Effects of using advance organizers on primary school pupils’ achievement in poetry in Nakuru North Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

English language is an international language of communication in many areas such as business, sports and aviation. Teaching and learning of English language in Kenya is expected to produce pupils who can express themselves fluently and effectively both orally and in writing. Mastery of English language in primary schools is crucial since it is the language of instruction for all subjects in upper primary except Kiswahili. In spite of the importance of English language, its overall achievement in public primary schools in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education has been relatively low. This may be due the expository teaching methods used in the learning and teaching of poetry that make learners passive thus the low achievement. Furthermore poetry is integrated in the primary English language curriculum and not given enough emphasis. Poetry is an art that involves the use of all senses thus very important in acquisition and mastery of English language. In this study an attempt was made to overcome this problem using advance organizers as an intervention. The study investigated the effect of advance organizers on pupils’ achievement in poetry in English language. Advance organizers are devices that teachers use to help learners to make connections between what they know and what is to be learnt. Quasi Experimental research was used where the Solomon-Four Non-Equivalent Control Group Design was adopted. The target population was all public primary schools in Nakuru County while the accessible population was all class 7 pupils in Nakuru North Sub-County. Four schools that were used in the study were selected purposively. Based on the class sizes, the sample size was therefore 163 class 7 pupils. Simple random sampling was then used to assign the four schools to experimental and control groups. Teachers of the experimental groups used advance organizers while those of the control groups used the conventional teaching methods. Data was collected using a Pupils’ Poetry Achievement Test (PPAT). The instrument was validated by three experts in Educational Research two experienced teachers of English. The PPAT was pilot tested in primary schools in Subukia sub-county. The data collected was used to estimate the reliability coefficient using the Kuder Richardson 21 formula. A reliability coefficient of 0.76 was realized for the PPAT. The data collected was analyzed using inferential statistics, the t-test and ANOVA. The hypotheses were tested at alpha = 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that advance organizers had a significant effect on pupils’ achievement in poetry. However, the effect of the treatment on achievement in poetry in regard to gender was not significant. The findings of this study are expected to assist teachers of English in using advance organizers to improve pupils’ achievement in poetry in English. Teacher trainers may use these findings to sensitize in-service and pre-service teachers on the importance of advance organizers whereas the curriculum developers may use the information to improve teachers’ guides for use in the teaching of poetry in English in primary schools.