Effects of mastery learning approach on secondary school students’ motivation and achievement in Kiswahili in Maraigushu Zone of Naivasha Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Kiswahili language in Kenya is important because it is both a national and official language. It is taught as a compulsory subject in both primary and secondary schools. The students’ performance in Kiswahili in secondary schools has been low. The low performance may be due to lack of appropriate teaching methods among other factors. The concern of this study was on how to enhance students’ mastery of Kiswahili and improve their performance. This study sought to find out the effects of Mastery Learning Approach (MLA) on students’ motivation and achievement in Kiswahili. The researcher used Solomon four non-equivalent control group design. The target population was all secondary school students in Maraigushu zone of Naivasha Sub-County. The accessible population was form two students in district co-educational schools in the district. The sample comprised of 169 students from four co-educational secondary schools obtained through purposive sampling. Random assignment was used to place the schools in experimental and control groups. The Experimental groups were taught Kiswahili using MLA while those in Control groups were taught using the Regular Teaching Methods (RTM) for a period of four weeks. Teachers teaching experimental groups were trained on the MLA technique before treatment. Two instruments namely; Kiswahili Achievement Test (KAT) and Students’ Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) were used to collect data. The instruments were verified by the research supervisors and experts of Egerton University. They were also pilot-tested to ascertain validity. A reliability co-efficient of 0.8723 was estimated for KAT and 0.8074 for the SMQ respectively. The data collected was analyzed using ANOVA, ANCOVA and t-test. Hypotheses were accepted or rejected at significant level of 0.05. Findings of the study were that: (i) MLA enhances achievement and motivation of students in Kiswahili and (ii) gender of students taught Kiswahili through MLA does not affect achievement. The researcher recommended that MLA should be incorporated as a Kiswahili teaching method.