Factors influencing teacher student interaction in public and private schools in Matungulu Sub-County, Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing teacher student interaction in public and private secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county. The main objective of the study was to establish how various factors influence teacher student interaction. A descriptive Survey research design was applied for the study. A questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The study was carried out in all the 7 public and 3 private secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county. A total of 120 respondents were targeted; using purposive sampling technique for students and simple random sampling for teachers. It was observed that female teachers in private schools interacted better with students. Teachers in private schools were able to interact well with students from all academic categories. The study also found that student’s age was not a barrier to the way teachers in public schools interacted. Teachers interacted better with female than male students. Students from private schools equally interacted with teachers irrespective of their gender, while average students frequently asked or responded to questions. There are more restrictive environments in public schools than in private schools although teacher-student interaction was poorer in private than in public schools. Teacher-student relationship was friendlier in private schools than public schools. Students that came from homes that had high values were more interactive than those from insecure family backgrounds. The study concluded that: female teachers (private) interact better than those in public schools and teacher-student relationship was generally good in both institutions. It is recommended that other studies be done in other subcounties to assess the teacher-student interaction in scopes not covered in this study.