Abstract:
There are rising cases of disrespect in Kenyan society amid efforts by Christian Religious
Education (CRE) in secondary schools to make the learner appreciate and respect their own,
and other people’s cultural beliefs and practices. The morals of the secondary school graduates
enrolled in colleges and society do not reflect the acquisition of values learnt through CRE.
Despite the exposure of students to the Christian Religious Education curriculum, cases of
disrespect, for instance, drug abuse, abortion, arson in schools, hate speech, religious and ethnic
hatred continue being witnessed everywhere. The purpose for this study was to examine the
Christian Religious Education teachers’ perception on the use of valuing methods for learner
value acquisition in National Secondary Schools in Kenya. The objective of the study was to
establish the Christian Religious Education teachers’ perception on the use of valuing methods
for learner value acquisition and to find out the challenges they face in the process. The study
was based on the Theory of Development of values. The study adopted mixed methods under the
convergent parallel design. The target population of the study was 95 national secondary schools
in Kenya with a total of 224 CRE teachers. However, 30% of schools and teachers were sampled.
The study sample size was 67 CRE teachers. The study employed stratified and simple random
sampling to select the schools for study and purposive sampling technique to select CRE teachers
to participate in the study. Data was collected through the questionnaire, document analysis, and
interview and observation schedules. The validity and reliability of data collection instruments
was done through use of experts and piloting respectively. The quantitative data was analyzed
using descriptive statistics presented in frequencies and percentages while the qualitative data
was analyzed in thematic coding. The study revealed that CRE teachers are conscious of certain
values that the CRE content is to facilitate to learners and are aware that particular content may
not only transmit a single value depending on how it is facilitated they are however not keen on
being specific on relating particular content to particular values. The main reasons perceived
by the teachers to this non-use was noted as overcrowded curriculum, insufficient in-service
training and the seeming neglect of the affective domain in teaching and examinations. Much
as majority of the teachers do not use valuing methods, they however perceive them as having
positive characteristics that can enrich content acquisition by learners. Study recommends that
the syllabus be explicit in mentioning particular values in relation to particular teaching content.
On this note the study recommends that KICD should work very closely with CRE subject
specialists to ensure that the affective domain in the teaching of CRE is given adequate guidance