Biology is one of the science subjects taught in Kenyan secondary schools. It provides a foundation subjectfor the health sciences, agriculture, biotechnology and environmentalscience. However, secondary school students in Kenya have continued to perform poorly in Biology in the KCSE national examination. This is an indication that most students do not acquire requisite knowledge and skills during Biology lessons. This is partly attributed to the instructional approaches used. The purpo...
The knowledge of biology is applied in many aspects of human life including genetic engineering, population control, branches of medicine and environmental conservation. It has a significant role to play in enhancing the country’s socio-economic development by enabling exploitation of land, animal and other natural and human resources. Inspite of this, the overall achievement in biology in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) has been poor. Approaches used in the instructi...
ABSTRACT Biology is a key science subject in the Kenyan Secondary School Curriculum. However, evidence available indicates that students’ achievement in the subject has been poor. One of the factors attributed to this poor achievement is the teaching approaches used by teachers, with teacher-centered approaches being pre-dominant. This study sought to address the problem of ineffective instruction by teachers by investigating effects of Collaborative Concept Mapping Teaching Approach (CCMT...
ABSTRACT Chemistry is a major career subject in secondary education that is done by most of the secondary school students in Nandi North District. However, the subject has been underperformed in the past years. This could be attributed to inappropriate teaching methods employed in teaching and learning. Constructivist teaching strategy may help in improving teaching and learning of scientific concepts, but this had not been established in the District. The aim of the study was to determine t...
ABSTRACT The world and the global economy are changing very fast. Collectively, we are faced with very significant economic, environmental and social challenges. Creativity and ingenuity will be keys to addressing the challenges. To be able to achieve Kenyan Vision 2030 (economic and social pillars), learners should be equipped with scientific creativity skills to enable them participate in nation building and take on present and future challenges in the world. Studies carried out in Kenya s...
ABSTRACT Physics is recognized today as a fundamental part of both science and society. Knowledge of physics provides solutions to many of the problems that occur in today’s world. Deficiency in linking physics knowledge to real-life context of problem-solving by learners is however a major problem in the Kenyan education as evidenced by results in KCSE Physics national examinations. Progressive research recognizes the importance of teaching thinking skills through appropriate methodology a...
ABSTRACT Physics knowledge is vital for socio-economic development of any society. Technologies transforming the world are directly linked to physics inventions. Despite its importance, achievement and motivation to learn physics subject at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) has remained low in comparison to other science subjects. One of the factors attributed to the low achievement and motivation to learn physics is the poor teaching approaches. There is therefore need for ...
ABSTRACT This study was undertaken with the specific aim of investigating stress experienced by families of intellectually impaired children at the Dagbreek and Môreson Centres in Windhoek and to find out how these families cope with such stress. For the purpose of this study, a qualitative approach was adopted. Phenomenology was the guiding theory and semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect data with a sample of ten families whose children attended school at the aforementione...
ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to investigate the Grade six Natural Science teachers’ understanding of concept mapping. The study also investigated learners’ understanding of science concepts on “matter and its properties” taught through the use of concept mapping as compared to traditional lecture method. The study was conducted with two science teachers who taught Natural Science to Grade six, thirty-three learners at Alpha Primary School and thirty-seven learners at Omega Pr...
Abstract The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect Grade 12 learners’ academic performance in the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) level Biology in the Khomas Educational Region, Namibia. The study addressed two research questions. Three categories of samples made up of 15 Science Heads of Departments (HODs), 15 Biology teachers and 450 Grade 12 NSSCO Biology learners respectively were selected using the simple random sampling technique....
Abstract This paper employ various econometric techniques to analyze the determinants of inflation in Namibia, focusing particularly on the relationships that exist between the Namibian price, as the dependant variable, and the real Gross Domestics Product, Broad money supply, interest rate, and South African Price index as well as the United States price index, being the explanatory variables and probable determinants of inflation rate in Namibia.. Inflation equations that were estimated us...
ABSTRACT In Namibia, Omusati Region is one of the poorly performing regions in Physical Science Grade 12 national examinations (Omusati Regional Advisory Services (ORAS), 2015). Despite the poor performance, there are few schools in this region which have been ranked among the top six performing schools in the country. These schools are located in the same geographic region with other schools with a poor performance record. Therefore, this study investigated practices that could help improve...
ABSTRACT The current Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. cultivars in Namibia have overall poor performance and this poses a threat to the nation's food security because this crop is staple for over 70% of the Namibian population. The crop suffers from a range of undesirable production traits such as; susceptibility to diseases, low yield and prolonged reproductive cycle due to lack of genetic diversity. This study was aimed at understanding the genetic diversity of the crop in Namibia by means o...
ABSTRACT Previous studies alluded to the impacts of HIV/AIDS on education in Namibia. While such studies implied that secondary school science education was under the threat of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), there was a paucity of disaggregated and empirical data that spoke to the specific linkages between HIV/AIDS and secondary school science education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to elucidate the HIV/AIDS impacts, risk factors, an...