Teacher counselors’ and pupils’ perceptions of correctional strategies used by teachers and their impact on pupils' socio-emotional development in primary schools in Kericho County, Kenya

Abstract

The issue of pupils‘ correction in primary schools is perceived as an intricate affair that requires well designed and thought out approaches in order to ensure pupils‘ proper socio-emotional development. The purpose of this study was to provide a link between teacher counselors‘ and pupils‘ perceptions of correctional strategies used by teachers and pupils‘ socio-emotional development in Kericho County‘s primary schools. The objective of the study was to establish the correctional strategies used by teachers in primary schools and their influence on pupils‘ socio-emotional development in Kericho County. The study was informed by the Gestalt theory‘s key concepts and principles. The ontological assumption and the epistemological paradigm of this research was relativism, realism, and pragmatism respectively. This was a mixed research and it employed a survey study design which used highly structured questionnaires to collect quantitative data and the open-ended questions and focus group discussions to collect qualitative data. The target population in this study was 189,946 pupils (95815 boys and 94131 girls) learning in 512 primary schools found in Kericho County and 4955 teachers in these schools. Probability sampling was used where a sample size determination formula and systematic sampling technique was used to sample 50 deputy head teachers, 219 heads of guidance and counseling teachers and 384 pupils. A pilot study was conducted to ensure reliability of the instruments which was estimated using Cronbach‘s Coefficient Alpha. The reliability coefficients computed for teacher counselors, deputy head teachers and pupils‘ questionnaires were; 0.96, 0.89 and 0.94 respectively. Analysis of data was done using descriptive and inferential statistics and was aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The overall mean of pupils‘ and teacher counsellors‘ perception of impact of correctional strategies on socio- emotional development was 4.30 and 4.20 respectively (on a five-point Likert scale) an indication that correctional strategies have a significant impact on pupils‘ socio emotional development. The findings of the study indicated that there was a strong relationship between correctional strategies used by teachers and pupils‘ socio- emotional development, r (362) =0.002 where pupils strongly indicated that there is a relationship between correctional strategies used and pupils‘ socio-emotional development. The Government, all educational stakeholders, policy makers, school administrators, and teachers are expected to use the findings in formulating and implementing relevant correctional strategies for enhanced pupils‘ socio-emotional development. The findings are also important as a basis for future research on ways of enhancing pupils‘ socio-emotional development.