The Effects of Tutorial Class for Female Students on Their Academic Performance in Chemistry at Chiro Town Qilliso Primary School, Ethiopia (Published)
The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of tutorial class on female students’ grade 7th and 8th academic performance in chemistry at Qilliso primary school. The study employed the survey research design. Data were collected seventy female students as a sample from the total of 85 female students in grade 7th and 8th by using simple random sampling techniques and 10 teachers, 2 vice principal and 1 principal were selected by using purposive sampling techniques. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software was used to analyze the quantitative data of the study. The results revealed that tutorial support has both academic and psychological effects on female students. Academically, tutorial class is effective in improving a student’s academic performance. Psychologically, tutorial support is effective in improving their self-confidence, self-concept, decision-making ability, memory and feeling of happiness. Finally, the study suggested that tutorials are indispensable factors in the achievements of educational goals and objectives. Therefore, students, teachers and chiro educational office should give special attention to the implementation of effective tutorial class support for female students.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Effects, primary school female students, tutorial class
THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTITUDES ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN KCSE ECONOMICS EXAMINATION (Published)
Economics is a very important subject in the school curriculum. However, since the adoption of 8-4-4 system of education in Kenya in the mid 1980’s, the number of students registering for economics in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) has been steadily dropping. This has been attributed to the unsatisfactory student’s performance in KCSE economics. This paper sought to examine the effect of teacher characteristics and attitudes on student performance in Economics subject. The study is a field based survey conducted in secondary schools offering economics in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. Simple purposive sampling was used to get the representative sample for the study. The representative sample, constituted all the fourth form students of economics in all the secondary schools in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya, Inspectors of schools in districts where economics was being offered and teachers from the schools where the subject was offered. A total of 187 students, 32 teachers and 4 district inspectors took part. Data was collected from the sample using questionnaires. The data collected was analysed using Excel software program. Basic statistical techniques were used to analyse various items in the questionnaire. These include calculating the averages, frequencies, percentages and totals. These statistical techniques were used to make comparisons in the various data collected. Conclusions on the variables analysed were finally drawn from these comparisons. The study concludes that teachers have a positive attitude towards the subject thus poor performance could be attributed to other factors than teacher attitudes. The author expects that teachers of economics will benefit from the findings on the identified factors that influence the instructional procedures and strategies and hence improve the performance of the subject in the national examinations.
Keywords: Attitudes, Economics Examination, Effects, KCSE, Student Achievement, Teacher Characteristics