Effect of Attending Catholic Church Organized Teachers' In-Service Training on Students' Chemistry Achievement in Secondary Schools in Likuyani Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

This study was conducted with the aim of examining the effect of attending Catholic Church organized in-service teacher training on students' chemistry achievement in Likuyani sub-county, Kenya. The study was guided by Desimone's theory of professional development and adopted ex-post facto design for the reasons that the researcher has no control over the independent variable. The study population comprised of 38 secondary schools in Likuyani sub-county and 76 teachers of chemistry. Stratified sampling was used to select 24 schools consisting of 12 Catholic Church sponsored schools and 12non-Catholic sponsored schools.  A total of 40 teachers of chemistry were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and document analysis schedules. Descriptive statistics used in analysis included frequencies, percentages and means.  Independent sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis at α = 0.05. The study established that there was no significant difference in chemistry mean score of the schools whose teachers had attended the Catholic Church organized teachers' in-service training and those who had not attended. The study concluded that the chemistry mean score of schools whose teachers attended the Catholic Church organized in-service training was higher than the mean score of schools whose teachers did not attend. However, the results Zeami of the independent sample t-test revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in chemistry mean scores of schools whose teachers attended the Catholic Church organized chemistry teachers' in-service training  (  =3.149, SD =0.590, df=22) and  those whose teachers did not attend (  = 2.994, SD = 0.826, df=22), with t (24) =0.499 , p= 0.623at α= 0.05.The study recommended that the Ministry of Education and the Catholic Church Education Secretariat should review their in-service policy so a follow up programme is developed to ensure teachers utilize the knowledge and skills learnt in classroom.