An Evaluation of SMASSE in-service project in biology in Kajiado district, Kenya

Abstract

It is no longer a matter of having qualified teachers in a school but "quality" teachers who will deliver. The quality of teaching and learning must be reflected in the quality of grades attained by the students at the end of the secondary course. In an increasingly competitive society the minimum entrance requirement into various institutions of higher learning has gone up. Attaining high grades at secondary level is therefore imperative. With new trends in education teachers have to keep abreast by implementing the changes in teaching methodologies by attending in-service courses. The in-service providers in turn must provide quality INSETS whose training will be beneficial to students. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the Strengthening of Mathematics and Sciences in Secondary Education (SMASSE) in-service training had enhanced the capability of the Biology teachers to improve the performance in Biology in Kajiado District. The study sought to do so by answering the following questions derived from the SMASSE training strategies. These were: the use of the ASEII PDSI practice by Biology teachers, the participation of students in the class room, the management and administration of resources by the principals, the attitude of the Biology teachers towards the teaching of Biology and the attitude of the students towards Biology. The literature review focused on the following: in-service training, the SMASSE Project, evaluation of in-service courses, teaching and learning Biology. In addition, classroom practice was also discussed. Evaluation research design was used to determine whether the goal of the SMASSE project of enhancing the capability of the Biology teachers through in-service training in order to improve Biology performance in Kajiado District had been realised. The study targeted six (6) schools, six (6) head teachers, sixteen (16) Biology teachers and two hundred and four Biology students (204). The researcher used questionnaires to obtain the information. Kajiado District was chosen for the study because it was among the first pilot studies of SMASSE INSET. Initially, the schools were sampled using random area clustering. The schools from the area cluster were further selected through stratified random sampling. Sampling of the teachers was purposive, where all the practicing Biology teachers who had attended SMASSE in-service training from the sampled schools were selected for the study. The students were drawn from form 3 and 4 through simple random sampling.