Impact of Smasse Programme on Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Physics in Bomet County, Kenya

Abstract

Science subjects are the backbone of the scientific and technological advancements in the world. Achievement in science subjects in secondary schools in Kenya has been below average. In an attempt to address the poor performance in Physics, the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education (SMASSE) teaching approach was introduced in Konoin Sub-County in 2004. However, it is not clear how this approach is impacting the students‟ achievement in the subject. The purpose of the study was to find out whether SMASSE approach had impacted the achievement in physics. The study used expost-facto research design which involved extracting data from past school examinations records and a survey research design to assess the adoption of SMASSE teaching approach by physics teachers in the sub-county. The target population was 5017 candidates in 24 secondary schools in Konoin Sub-County in period (2000-03) and 5204 in the period (2012-15).The sample size was 12 secondary schools and the study used stratified, systematic and purposive sampling to select the schools with a total of 1,013 students for the period (2000-2003) and 1,390 in the same 12 schools for the period (2012-2015) giving a total sample size of 2,403 for this study. The research instruments used for the study were a document analysis tool and a Teachers Questionnaire on Students Achievement in Physics (TQSAP). The population of the physics teachers in the sub-county were 107, a sample of 25 teachers was selected from the sampled schools. The instruments were validated by experts in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Management. Piloting was done in four schools in Buret Sub-County. Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability where TQSAP had a reliability of 0.7231.The threshold for acceptance was α ≥ 0.70. Means, range and standard deviations were used for the descriptive statistics while for inferential statistics ANOVA and t-tests were used to analyze the data. All statistical tests were subjected to test significance of coefficient alpha (α) of 0.05. Results show that SMASSE teaching approach did not impact students‟ achievement in Physics and that boys performed better than girls even after both were exposed to the approach. Theministry through the Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QUASO) should design monitoring tools to ensure that the programme is actually implemented in the classroom to achieve its intended objectives of improving the performance in science and mathematics