Assessment of activity student experiment improvisation (ASEI) /plan do see improve (PDSI) instructional approach efficacy in teaching and learning of sciences in public primary schools in Baringo Central Sub County

Abstract

Efforts to realize quality education in all levels of education has been marred by poor performance in Mathematics and Sciences especially at primary school level. The performance of science in primary school has been very poor as indicated by their results in K.C.P.E examinations. This has caused a major concern to the parents, government and educators in the country. As a result this study sought to assess Activity Student Experiment Improvisation / Plan Do See Improve instructional approach in teaching and learning of science in public primary schools. The research was based on Constructivist theory of learning. The study was guided by the following objectives: to establish the extent to which ASEI/PDSI approach is used in teaching and learning of science; to establish the level of competence among science teachers in using ASEI/ PDSI approach in teaching science; to establish the influence of ASEI/PDSI towards teacher attitudes in teaching science; to establish the pupils attitude towards learning of science using ASEI/PDSI approach and to establish challenges faced by the teachers and pupils while using ASEI/PDSI approach. The study design adopted in this study was descriptive survey design. The study population included all the public primary schools in Baringo Central Sub County; Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents in respective schools. The sample included: 34 head teachers, 68 science teachers and 266 standard seven pupils- making a total sample size of 368 respondents. Questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect data, in establishing reliability and validity of the research the questionnaire was piloted to ascertain its validity and reliability. The researcher presented questionnaires to school in the neighbouring County. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics through the use of SPSS and summarized into percentages, and frequency distributions. The information was represented through tabulation and graphs. The study found out that, teachers‟ use of the ASEI-PDSI approach in their lessons is inadequate. The study concludes that the teachers were facing many challenges in implementations of ASEI-PDSI approach which lowers the effectiveness of the approach. The study therefore recommends that follow-up efforts should be made to further improve teachers understanding in using the ASEI-PDSI approach which could take various forms, from school-level professional development activities to future nationwide in-service refresher training. The findings of this study were of good benchmarking for the Ministry of Education and SMASE administrative team, education policy makers, teachers, students and other stake-holders in Education on the way forward in improving the teaching and learning of Science.