Influence of teacher pedagogical competencies on students’ performance in writing skills in Kiswahili composition (insha) in public secondary schools in Kenya.

Abstract

Competence in writing skills in Kiswahili among the secondary school students in Kenya is significant in determining students‟ performance in the overall Kiswahili examination and consequently their overall performance of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. Performance in the Kiswahili examination in the past has, however, been generally poor especially in the Kiswahili composition (Insha) paper. Students‟ acquisition of Insha writing skills can only be facilitated by their teachers since writing is only acquired by being taught. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of Kiswahili teacher pedagogical competencies on students‟ performance in Insha writing skills. The pedagogical competencies, which the study focused on, were: - teacher planning to teach, teaching methods, learning resources, classroom management, and design and use of assessment techniques. The theoretical framework of this study was based on Gerlarch and Ely (1980) Model which illustrates fundamental principles of teaching and learning of any subject. The study was intended to contribute to knowledge by trying to address teacher pedagogical competencies that motivate students to perform well in writing. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design of the pre-test- post-test type. Stratified and purposive random sampling was used to select seven regions of Kenya, from which 16 public single, mixed, day secondary schools, which had the lowest overall mean score in the Kiswahili KCSE examination for two years in their respective sub-counties, were selected. The respondents of the study were 16 Kiswahili teachers and 637 form four students from the selected schools. Data were collected using questionnaires for teachers and students, observation schedule of live lessons, documentary analysis schedules and students‟ pre-test and post-test scores in Insha writing. After pretest the students were grouped into experimental and control groups and then they were taught Insha writing before doing the post-test. The students in the experimental group were taught using an intervention module which was based on a process-oriented approach of teaching writing, while those in the control group were taught by teachers using the conventional method which was product oriented. Data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to compute t-test for establishing any statistically significant differences between the overall pre-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups, pretest and post-test mean scores and between experimental and control groups in their post-test mean scores. The study findings indicted that, the students‟ pre-test mean scores for both groups were low and there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The low pretest performance was because the students had not acquired sufficient writing skills due the influence of teacher pedagogical competencies as indicated in inadequate planning, insufficient learning resources, use of product-oriented approach, inappropriate class arrangements and inadequate assessment techniques. The students‟ post-test mean scores for both groups improved, with the experimental group performing better than the control group. There was, therefore, a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test overall mean scores and between the experimental and control group due to both groups having been taught and because of the experimental group using process-oriented approach which focused on group work or collaborative learning. The study concluded that; students‟ performance in Insha writing was influenced by teacher pedagogical competencies. Students‟ performance could be improved by teachers who did not only have the knowledge of pedagogical competencies but also the skills, commitment and motivation to use the pedagogical competencies holistically in a process oriented approach of teaching writing. The study recommendations were that: The Ministry of Education needs to consider to in–service the Kiswahili teachers in process oriented approach for teaching writing skills in Kiswahili composition (Insha) and also to consider increasing the Kiswahili lessons in form three and four to eight. The school administrators need to support the teachers with facilities and time and also ensure that they applied all the pedagogical competencies in all their teaching. For further research, this study recommended that; research could be carried out on the influence of teacher pedagogical competencies on students‟ performance in other language skills or in other subjects at any level of education.