preparation of prospective teachers in pedagogy in kenya; a case of selected universities

Abstract

There has been concern about the preparation of school teachers in pedagogy by universities in Kenya, especially when learners post poor results in National Examinations. This concern is what led to the design of the present study. The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of preparing prospective school teachers in pedagogy by Faculties/Schools of education in selected universities in Kenya. The main objective of this study was to establish the factors that influence the quality of preparing school teachers in pedagogy by Faculties/Schools of education. Five other subsidiary objectives that guided this study were: to investigate the nature and scope of teacher education in Kenyan universities; to investigate the present status of pedagogical practices in Faculties/ Schools of Education in Kenyan universities; to determine and establish the quality of teacher educators in Kenyan universities; to establish the attitude of both students and lectures towards the duration taken to train prospective school teachers and to investigate the facilities provided by university management to Schools/Faculties of education in universities for preparing prospective school teachers. The Theoretical framework used in this study was shulman’s concept of pedagogical content knowledge, which emphasizes the relationship between knowledge of content and pedagogical skills. The study was anchored on the Pragmatic Philosophical paradigm. For this study, mixed research method was employed and concurrent mixed method research design was used. The target population was drawn from Kenyan universities offering Teacher Education programmes, Deans, Heads/Chairs of Departments, lecturers of Pedagogy and students pursuing education degree programmes in the Faculties/Schools of Education. The Deans and Heads/Chairs of departments were purposively selected while the students, lecturers and universities were selected by simple random method. The selected universities were : Kenyatta university (Main Campus) and Egerton university (Main Campus), drawn from public universities pool, while University of Eastern Africa Baraton in Nandi County and Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi were drawn from the private universities. The research instruments used in this study included questionnaires, interview and observation schedules. These instruments were concurrently administered to collect data. The researcher with the help of two trained research assistants administered these instruments. The quantitative data analysis was basically conducted using descriptive statistics to obtain totals, means and percentages. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The study revealed that the preparation of prospective school teachers by Faculties/ Schools of education is inadequate because of: inadequate time; inadequately prepared teacher Trainers; inadequate Educational facilities and resources and minimal support from university management to Faculties/ Schools of Education. This study concluded that: school teachers prepared and produced by Kenyan universities are not competent enough in pedagogy. In view of this conclusion the study recommended that the duration of teacher preparation programme be extended by one year; Teacher Trainers be trained in pedagogical skills and the universities management should provide Faculties/School of Education with adequate educational facilities/resources for preparation of prospective school teachers.