MST-Department of Environmental Education

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Browsing MST-Department of Environmental Education by Author "Cheruiyot, Mutai Gilbert"

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    Barriers to Implementation of Environmental education in Secondary Schools in Molo, Nakuru County,Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2019-05) Cheruiyot, Mutai Gilbert
    Environmental degradation is among the world’s major threats to existence of humanity today. Policy meas ures have been put in place to curb degradation but the menace has escalated at an alarming rate. Due to th is, Environmental Education as a tool for environmental management and conservation cannot be overemphasized. The importance of Environmental Educati on is well kn own globally among societies. Environmental Education is gradually promoted as a sustainable tool in protection of the natural environment. To raise environmental literacy level among Kenyans, Environmental Education is taught using both inter disciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. However, research indicates that ef forts to effectively integrate Environmental Education in secondary schools in Kenya have not born e fruits. Arguments are rife that there are several barriers hindering succe ssful Environmental Education implementation . The core objective of this study was t o investigate barriers hindering successful Environmental Education implementation in Molo sub county in Kenya. To achi eve this, the study examined the effect of teachers’ and students’ attitude, administrative support and curriculum design on Environmental Education implementation. The main subjects consi dered in extraction the major Environmental Education thematic areas in secondary school syllabi include d Biology, Chemis try, Physics, Geography and Agriculture. The meth ods used to teach these subjects , the preparedness of teachers to handle them in terms of training, availability of teaching and learning resources was also investi gated. The target population was 16 secondar y schools out of a total of 41 secondary schools i n Molo sub county selected purposefully from the four wards of Molo, Elburgon, Marioshoni and Turi. The four schools selected had similar characteristics. They were all public mixed day schools, facing the same school based challenges. The study chose 4 schools from each ward. The principals were asked to select a teacher each teaching Physics, Biology, Geography, Chemistry and Agriculture to take part in filling the questionnaires. Two students, a boy and g irl, were randomly selected from form one to four in each school. A total of 128 students were involved in the study. The d escriptive survey design was used as it came in handy in describi ng the existing conditions. Data was collected using questionnaires , school environmental checklists and analysis of thematic areas covered in the Kenyan secondary s chool syllabi of the selected Environmental Education related subjects. Data was analysed using the Statistical Pa ckage for Social Sciences version 16 compute r package. The findings of the study were presented in tables. Correlation analysis to show the significance of the independent variables to the dependent variables was carried out. Findings indicated a positive relationship between independent and depende nt variables. Specifically, it was noted that there was a positive correlation between teacher attitude, r (.45), student attitude, r (.53), administration support, r (.62) and curriculum design, r (.58) and implementation of Environmental Education . This implies that teacher attitude, student attitude, administration support and curriculum design were barriers to implementation of Environmental Education in public day secondary schools in Molo sub county. The study recommended the strengthening and clarity of policy guidelines towards Environmental Education and enhancement of mechanisms to enable administration support.Training and empowerment of teachers in matters related to Environmental Education was also recommended. Teachers were to come up with mechanisms to change students’ attitude towards Environmental Education