UTILIZATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA AND THE QUALITY OF LEARNING OUTCOMES IN BIOLOGY THEORY IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MWALA SUB-COUNTY, MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

There has been poor performance in Biology in the national examination at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) level. This may have been attributed to many factors, but the utilization of instructional media had not been investigated in depth, hence prompting the researcher to conduct a study on utilization of instructional media and the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory in public secondary schools in Mwala sub county, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to establish the effect of teacher preparedness on the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory; assess the type of instructional resources used and the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory; determine the influence of students’ attitude on the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory; and assess the effect of students’ self-concept on the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory in public secondary schools in Mwala Sub- County. The study was based on multimedia learning theory by Richard Mayer. The study adopted mixed method methodology and descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study was all public secondary schools, all teachers of Biology, all heads of Science Department and all form two students in Mwala sub county. Stratified Random Sampling was used to sample 6 schools; two extra county schools, two county schools, and two sub-county schools. Purposive sampling was used to select 6 Heads of Science Department from the 6 sampled schools. One form two stream was randomly sampled for schools with more than one stream to minimise bias. A total of 240 students were selected randomly to participate in the study. Questionnaires and interviews were used as data collection tools in the study. The piloting of the instruments was carried out in one of the schools in Machakos County and this was not included in the study. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively with the help of the Statistical Package for Social sciences version 27. Results of the study indicate that teacher preparedness in the use of instructional media, type of instructional media used, students’ attitude and self-concept have an influence on the quality of learning outcomes in Biology theory. In addition, the study has established that in the surveyed secondary schools, Biology teachers were not well prepared in teaching using instructional media, and schools had challenges in acquiring these media due to resource constraints. Furthermore, the study establishes that students in extra-county schools performed better than their counterparts in both county and sub county schools. The study recommends that the government should increase resource allocation to the public schools, and address inequalities experienced in access to resources to equalise resource allocation.