| dc.description.abstract | The background of the study touched on global, regional and the local perspectives on teaching practice. The main purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing performance of student teachers on teaching practice in selected primary teachers training colleges in western Province Kenya. It sought to establish whether or not the performance of teaching practice in selected primary teachers colleges is influenced by the quality of teacher trainers, instructional language, curriculum and the status of the teaching practice schools.
The study was designed to fulfill four main objectives namely, to investigate the influence of the quality of teacher trainers on performance of student-teachers on teaching practice, to determine the influence of the policy on instructional language on student-teachers performance on teaching practice, to examine the influence of primary teachers colleges curriculum on performance of student-teachers on teaching practice, to establish the influence of student teachers perception on status of teaching practice schools on performance of student teachers on teaching practice, The study was guided by research questions, which were relevant to the objectives of the study.
The study was significant in the attempt to contribute to substantial awareness to a number of people, institutions and personnel involved in decision making, policy formulation and implementation in primary teachers colleges including the Kenya Institute of Education (KJE), the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the principals of the primary teachers training colleges.
The main limitation of the study was on timing of the research in the sampled colleges. In some occasion research could not take off as planned because the colleges were involved in other activities that could not be interfered with. The study was delimited to primary teachers colleges in Western province. Descriptive survey design was adopted which targeted 10 primary teachers training colleges in Western Province. A sample of 341 respondents drawn from six primary teacher training colleges was selected.
Simple random sampling was used to select 24 teacher trainers, purposive sampling was used to select six (6) deans of curriculum and stratified sampling was used to sample out 311 student teachers. The data was collected using two questionnaires, one for teacher trainers and the other one for the student teachers, interview schedule was used to source information from deans of curriculum and documentary analysis was also used to source information from the TP office. The instruments were validated and their reliability determined.
The data collected was interpreted and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in which descriptive statistics including percentages, frequency and averages were used in the analysis of data. The study found out that there was no specific instructional language for lower primary classes which made it difficult for student teachers from other language areas to cope with the learners, the PTE curriculum was over loaded, the overcrowded classrooms result in overloaded teachers and resource constrained environment. It was realized that a specific language which can be understood by both the student teachers and learners should be used as an instructional language in lower primary, a streamlined curriculum which was flexible and captures the needs of the student teachers should be put in place,ﾷ an increased funding by the government for the expansion of physical facilities and learning resources should be put into consideration.
The study therefore recommended that there was need to replace the use of the language of the catchment area with Kiswahili as the instructional language in lower primary, a curriculum that was flexible and relevant for the student teachers be developed, there was need for more funding by the government for the expansion of physical facilities and improvement of the learning resources. | en_US |
