School of Education and Social Sciences
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://41.89.31.6:4000/handle/123456789/321
Welcome to School of Education and Social Science collection.This collection contains Journal articles published by faculty affiliated to the school.
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Item How Career Guidance Services Affect Career Choice among Public Secondary School Students in Meru County, Kenya(African Journal of Emerging Issues, 2019) Njogu, Sarah Wambeti; Kibaara, Tarsilla; Gichohi, PaulCareer guidance activities offered in public secondary schools are meant to assist students succeed in their careers after finishing O-level education. The knowledge that students acquires through career offices should therefore help them to remove confusion, anxiety, indecisiveness, and should empower them with information on clear career paths; relevant occupations in the context of their talents, academic abilities and market trends. The purpose of this study was to determine how career guidance services affect career choice among public secondary school students in Meru County, Kenya.However many secondary school students complete their studies without a clear understanding of the courses to enroll for upon joining institutions of higher learning. The study sought to examine the extent to which nature of career guidance services influence career choice of students in public secondary school in Meru County. Descriptive survey and correlational research designs were adopted in this study. Questionnaires and a structured interview schedule were used to collect data. Thirty six schools were sampled through stratified random sampling technique and an equal number of principals and career guidance teachers from sampled secondary schools obtained. Systemic sampling was used to sample 377 form four students while 11 parents were sampled using purposive sampling technique, making a total of 460 respondents. A pre-test on questionnaires was done to ensure validity while reliability was computed where Cronbach’s Alpha value was used. Data was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and Microsoft excel where, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistic, that is, linear regression analysis was computed accordingly.The major findings were that most public secondary schools (78.8%) didn’t have professionally qualified career guidance teachers while 57.6% allocated less than 5% of operational budget to cater for career oriented activities.The study concluded that career guidance services were statistically significant in influencing career choice of students in public secondary schools. Establishment of fully fledged career guidance offices with well-trained career teachers and adequate funding can help achieve the planned career-oriented activities. This study recommends deliberate allocation of sufficient funds to run career guidance services and involvement of all in supporting this initiative.Item Parental Aspirations and Its Influence on Career Choice Among Public Secondary School Students in Meru County, Kenya(Journal of Education and Practice, 2019-08) Njogu, Sarah Wambeti; Kibaara, Tarsilla; Gichohi, PaulParents get involved in the education of their children through various ways; for example, in school activities, providing instructions on academic skills, engaging in and out of school learning activities, schooling process, providing learning resources and relevant learning experiences. Career choice by students is critical but a complicated task that involves a difficult process of decision making hence, parental involvement is necessary in creating awareness on possible career paths of their children. The study therefore, sought to assess the influence of parental aspirations on career choice among students in public secondary school in Meru County. Descriptive survey design was used. Through stratified, systemic and purposive sampling, 460 participants comprising 377 Form Four students, 36 principals, 36 career guidance teachers and 11 form four parents’ representatives were selected from 364 schools. Overall response rate was 92.1%. Data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview schedule. Analysis was done with the help of SPSS (Version 24) and Microsoft Excel. Mean and standard deviation were computed while linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between parental aspirations and career choice. The findings highlighted the critical role of parents in the selection process of careers of their children in public secondary. It was clear that the education level of parents is critical in informing career choices of children. The results show moderate influence of parental aspirations on careers selected by public secondary school students in Meru County where composite mean score is 3.35. Parents should strengthen their role in the provision of moral support, discussing and monitoring academic progress of children at school and at home; and rewarding them when they perform well in school, and should encourage their children to seek information on careers and exposing them to different career optionsItem Effects of Cooperative Thinking Skills Training Intervention on Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils in Nakuru West Sub-County, Kenya(Stratford Peer Reviewed Journals and Book Publishing Journal of Education, 2019-09) Aguta, Matunga Hellen; Gichohi, Paul; Wamalwa, BernardAcademic performance has remained elusive as different cohorts of learners perform differently in national examinations. Previous studies on academic performance of pupils have explored the question mostly from environmental perspectives rather than pupil’s intrinsic factors such as reading difficulties and successes of respective intervention measures. Interventions on reading difficulties being experienced by learners have been sought, however, the persistence of the problem leads to questions over the efficacy of the interventions. This study was set out to find out the effects of cooperative thinking skills training intervention on academic performance of public primary school pupils in Nakuru West Sub-County, Kenya. Descriptive survey research design was used targeting 12 public primary schools from which 342 language teachers and 1133 pupils were theorized to have reading difficulties were sampled. A sample size of 160 respondents was selected using both purposive and stratified random sampling for teachers and pupils respectively. Data was collected using a well-structured questionnaire and an observation schedule which were analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive statistics involving frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, and inferential statistical methods involving linear regression were used to analyze data. The results from the observation schedule were analyzed using content analysis and integrated during interpretations, discussions and conclusions. The study found that cooperative thinking skills training intervention had a positive and strong effect on academic performance of pupils with reading difficulties among public primary school pupils in Nakuru West Sub-County. Hence, the study concluded that cooperative thinking skills training intervention as currently applied in teaching was a very promising intervention in remedying reading difficulties. The study recommended that teachers should find out and introduce new ways of cooperative learning specifically those which encourage the learners to assist each other improve their reading proficiency .Item Effects of Comprehension Monitoring on Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils in Nakuru West Sub- County, Kenya(International Journal of academic research in business & social sciences, 2019-11-24) Aguta, Matunga Hellen; Gichohi, Paul; Wamalwa, BernardAcademic performance has remained elusive as different cohorts of learners perform differently in national examinations. However, previous studies on academic performance of pupils have explored the question from an environmental perspective, where little attention has been given to the pupil’s intrinsic factors such as reading difficulties and successes of respective intervention measures. Interventions on reading difficulties being experienced by learners have been sought, however, the persistence of the problem leads to questions over the efficacy of the interventions. This study set out to find out the effects of comprehension monitoring on academic performance of primary school pupils in Nakuru West Sub-County, Kenya. It was guided by the Cognitive Model of Reading Comprehension. Both descriptive survey and experimental research designs were used. The target population comprised of 12 public primary schools in the area of study from which 342 language teachers and 1133 pupils whom were theorized to have reading difficulties were sampled. A sample size of 160 respondents was selected using both purposive and stratified random sampling for teachers and pupils respectively. Data was collected using a well-structured questionnaire, an observation schedule and through administering a reading test. Data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive statistics involving means, modes and standard deviations, and inferential statistical methods involving Pearson’s Product Moment correlation and ANOVA, were used to analyze data. The results from the tests and the observation schedule were analyzed using content analysis and integrated during interpretations, discussion and conclusion. The study found that comprehension monitoring had a positive and significant effects on academic performance of pupils with reading difficulties in the area. Results from the reading test experiment showed that learners with reading difficulties who had received interventions (Group B) performed significantly better than their counterparts who had not received the interventions (Group A). Hence, the study concluded that the comprehension monitoring as a reading difficulties intervention had the potential of improving academic performance of the learners if well emphasized. Therefore, the study recommended that teachers should introduce regular comprehension tests to monitor the students reading abilities.