Pedagogical issues on the implementation of history and government revised curriculum: a case of schools in Kakamega County

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out pedagogical issues on the implementation of the History and Government revised curriculum; a case of schools in Kakamega County. The performance of History and Government has been on a decline trend in Kakamega County, especially after the promulgation of the constitution and subsequent change of curriculum through circular No.2 of 2011. The study set out to establish teachers’ preparedness to achieve content delivery, availability of teaching and learning resources to teach, students and teachers attitude towards the learning and teaching, teaching and learning methods and government agencies support in teaching and learning History and Government revised curriculum. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population included the principals, form four teachers of History and Government, and form three History and Government students in selected schools. Instruments of data collection used were questionnaires for the History and Government teachers and form three History and Government students. The research also adopted observation as an instrument of data collection and Interview schedules for the principals. The study was guided by force field theory analysis of change that was developed by Lewin. The theory stresses the process and strategies for planning and implementation of change. It looks at variables such as management, organization and controlling a given situation in an organization. The study was carried out in Kakamega County. Stratified random sampling, purposive and simple random sampling were used to select respondents. A pilot study was done before the main study to establish the appropriateness of the research tools. Data collected was analyzed descriptively using frequencies and percentages and be presented in tabular form. SPSS computer package version was used to analyze the data to establish the relationships between research objectives and the findings. The findings of this study show that most of the History and Government teachers had negative attitude towards teaching History and Government new content while students had a positive attitude. Most schools had inadequate History and Government teaching and learning materials and as a result most teachers used teacher-centered method of teaching. The Government agencies offered very little help to schools to address these pedagogical issues. Recommendations derived from the study were; History and Government teachers attitude should be improved through a defined career path, universities and colleges which train graduates should develop a follow up programme, Teachers on their part need to use more of learner-centered methods to teach History and Government revised curriculum educational officers should organize regular workshops, seminars and conferences at Sub-county level to reach more History and Government teachers. Efforts should be made to ensure that schools have adequate and relevant teaching and learning material for both History and Government teachers and students especially on new contents