teacher’s teaching experience on the use of collaborative instruction, the teacher’s level of training has influence on collaborative instruction and teacher’s workload should be manageable to permit effective use of collaborative instruction. Therefore, the study recommends that, the Ministry of Education should provide detailed and appropriate guidance on the usage of collaborative instruction, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should ensure that collaborative instruction is part of curriculum development process for teacher training institutions, the Quality Assurance and Standards Officers should come up with training programmes for the teachers to get training so as to improve the use of collaborative instruction and the Teachers Service Commission should put measures on workload to support the teachers so that they enhance the use of collaborative instruction by enhancing staffing of teachers. This will enhance the quality of English instruction in secondary schools in Kenya.