Quality of Secondary Schools Trained Geography Teachers in Universities and Diploma Colleges in Pedagogy

Abstract

There has been a concern about the quality of secondary schools teachers being prepared and produced by University and Teachers Training Colleges especially in pedagogy and use of instructional resources which is naturally and technically a pedagogical issue. The study was guided by Shulman`s concept of pedagogical content knowledge. A total sample of the study was ten (10) secondary schools, ten (10) Heads of department, fifty (50) Geography teachers and five hundred (500) Geography students. Schools, Geography teachers and Heads/Chairs of departments were purposively selected while form three (3) and form four (4) classes were selected by simple random method. The researcher used a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design involving both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Data were collected using questionnaires for Geography Teachers and interview schedules for Heads/Chairs of departments, observation schedules, and resources checklist. The major findings were most of University trained Geography teachers were not competent enough in pedagogy and faced difficulties in utilization of educational technology in teaching/ learning process which included: insufficient knowledge of meaningful instructional activities, fewer lessons in the timetable as recommended by the ministry, inadequacy of teaching/learning resources, examination oriented programme, cheating and inadequate teacher professional development in Geography. It was also noted most of TTCS trained teachers had been effectively oriented on the use of instructional resources but follow- up a mechanism like in-service training was inadequate. Based on research findings, the study recommended that Geography teachers should be in-service in the use of practical approaches and at least have six lessons per week to enable them to cover syllabus on time. It was also recommended that the ministry of education modernize all secondary schools in Kenya by technologizing them to make them tandem with the expectation of modern education. In addition, it was further recommended that most of the Geography departments should have Geography rooms which should be well equipped.