Influence Of Institutional Factors On Learners’ Academic Performance In French At The Kenya Certificate Of Secondary Education In Nairobi County, Kenya
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the institutional factors that
influence learners’ academic performance of French at the Kenya Certificate
of Secondary Education in Nairobi County. Specifically, the study was set to
establish the influence of experience of teachers of French, availability of
French teaching and learning resources, peer groups and attitude toward
French on learner’s academic performance in French at the Kenya Certificate
of Secondary Education in Nairobi County. This research was based on the
Systems theory. The research design employed was Expost facto where the
target population consisted of 16 schools, 16 principals, 16 teachers of French
and 480 learners of French. The study embraced the use of stratified random
sampling method for selection of respondents. The researcher used
questionnaires and interview schedules to gather information from the
respondents. The study used test-re-test technique to determine instrument
reliability. The findings of the study were; teachers’ teaching experience
influenced learners’ academic performance as more experienced teachers
produced better results that less experienced teachers. Teachers who attended
in-service trainings were very effective in their teaching and content delivery.
Availability of teaching and learning resources positively affected the
academic performance of learners in French. The lessons allocated for
teaching French were not enough and this negatively affected syllabus
coverage. Peer group had little influence on the learners’ subject selection and
academic performance. Both the teachers and learners enjoyed French lessons.
Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that; Teachers’ teaching
experience influenced learners’ academic performance as more experienced
teachers produced better results. Although many schools lacked enough
teaching and learning resources for French, the resources were purchased once
every year by the government and this made teaching and learning more
authentic. Finally, teachers and learners had positive attitude toward French
and this significantly affected the academic performance of the learners. From
the research, several recommendations are made; Teachers of French should
attend in-service trainings regularly to boost their teaching experience and to
better subject content delivery. The government should support schools
offering French with more funds to buy enough teaching and learning
resources. The number of French lessons should be increased from four to at
least six per week. Learners taking French should form their own peer group
for them to discuss and communicate in French all the time.
Publisher
University Of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5968]
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