Instructional influences on the implementation of Physics Curriculum in secondary schools, A case study of Bungoma County Kenya

Abstract

Implementation of the curriculum is a critical stage in the curriculum development cycle. Yet over the years 2011 to 2015 students’ achievement in Physics at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) has been low coupled with low students’ enrollment. Ineffective curriculum implementation was identified by scholars to be one of the possible causes of the low achievement. However, little was known regarding the instructional influences on the implementation of Physics curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine instructional influences on the implementation of the Physics curriculum in secondary schools in Bungoma County Kenya. This study sought to determine the influence of teaching methods, learners’ motivation, teaching-learning materials, teaching-learning activities and scope and coverage of the syllabus on implementation of Physics curriculum. This study was guided by cognitive constructivism theory of learning and adopted pragmatism research paradigm, mixed method approach and triangulation design. This study targeted 224 teachers of Physics and 4140 Form three Physics students in 283 public secondary schools in Bungoma County. Stratified and simple random techniques were used to select 22 schools. The Head of Subject (HOS) were purposively sampled from each selected school. The sample size was 22 teachers and 393 students making a total of 415 respondents. Data was collected between September and October, 2017 using Teacher Questionnaire (TQ), Student Questionnaire (SQ), Lesson Observation Schedule (LOS) and Observation Checklists (OC). Data was presented using frequency tables, figures and photographs and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics used to analyze quantitative data include; percentages and means while the inferential statistics used include; Chi-square, Pearson Product-Moment correlation and Regression analysis. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to compute the analysis at α = 0.05 level of significance. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed that non-use of student-centered teaching methods, lack of learners’ motivation, inadequate provision of teaching-learning materials, minimal learning activities in classrooms and failure to cover the syllabus on time influenced the implementation of Physics curriculum. The study concluded that for effective curriculum implementation, students-centered teaching methods should be used, learners’ be motivated, provide adequate learning material, many learning activities arranged and the scope of the syllabus be covered in-depth and timely. The study recommended that the teachers of Physic should be in-service on learner-centered methods, teachers should focus more on arousing learner’s motivation, schools should be furnished with adequate learning materials, teachers should practice activity- centered teaching and the syllabus for Physics should be revised. The study findings provide an opportunity for teachers to improve on their classroom practices. Further, the findings provide a guide to the government on enhancing the implementation of the curriculum of Physics for improved performance.