Teacher qualification, experience, capability beliefs and professional development: Do they predict teacher adoption of 21st century pedagogies?

Abstract

The primary objective of the study is to unravel the role played by selected teacher variables in adoption of 21st century pedagogies in Kisii County, Kenya. We hypothesized that there is no statistically significant relationship between the teacher characteristics and adoption of 21st century pedagogies. Convergent parallel mixed method design was employed in this research. A randomized sample of science teachers (n=184) was used to avail required data. Ordinal logistic regression was used to establish to what extent the teacher variables predicted teacher adoption of 21st century pedagogies. The final model statistically significantly predicted the dependent variable over and above the intercept-only model. We conclude that the teacher characteristics investigated do inform teacher adoption of 21st century pedagogies. Policy implications suggest that the Ministry of Education should strive to ensure quality pre-service teacher education, engender teacher motivation to better teacher beliefs/attitudes and also invest in teacher professional development-all which we consider fundamental determinants of teacher adoption of 21st century pedagogies.