Browsing by Author "Wekesa, W.D."

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Effectiveness of a Language Based Program in School Mathematics on Students Understanding of Statistics
(2006-12-01) Wekesa, W.D.
. Mathematical knowledge and understanding is important not only for scientific progress and development but also for its day-to-day application in social sciences and arts, government, business and management studies and household chores. But the general performance in school mathematics in Kenya has been poor over the years. There is evidence that students have problems in understanding and interrelating the symbols and special language structure as used in mathematics. Nevertheless in a recent study, a program called Socialized Mathematical Language (SML) module was designed to enhance student’s learning outcomes in school mathematics. The study was carried out in a real classroom setting that involved comparisons between the treatment and control groups. A Solomon Four Group quasi-experimental design was employed to involve four high schools in Bungoma District. A total of 156 form two students enrolled in four intact classes from the selected schools were exposed to the same content in statistics for a period of two weeks. Three dependent measures namely the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT), the Mathematics Skill Test (MST) and the Mathematics Classroom Environment Questionnaire (MCEQ) were used to assess the effectiveness of the program on students’ academic achievement in understanding of statistics, their skill performance and perceptions of the classroom environment during statistics lessons. The results affirm statistically significant learning gains in favour of the treatment groups. The study concludes that the use of SML program has a major implication for school mathematics instruction in the area of statistics.
Effectiveness of teaching preparation on mathematics achievement: The case of Kenya
(2011-11-01) Amadalo, M.M.; Wekesa, W.D.; Wambua, J.M.
Despite playing a central role in peoples’ daily life, the average Kenyan secondary school students’ mathematics score in national examinations has consistently averaged below 40%. The contribution of teachers’ lesson preparations and subsequent delivery leading to this poor result has not been investigated sufficiently in Kenyan secondary schools. This is especially so for topics deemed to be difficult. The present study investigated the effect of teacher preparations when teaching the topic “Vectors” to form three secondary school students. The instructional plans impact on achievement as well as on skills performance in Mathematics formed the objectives of the study. The Solomon- four experimental design was adopted. Professionally drawn Instructional Plans provided the treatment. Students’ achievement was determined using a Mathematics Achievement Test, MAT. The study determined that the use of the instructional plans improved students’ achievement and skill performance compared to the control group. Consequently use of instructional plans when teaching mathematics was recommended for improved students’ achievement. Emphasis on students’ stepwise skill performance rather than insistence on acquisition of correct answers during problem solution in mathematics was recommended
Influence of Instructional Practices on Secondary School Students' Achievement in Mathematics.
(ISTE. No 1 Central, hong kong Island, Hong Kong SAR, 2015) Nandwa, O.M.; Wekesa, W.D.; Wanjala, T.W.
Mathematics is a key subject which students cannot avoid if they have to lead a bright future. Despite the introduction and implementation of different teaching methods and strategies suggested by researchers the achievement of students in mathematics at school level has persistently been poor, hence the need to explore the influence of different instructional approaches. The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which instructional practices influenced students' achievement in secondary school mathematics. This entails the use of Behavioral Objective-Based (BOB), Peer Instruction enriched with Concept Tests (PICT), both BOB and PICT (BO-PICT) and Conventional Instruction (TI). The theoretical framework which guided this study was social constructivism theory. The study adopted quasi-experimental, utilizing pretest posttest non-equivalent group design. The target population for the study was all the 3056 form three students in the 38 secondary schools in Mumias sub-county. Disproportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling was used to select 327 students who took part in the study. Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that there was a significant difference in achievement, between all Experimental groups (BOB, PICT and BO-PICT) and the control group in favor of the Experimental groups. There was a significant difference between means of groups that used BOB and BO-PICT as well as PICT and BO-PICT. Those ones who used BOB and PICT were found to have similar achievement in the learning of mathematics. Based on the findings, BOB, PICT and BO-PICT were found to be viable instructional strategies that could promote performance in mathematics
Investigation of factors that influence syllabus coverage in secondary school mathematics in Kenya
(2012) Musasia, A.M.; Nakhanu, S.B.; Wekesa, W.D.
Mathematics plays a vital role in individual, national and global development. However, over the years mathematics has been one of the most poorly performed subjects in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (KCSE). In an attempt to improve performance, great effort has been put into completion of the syllabus. This study was done in Kakamega South district, involving a total of 85 secondary schools. The main objective was to determine the percentage of the syllabus covered, and correlate it with student performance. 16 out of 85 schools were purposively selected and used in the study. The head teacher, the head of mathematics department, and two randomly selected mathematics teachers from each of the 16 schools took part in the study. In total there were 64 respondents. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, and data collected using three questionnaires. Correlation between syllabus coverage and student performance using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) was 0.8343. Furthermore, a One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was determined and confirmed that syllabus coverage has a significant effect on student performance in mathematics at KCSE level. Also, a number of factors were identified as being responsible for early, late or noncoverage of the coverage.