Influence of teacher-pupil ratio and availability of reading materials on reading achievement levels of standard three pupils in Kenyenya Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya
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Date
2016-08
Authors
Obunga, Elijah Orangi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Reading ability is one of the basic requirements which enable people to engage
themselves successfully in their daily activities. Reading achievement determines the
child‟s success in school and eventual career development. Despite this, there are low
reading achievement levels among standard three pupils. The purpose of this study was
study the influence of teacher-pupil ratio and availability of reading materials on
reading achievement levels of standard three pupils in Kenyenya Sub-County, Kisii
County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives: to establish reading
achievement levels of standard three primary school pupils, to establish the influence of
pupil-teacher ratio, text books-pupil ratio, story books- pupil ratio and charts-pupil ratio
on reading achievement levels of standard three primary school pupils. This study was
guided by Lev Vygotsky‟s sociocultural theory. Descriptive survey and correlation
research designs were used. The independent variables included pupil-teacher ratio, text
books-pupil ratio, story books- pupil ratio and charts-pupil ratio. The dependent
variable was the reading achievement levels of standard three pupils. Cluster and simple
random sampling methods were used in this study. The population for this study
comprised of all primary school and all standard three primary school pupils out of
which 65 primary schools were sampled for observing reading materials and 355
standard three pupils were sampled for testing reading ability. The validity of English
reading test was established by concurrent validity and the validity of the observation
schedule was achieved by item review. The researcher used inter-rater (inter-observer)
method to determine the reliability of the observation schedule which was found to be
+0.85 using the Cohen‟s Kappa index. The test re-test method used to test the reliability
of the reading test was found to be +90. Quantitative data was collected from reading
test and observation schedule. The data was presented using frequency tables and
analysed using chi-square, simple regression and multiple regression using SPSS
version 20 computer software. The major findings indicated that majority of standard
three pupils were at word level; there was a significant relationship between pupils‟
reading achievement levels and pupil-teacher ratio, textbook-pupil ratio, story bookspupil
ratio and charts-pupil ratio. In the recommendations, the ministry of education
should organise refresher courses to equip teachers with reading literacy skills in order
to assist pupils acquire reading competency, there is need for the government through
Teacher Service Commission to increase the number of teachers in primary schools,
ministry of education should provide policy guidelines on the development of teaching
and learning resources. Also, teachers should improvise own ways of helping children
to acquire reading skills. Teachers should initiate book harvesting programme where
they will engage different stakeholders to collect new books for their schools and
should develop reading charts from locally available materials. Further research should
be conducted at pre-primary school level which is the foundation for developing reading
skills in the learners to unearth the possible school level challenges.
Description
A research thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for award of the degree of master of Education (Early Childhood Studies) in the school of education of Kenyatta University, August, 2016. Call Number - LB 1050.46 .K4O2
Keywords
Subject(s): Reading -- Ability testing -- Kenya -- Kisii, Books and reading -- Kenya -- Kisii