Effect of Instructional Media On Students’ Academic Performance in Christian Religious Education in Public Secondary Schools in Machakos Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Academic performance of a student is of paramount importance in every academic institution. The focus of this study was to address the effect of instructional media on students’ academic performance in CRE in public secondary schools in Machakos Sub-county. The students’ performance in CRE remains a top priority for educators in CRE because when students get good grades, they become competitive in the world of work and may have better employment opportunities. The objectives of this study were: to identify the different types of instructional media available for teaching CRE in public secondary schools in Machakos Sub-County, to find out the use of instructional media in teaching CRE, to establish teachers’ perception on instructional media and how it affects academic performance of CRE students and to establish the challenges faced by CRE teachers when using instructional media in Machakos Sub-county. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and the system theory was used to investigate on how instructional media affects the academic performance of CRE students. The researcher used simple random sampling techniques to sample 10 schools to be used in the study out of the 75 secondary schools in Machakos sub-county. Proportional stratified technique was used to select a total of 300 CRE students from the 10 selected public secondary schools. Purposive sampling was applied to sample 10 Form Three CRE teachers. The study used questionnaires as the research instruments. There was a questionnaire for students and the teachers. Data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study established that majority (50%) of the teachers indicated that CRE performance in their school was very good. In addition, majority (56%) of the students indicated that the CRE performance in their school was good. The study found that the use of instructional media can enhance learner’s performance as the lessons are always interesting, it makes the topic to be better understood, and also the issues become more familiar to the students. The instructional media improves learner’s motivation thus increasing performance. Further it also improves the learner’s memory as they are able to remember issues easily. The study established that majority (60%) of the respondents indicated that they did not face challenges when using instructional media in teaching. The challenges included lack of charts in certain schools which are located in the interior within the sub counties. Another challenge is that most topics are not structured to accommodate instructional media. The study concluded that the performance of CRE was good due to the use of instructional media in teaching and learning. The study also concluded that the instructional media the teacher mostly used in teaching CRE was boards followed by textbook. It is therefore clear that the schools in Machakos have inadequate instructional materials needed for learning. The study further concluded that the instructional media used by teachers in conducting CRE lessons was the blackboard. The study recommended that the principals should emphasis the importance of instructional media with the aim of raising the academic performance of the schools as it has been proved that instructional media in teaching and learning enhanced the performance of the students.