Materials and instructional approaches used by secondary school teachers of Kiswahili oral literature in Marakwet District, Kenya

Abstract

The study examined the materials and the instructional approaches employed by secondary school teachers and students in the teaching and learning of Kiswahili oral literature in Marakwet District, Kenya. The need for the study was based on the fact that undertaking the new task of teaching/learning Kiswahili oral literature, whose syllabus was introduced by the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) in 2002, is likely to be faced with challenges. The study was based on Gagne's conditions of learning theory, which states that effective learning only occurs in specific conditions. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The area of study was Marakwet District. The target population included Kiswahili teachers, head of departments and students from all the ten secondary schools in Marakwet District. From this, stratified, purposive and simple random sampling was used to get a sample from the population. The study used both primary and secondary data. Data was gathered through observation, interview schedules and questionnaire. Questionnaire was the main source of primary data. Data from questionnaire was analyzed in frequencies, tables and percentages using SPSS. From the findings, majority of teachers and most students agreed that students' text books were available. Moreover, majority of the respondents agreed that discussion was one of the most frequently used methods to maintain interest in Kiswahili oral literature classroom. The study was conducted because the authors were not aware of any study that had been conducted in relation to the teaching of Kiswahili oral literature in the District. On this basis, the authors were inspired to investigate the teaching of Kiswahili oral literature in secondary schools in Marakwet District. The study helps promote Kiswahili oral literature and improve its teaching methodology among both scholars and general readers. The study is also useful to curriculum developers in the implementation of the new Kiswahili syllabus.