Factors Influencing Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Performance Appraisal In Public Secondary Schools In Imenti North Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing teachers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal in public secondary schools in Imenti North Sub County, Kenya. Four research objectives guided the study. The research objectives sought to determine how provision of feedback, rating techniques, training and how supervisors’ characteristics influenced teachers attitudes towards performance appraisal. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised of 40 principals and 423 teachers. The sample was 127 and 32 principals selected by use of simple random sampling. Findings revealed that majority 20 (71.4%) principals agreed that that they made sure they give feedback to teachers after performance appraisal. majority 75 (62.5%) disagreed that the principal communicated performance appraisal feedback in time. Majority 73 (60.8%) strongly agreed that the principal did not communicate performance appraisal in a friendly manner. Majority 85 (70.8%) of the teachers agreed that teachers have a negative attitude towards performance appraisal due to the manner in which it is communicated. Findings on the rating techniques and teacher’s attitudes towards performance appraisal revealed that majority of the principals 18 (64.3%) agreed that the attitude of the head of school had an influence on how he or she rates teachers. Majority 69 (57.5%) of the teachers agreed that the rating scale of performance appraisal is subjective. Findings revealed that 15 (53.6%) principals strongly agreed that teachers in the school had not received adequate training in performance appraisal. Majority of the teachers 68 (56.7%) disagreed that they had gone through training in performance appraisal. Findings revealed that gender of the principal had a mean of 1.43, a standard deviation of 0.504 and a variance of 0.254. In respect to the principals’ age, the mean was 5.61, a standard deviation of 1.423 and a variables of 2.025. Thus the gender of the principals did not influence their responses towards teachers’ attitude on performance appraisal. There were differences in the principals’ age regarding their responses on teachers’ attitude towards performance appraisal. The level of education did not affect teachers’ responses towards their opinions on teachers’ attitude towards performance appraisal. The study concluded that provision of feedback influenced teachers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. The study also concluded that rating techniques, training of teachers had an influence on their attitudes towards performance appraisal. Teachers should be trained on performance appraisal so that they may understand it and hence embrace it. The researcher suggests that since the current study was conducted in one Sub County, a similar study should be conducted in another sub county so that the results may be compared. It was also suggested that with the introduction of the then new performance contracting, a study on its implementation in the schools should be conducted so that errors may be corrected.