Abstract:
In Kenya, the teaching of Oral Literature in public secondary schools is a matter of
great concern. Performance of secondary schools in Literature has been poor for a
long time and gets worse in spite of the competitive teacher training programs in the
country. Little is known about the availability and utilization of audio-visual resources
to improve performance in Literature. The purpose of this study was to assess the
availability and utilization of audio-visual teaching resources in teaching Oral Literature among high schools in Butere District. The specific objectives were; to find out availability of audio-visual instructional resources, to determine the utilisation
level of audio-visual resources in teaching and learning Oral Literature, to evaluate
Oral Literature knowledge and skills in developing audio-visual instructional
resources and to describe challenges faced in adoption and use of audio-visual
resources in teaching and learning Oral Literature. Bruner's theory of discovery
learning guided the study. The target population comprised of25 headteachers or their
deputies and 75 Oral Literature teachers. The sample size comprised of 25
headteachers or their deputies and 63 Oral Literature teachers. The instruments for
data collection comprised of observation checklist, interview guides and a self administered questionnaire. Validity and reliability of instruments was determined
through a pilot study and discussion with supervisors. The results from the field were
analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitative data was
analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed using content
analysis. Analyzed data was presented using tables, pie charts, graphs and narrative
form for the case of qualitative data. The study established that most audio-visual
instructional resources were unavailable in many schools. The common audio-visual
instructional resources identified were; textbooks, storybooks, short forms, poems,
journals, narrative collections, drums, horns, cassettes and resources persons. Those
devices that were unavailable in most schools were; accruements, still pictures,
pianos, slides and videos. Teachers (63%) were found to have requisite skills in
utilizing the audio-visual resources but this was not the actual case in teaching and
learning. the reasons they gave to underutilization is lack of these resources in
schools, high cost of these instruments, scarcity, requires a lot of time and lack of
places and facilities to store these resources. The study recommends that schools
should invest more in acquisition of modem audio-visual instructional media,
government need to support schools in acquisition of audio-visual instructional media
and teachers need to change their attitude towards the utilisation of audio-visual
instructional media in teaching of Oral Literature.