Effectoflearningstylesandgenderonstudents’achievementin Secondary school agriculture subject in eldoret east sub-County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

DespitetheimportanceofagricultureinKenya’seconomy,academicachievement

ofsecondaryschoolagriculturestudentshasnotbeensatisfactory.Thestudents’

meanscoresinthesubjectfrom theyear2007to2013werelessthan50percentof

theexpectedscorenationally.ThemeanscoresinAgricultureinEldoretEastSub

County ranged between 5.11 and 5.62 outofthe possible 12.00.This poor

performancehasbeenpartiallyattributedtostudents’learningstyles;theirinterest

inthematerialunderstudy,motivationandthelearningenvironment.However,few

empiricalstudieshavebeendonetodeterminethelinkbetweenlearningstylesand

learners’achievementinsecondaryschoolagriculture.Thepurposeofthisstudy

was to determine the effects of learning styles on Agriculture students’

achievementinsecondaryschoolinEldoretEastSubCounty.Thetargetpopulation

wasallsecondaryagriculturestudentsandtheaccessiblepopulationwas1200

form threeagriculturestudentsintheSubCountyco-educationalschools.Krejcie

and Morgan formulawasused to estimatethesamplesize,which was291.

Purposivesamplingwasusedtoselect10co-educationalsecondaryschoolsfrom

which291respondentsweresystematicallyselectedintothesamplebyuseof

random numbers.Descriptivesurveystudydesignwasadoptedforthestudy.The

Kolb’sLearningStyleInventory(KLSI)andanAgricultureassessmenttest(AAT)

wereusedtocollectthedata.ThereliabilityofKLSIwas0.745andthatofAATwas

0.71KLSIwasusedtoprofilethelearningstylesofagriculturestudentsasoneof

thefourlearninggroups:Converging,Diverging,AssimilatingandAccommodating.

StatisticalPackageforSocialSciencescomputerpackageversion21wasusedin

theanalysisofthedataobtained using frequencies,percentages,meansand

standard deviations,Analysis ofVariance (ANOVA)and Chi-square test.The

hypothesesweretestedata0.05levelofsignificance.Thefindingsindicatedthat

there was a statistically significantrelationship between learning styles and

academicachievementatalpha=0.038.Thestudyalsorevealedthattherewasa

statisticallysignificantdifference between genderand achievementbased on

learningstyleatalpha=0.029and0.012forlearningstylesandgenderrespectively.

ThisstudyrecommendsthatAgricultureteachersshouldidentifythelearningstyle

oftheirstudentsanduseteachingstrategiesthatcomplementthem.Theuseof

multiple teaching methods will greatly enhance the process of teaching and

learning and make it effective and rewarding