Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills on the Use of Life Approach in the Teaching of Christian Religious Education in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya National Examination Council reports for 2011, 2012 and 2013 show a decline in Christian Religious Education performance. General enrolment for Christian Religious Education in schools and universities is low compared to enrolment in other subjects. The Teachers’ Service Commission acknowledges the acute shortage of Christian Religious Education teachers in Kenyan secondary schools. Whether it is staff shortage or the quality of teaching that influences performance levels is not known. Out of the many methods of teaching Christian Religious Education, the unacknowledged, perhaps, is the Life Approach. Teachers’ knowledge and skills and their use of Life Approach of teaching have not been sufficiently documented. The purpose of this mixed method, exploratory research study was to analyze and evaluate teachers’ knowledge and skills on use the of Life Approach in teaching Christian Religious Education among teachers in public secondary schools within Bungoma County. The specific objectives were to; determine teachers’ knowledge on Life Approach in the teaching of Christian Religious Education; determine the pre-service and in-service training level of teachers of Christian Religious Education in the use of Life Approach in teaching Christian Religious Education; Generate and analyze teachers’ attitudes towards the use of Life Approach in teaching Christian Religious Education in public secondary schools in Bungoma County and last, determine teachers’ utilization of the Life Approach in teaching Christian Religious Education. This study was guided by the Rogers and Frieberg theory of experiential learning. Experiential learning refers to applied knowledge and it addresses the needs and wants of the learners. The study utilized the exploratory research design. There were 206 public secondary schools with about 400 teachers of Christian Religious Education. The population of this study comprised all teachers of Christian Religious Education teachers in Bungoma County. Ten percent of the schools were selected using stratified sampling on the basis of national, county and sub-county schools. From each selected school, 2 CRE teachers were randomly selected using probability sampling procedures. To collect data, self- report questionnaire, interview guides, and document analysis and observation schedule were used. Questionnaire content analysis was used to place responses in themes in pursuit of stated objectives. Descriptive statistics method was used to facilitate data exploration for better understanding of issues. Data summary techniques such as standard deviation and means were used. The results of this study show that the teachers of Christian Religious Education have the knowledge and skill on Life Approach. However, many are reluctant to fully utilize knowledge and skills they acquired in pre-service and in-service training. Teachers were also found to have positive attitudes towards the use of Life Approach. Teachers were also found not to utilize the schemes of work and lesson plans in their class presentation. This study concluded that teachers have the knowledge and skills on use of Life Approach but do not utilized it. It is recommended that teachers be exposed to more in-service opportunities to stimulate their use of Life Approach in live lessons.