Effective teaching of life skills education in primary school curriculum in Kenya Kericho central sub-county

Abstract

Life Skills Education (LSE) is expected to equip the learners with psycho-social competences and interpersonal skills to enable an individual make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively and relate with other people. The objectives of this study were to investigate teacher preparedness in teaching of LSE: examine the attitude of teachers towards teaching of Life Skills Education; to establish availability of LSE resource materials in public primary schools and establish the challenges teachers face while teaching LSE subject in primary schools. The study was underpinned by a theory of curriculum implementation developed by Rogan and Grayson who argued that major changes in new curricula are difficult to implement and contend that any curriculum innovation should supersede existing practices. Kelly and Melograno’s Achievement Based Curriculum (ABC) model was also used to build up the background for the study. Purposive sampling, simple random sampling technique and stratified sampling techniques were used to select the study sample of 30 head teachers and 68 LSE teachers. Questionnaires, interview schedules, checklist and observation schedule were used to collect data. The content validity of the research instruments was determined by discussing with course supervisors. Reliability of the instruments was determined by the use of test-retest method and Pearson moment correlation of 0.7 was obtained indicating that instruments were reliable. Descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) package was used to analyze data from questionnaires while qualitative data from interview schedule and classroom observation schedule were analyzed thematically. The purpose of the study was to investigate effective teaching of LSE subject in public primary schools in Kericho Central Sub-County. The study investigated how the teaching of the subject is affected by teacher preparedness, attitude and availability of teaching learning resources. The main findings were that most teachers had not been trained on LSE hence the low level of preparedness. Teachers did not have a positive attitude towards the teaching of LSE as they indicated that they did not enjoy the teaching of the subject. The study found that critical teaching/learning resources were inadequate or not available in most of the primary schools. The study also found that the effective teaching of LSE faced challenges arising from the teaching methods used by the teachers teaching the subject, for example poor conceptualization of the content by both teachers and pupils, the fact that it is not examinable by KNEC, lack of proper supervision by education officers, teachers’ failure to be role models, large class numbers, inadequate guidelines from the syllabus and not being allocated specific time on the timetable. The study recommends that teachers need to be trained on the LSE through workshops, seminars and in-service training. LSE should become examinable like other subjects so that pupils and teachers take it seriously in the school curriculum. The government through the ministry of education should ensure that resources for teaching and learning LSE are adequate in schools to enhance effective teaching of the subject in the primary schools. The government through the Ministry of Education should ensure manageable pupil teacher ratio in primary schools. LSE should be customized with prevailing societal cultural concerns in a constructive way.