Institutional factors influencing the supervision of teaching practice in public primary teachers training colleges in Eastern province, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the institutional factors influencing the supervision of teaching practice in public primary teachers training colleges in Eastern province, Kenya. The study was guided by systems theory. In its broadest conception, a 'system' may be described as a complex of interacting components together with the relationships among them that permit the identification of a boundary maintaining entity or process. Teaching practice is part of the system. The study used descriptive study design to collect data from a large population in order to determine the correlation between variables. The population consisted of principals, tutors and zonal coordinators teaching in public primary teachers training colleges in eastern province. The total number of tutors was 260, 5 principals and five zonal coordinators- source PDE Office Eastern province February 2012.

The researcher used stratified sampling to select a total sample of 110 respondents. i.e. 100 tutors, 5 principals and five zonal coordinators. The analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The processed data was presented in form of table, frequencies and percentages upon which data findings were easily interpreted.

According to the study most of the principals were involved in teaching practice supervision. Other institutional factors which had high influence on teaching practice supervision include; tutor - student ratio, transport of student teachers and tutors to teaching practice schools and finances.

The study findings indicated that most of the departments were understaffed affected the quality of teaching practice supervision due to overworking of the tutors. Transport of tutors and students teachers to the teaching practice schools affected the supervision programme due to the delays caused by the inadequate transport available. Inclusive are the emerging issues in the educational management The researcher suggests that other studies on the same should be carried out in other provinces in Kenya.