An evaluation of high school home science curriculum in Kenya
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Date
1987
Authors
Sigot, Asenath Jerotich
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
For the last two decades, home science teachers,
students and professionals have expressed a need for
improvement of the high school home science curriculum.
The major purpose of this study was to; 1) investigate the
extent to whichfue present curriculum meets the aims and
objectives of home science education; 2) find out whether
home science curriculum in high school was relevant to t~e
needs of the students and the Kenyan society; 3) find out
the extent to which the home science curriculum was
integrated to cater for all round competencies or skills
required by students; and 4) giv suggestions and
recommendations towards the improvement of home science
curriculum.
The following null hypotheses, HO (X) were tested:
HO (1) There will be no significant difference between
the perceptions 'of teachers and students in
the ranking of home science courses for their
usefulness.
HO (2) There will be no significant difference in
the mean scores of teachers and students in
their ratings of curriculum items.
Thenull hypotheis HO~) was answered by using the
speannan's RankDifference correlation methcxi(rho), whereas, the
null hypothesis HO(2) was answeredby using the t test.
Data was collected by meansof ~ questionnaires
supplementedby interviews. The construction of the questionnai.ces
was guided by the aims, objectives and suggested content outlined
in the secondary school curriculum guide as well as the secondary
school homescience syllabus provided by the KenyaNational
Examinations Council. The questionnaire was divided into three
parts. Part 1 had 12 i terns that sought for selected background
infonnation about the respondents and homescience courses. Part
II consisted of 49 curriculum items arranged into the following
curriculum ccxnponents;six i terns on the general aims of horne
science; six items on balance in curriculUm; seven Ltemson
.curriculum objectives; nine items on content; seven items on
learning activities; eight items on examinations and six iteTs
on curriculum construction. Curriculum items were rated on a
five-point degree of satisfaction scale.. 'Ihe highest po.int, Ln
the scale indicated a high satisfaction and was assigned figure
4 while the lCMestpoint indicated lack of that SPecific
curriculUm item and was assigned zero (0). 'Ihe last part of the
questionnaire had ten items that sought for the strengths,
weaknesses and suggestions for improvementin homescience
curriculum. The questionnaires and interview guides were
deveIoped and pretested for content validity and reliability.
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The population of the study corrpri.sed of 53 hare science
teach8rs, 866 hare-science students, 40 former high school hare
science students and-15 secondary school administrators. Atotal
of 50 stratified and randomlyselected high schools were visited
in the study.
Analysis of data indicated that teachers and students ranked
hare managementfirst in usefulness. The other courses L.'1
descending order of their usefulness were, foods and nutrition,
clothing and textiles and science :in the home. The follaving
courses not extensively taught were ranked in descending order
of usefulness by both the teachers and students : family life
education, child development, consumereducation, homefurrii.shi.nqs
and l:ousehold equipment. The Spearmans Coefficient of
-
Agreementindicated that both teachers and ~tudents agreed in
their order of ranking hare science courses for their usefulness.
'!he null hypothesis HO(1) was accepted at the P< .05 level.
Curriculum items with a meanscore of 3.50 were considered
as being very satisfactorily achieved but none of themreceived
that score. Those with meanscores of 2.50 to 3.49 were
considered as being achieved to a satisfactory degree and there
were altogether 13 and 37 on the teacher and student ratings,
respectively. CUrriculumitems with a meanscore below2.50
were considered as being unsatisfactorily achieved. The teachers'
ratings indicated 36 curriculUm items as being unsatisfactorily
achieved whereas the students' ratings indicated 12 curriculum
items. Thus, the students ratings Here slightly higher than
those of the-teachers.
Examinationof the subject content involved in those
curriculum items rated e.s being satisfactorily achieved
(Ms= 2.50 -- 3.,49) included the objectives dealing with personal
qualit-ies of students, knowledgein one core area of hane science,
improvementof the standard of living and family life, and
acquisition of sane basic skills useful for self reliance.
The subject content in those curriculum items with mean
scores below 2.50 indicated that they were related to the
specific needs and problemsof adolescents and their role in the
ccmrruntyi , basic skills in all core areas of homescience,
developmentof students' artistic values and encouragerrentof
originality, adaptation to societal changes and challenges of
daily living.
The t t~t revealed that the student and the teacher
-
respondents had significant differences in the meanscores of
19 curriculum items out of 49. This indicated that the ~ grouI?s
did not statistically differ in their ratings of 30 curriculum
i.tems, the level of significance being P< .05. Hence, the null
hypothesis HO(2) was accepted on the 30 curriculum items with
the meanscores that did not statistically differ. However,the
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same hypothesis HO (2) was rejected on the 19 curriculum items
that had significant differences in the meanscores.
'!he findings of the present study suggested that the
respondents perce.ived the present curriculum as achieving its
general aims (Ms= 2.50 and above) however, they felt that
the specific objectives \~e not being satisfactorily achieved
. .
. (!is = below 2.50). l'-'urtherIt'Ore,evidence fran Lowmeanscores
(unsatisfactory) of 12 curriculum items related to relevance in
homescience suggested that the ?resent curriculum was not
relevant to the needs of the students and the society. The
majority (75%)of fonner hone science students indicated that some
parts of hare science curriculum were not relevant to the student
and society. Based on the findings, it has been concluded therefore,
that (1) the present curriculum has met tne objectives of those
students whoare likely to proceed on for further studies in hare
science but not for those whosehigh school education is terminal;
(2) the present curriculum is too SPecialized and the findings called
for a need to generalize the hane science curriculum in high
school.
Recanmendationsbased on the findings included the need for
bane scfence curriculum improvementthrough an introduction of a
general hare science curriculum, clarificatj on of curriculum
Objectives, revision of content, emphas.i.son hane assignments,
inservice ti:'aining, a closer interaction between administrators,
University lecturers, hare science teachers and students, and
further research studies reiated to th~ needs of individual
students, their families, and their comnunities
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment for the degree of doctor of philosophy in Kenyatta University. 1987, TX 269.K4S5