Abstract:
mplementation 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. This study sought to determine the influence
of teaching methods and learners’ motivation on implementation
of Physics curriculum. This study was guided by cognitive
constructivism theory of learning. 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 sample size
was 22 teachers and 393 students making a total of 415
respondents. Data was using Teacher Questionnaire (TQ), Student
Questionnaire (SQ), Lesson Observation Schedule (LOS) and
Observation Checklists (OC). Data was presented using frequency
tables, figures 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 and Pearson product moment correlation
coefficient. 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 and lack of learners’ motivation
influenced the implementation of the curriculum for Physics. The
study concluded that for effective implementation of the
curriculum; students-centered teaching methods should be
employed and learners’ be motivated. The study recommended
that the teachers of Physic should be in-serviced on learner-
centered methods and they should focus more on arousing
learner’s motivation. Further, the findings provide a guide to the
government on enhancing the implementation of the curriculum
for Physics for improved performance.