Effects of strengthening mathematics and sciences programme on secondary school STUDENTS’ performance in mathematics in Ukwala Division, Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the success of Strengthening Mathematics And Sciences in Secondary Education project on the secondary school students’ performance in mathematics in Ukwala Division in Siaya County with the view of enhancing its implementation in the classroom. The objectives were to establish students’ attitude toward mathematics; determine whether the Strengthening Mathematics and Sciences Programme has any effects on teachers’ teaching approaches in mathematics; investigate if Strengthening Mathematics And Science programme has improved students’ performance in mathematics as well as finding out factors that hinder effective implementation of Activity Student Experiment Improvisation-Plan, Do, See Improve approach to teaching. The study utilized the descriptive survey research design. The study used a census of 35 headteachers whose schools had undertaken a training programme in strengthening of mathematics and sciences in the classroom. Simple random sampling was used to select 60 teachers who had undergone this training. Finally, five students were randomly sampled per class taught by each of the selected teacher. This gave a total sample of 300 students. The three instruments were used namely; Headteachers Interview Guide Mathematics Teachers’ Questionnaire, and the Mathematics Students’ Questionnaire. The data was analysed using SSPS Version 20.0 package. The resultant data was presented in terms of frequencies and percentages. The main study findings revealed that Strengthening Mathematics and Sciences programme has changed teachers’ attitude positively towards the subject and has also slightly improved the performance in mathematics. Some of the areas the study recommends for further study include: investigation of performance of other science subjects, and other factors outside classroom that may affect performance of mathematics such as community attitude and economic factors.