COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOLBASED TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN AFRICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY AND EGERTON UNIVERSITY, KENYA.

Abstract

In order to meet the need for teacher development and achieve professional enhancement among teachers, many universities worldwide, the ones in Kenya included, have adopted Bachelor of Education school-based programmes. The programmes are a mode of delivery that conveniently fits into the teachers’ professional calendar because they are conducted during the school holidays when teachers are not required in their posting stations. Africa Nazarene University (ANU) and Egerton University (private and public universities respectively) are examples of universities in Kenya that have embraced the Bachelor of Education school-based programmes. Even though the implementation of these programmes has been in progress for some time, no evaluation had been conducted to determine the progress of the process. This evaluation was conducted in order to determine whether the implementation process of the school-based programmes at Africa Nazarene and Egerton Universities was being carried out appropriately, establish any challenges encountered in the implementation process as well as suggest ways of overcoming those difficulties. The evaluation employeda combination of both qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. The quantitative paradigm involved descriptive statistics as well as ex post facto designs while the qualitative (naturalistic) paradigm comprised of comparisons and discussion of data especially collected through interviews and checklists. This evaluation adopted the Context Input, Process and Product (CIPP) model whose key proponent is Daniel Stufflebeam (1971) but did not deal with the product stage because it was a formative evaluation dealing with the evaluation of the implementation process. The target population were university school-based students, lecturers, co-ordinators and HOD’s of those programmes in ANU and Egerton Universtiy.All the respondents targeted were from the faculties/schools of education in the respective universities.Proportionate sampling techniques devised by Yamane were used to obtain the student sample for study. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview guides, checklist and document analysis guide. In order to ensure reliability of the instruments, the researcher used split half for pilot testing, then the scores obtained from the likert scale items were subjected to Cronbach alpha coefficient. Scores obtained from the items that were not in the likert scale were subjected to Spearman- Brown coefficient. A reliability coefficient index of 0.83 was obtained in both cases respectively. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures were used to analyse data. Quantitative data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). Quantitative data analysis largely involved inferential statistics (particularly t-test) and descriptive statistics, specifically; distribution tables, frequencies and percentages. In order to be able to effectively analyse qualitative data, the researcher adopted the thematic analysis to identify expected and unexpected theme categories reflected in the data which he then constructed into narratives. The findings of the study revealed that the teaching methods and techniques used in the school-based programme were appropriate but a variety of teaching approaches needed to be employed in teaching, students and lecturers needed to be better prepared variously for the sessions, resources were available but not adequate and that there were administrative and other challenges harbouring proper implementation of the programme. Even though differences were noted between ANU and Egerton University in their implementation process, they were not significant. The evaluator recommended that improvements needed to be done in the areas that had been highlighted with challenges.