Investigation Into The Integration Of ICT In The Teaching Of Geography In Public Secondary Schools In Nyamira North,Sub County Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the teacher, administrative and curriculum challenges in integrating ICT in geography teaching in Nyamira North Sub-county. It further aimed at finding the relationship between teacher, administrative and curriculum challenges and performance in Geography for the last five years. The researcher had the following four specific objectives; to determine teacher challenges in integrating ICT in teaching of geography, to investigate administrative challenges in facilitating integration of ICT in Geography instruction, to investigate curriculum related challenges in integrating ICT in teaching Geography, and to find out the relationship between teacher, administrative and curriculum challenges, and geography performance. The target population was 39 principals, 117 Geography teachers and 195 form four Geography students, the total target population was 351 respondents. The sample size as recommended of 30% of the total respondents was 13 public secondary schools, 39 geography teachers and 65 form four geography students. The study utilized a mixed method approach by employing the use of three questionnaires which were responded to by the principal, geography teachers and geography students the qualitative part was used to analyze the statements made in some sections of the instruments that have open responses. The responses produced common themes that describe differently certain challenges. They also represent the weight of such challenges in different schools. The quantitative part used descriptive statistics like percentages, ratios and frequencies of common challenges, and themes arising from the qualitative data collected. It included the levels of correlation between the number of challenges, schools and teachers and, the schools’ performance in KCSE for the last five years. Number of challenges associated with integrating ICT in teaching generally surfaced in the teaching of geography. It also showed that the challenges were not of equal magnitude in all the schools, and might not be described the same way, hence the use of mixed methods approach. The validity was done by the experts from the department of curriculum and instruction of Kisii University and reliability of the instrument was at 0.72 which was considered reliable. The study will pave way for further research to address the solutions to the challenges unearthed. The researcher used questionnaires to collect the information gathered by using descriptive survey design, which were carefully selected from the 39 secondary schools in Nyamira North Sub-county for the purpose of the study. The collected information was calculated and the mean average score for five years was 5.010 (C-), mean standard deviation for the five years was 0.888161.The researcher concluded that the performance of Geography was still low, as compared to other humanities. The findings of the study showed that in teacher challenges, the use of ICT in class was at 6%, the schools are missing basic gadgets and prerequisites for ICT implementation. The researcher recommended that the government should allocate more money for the purchase of the gadgets and connect the schools with the national grid. Therefore, the researcher concluded that without implementation of ICT, teaching of Geography will be hindered. From the study the researcher made the following recommendations, schools to provide required facilities for ICT. The researcher upheld privacy and confidentiality of the respondents, the questions that were used did not infringe on the respondents privacy, the respondents were allowed to ignore questions that they felt are more uncomfortable for them and they were assured that their responses were kept secret.