Influence of Teacher’s Gender on Student Performance in Biology in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

Student academic performance and interest in secondary school Biology has been generally poor over the years. This has been attributed to factors like methods of instruction and misconceptions in the subject. However, literature suggests that teachers‟ gender too seems to influence students‟ academic performance generally. This suggests that interaction and relationship between students and teachers in the classroom seems to be affected by the teacher’s gender. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the influence of teacher’s gender on student academic performance in Biology in secondary schools in Malava sub-County in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and 414 respondents were involved. These included: 384 eleventh grade students; 10 Biology teachers; 10 Heads of science department and; 10 directors of studies drawn from 10 co-educational secondary schools in the sub-County. Data collection was done through interview schedules and questionnaires. Pilot testing was done to establish validity and reliability of the instruments. Data collected were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences to generate frequencies and percentages as well as means to establish the distribution of opinions of the respondents on study variables. The means were in turn used to compare the students‟ performance. Pearson’s Product-Moment correlation was used to determine the degree of association between the teacher’s gender and the students‟ performance. The Chi-square tested whether the teacher’s gender had effect on students‟ performance.