Relationship between Geography Teachers’ Assessment Skills and Students’ Performance in Secondary Schools in Kisii Central Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Teachers require both assessment skills and content competence for their subject to perform well in examinations. These assessment skills are test preparation skill, test administration skill, test marking skill and test reporting skill which are key in enabling geography teachers to prepare students better for national examinations. These skills may be acquired through training offered by institutions like Kenya National Examinations council (KNEC). Students’ performance of geography subject in Kenya certificate of secondary examinations (KCSE) has been poor in Kisii Central Sub-County over the years. The dismal performance in the subject was thought to be due to inadequacies in teachers’ assessment skills. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the relationship between geography teachers’ assessment skills and students’ performance in secondary schools in Kisii Central Sub-County, Kenya. The research used ex post facto co-relational design. The target population comprised of secondary school principals, teachers, and students while the accessible population comprised of 36 principals of secondary schools, 56 geography teachers’ and 1356 form four students. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 302 geography students while Purposive sampling technique was used to select 32 Principals and 52 geography teachers. Data was collected using the geography student Questionnaire (GSQ), Geography Teachers Questionnaire (GTQ) and Principals interview schedule (PIS). Content validity and construct validity were checked by five researchers from the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Management, Egerton University. The research instruments were piloted and their reliability was estimated using the Cronbach alpha method. The reliability coefficient of the instruments was estimated to be 0.720 for GSQ, 0.742 for GTQ and 0.851 for PIS. These were accepted and used to collect data for this study. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, frequencies and mean while the hypothesis was tested using t test and was tested for level of significance at .05 confidence. Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) version 11.5 was also used to assist in data analysis. The findings from the study revealed that teachers’ assessment skills were related to geography students’ subject performance in Kisii Central Sub-County. The study recommends training of geography teachers’ in assessment skills. Further, it recommends that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) and teacher training collages to place emphasis on training geography teachers on assessment skills. It also recommended that the Directorate of Education Standards and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC) to include in their assessment tools, assessment skills when assisting teachers in the field.