<p class="Default">The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school biology teachers’ perceptions of scientific creativity. Cross-sectional survey research design was employed. The population of the study comprised all biology teachers in public secondary schools in Kericho and Kajiado counties in Kenya. A sample of 205 biology teachers’ was selected from a population of 347 using proportionate random sampling technique. A Biology teachers’ questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings show that a high percentage of the biology teachers have correct perceptions of general creativity but only a small percentage have the correct perceptions of scientific creativity. The findings have also yielded valuable information that informs curriculum developers, teacher trainers and policy makers that the majority of teachers have inadequate perceptions of scientific creativity and this may influence their classroom practices. It is recommended that science teacher education programmes emphasize scientific creativity in their methodology courses to empower teachers to provide learning opportunities that would enhance learners’ creativity in science lessons. Curriculum developers also need to prepare curriculum materials that include more classroom activities that enhance scientific creativity. <strong></strong></p><p class="Default"><em><br /></em></p>
This paper reports the results of a study that investigated secondary school learners’ perceptions of the influence of their science and mathematics teachers’ nonverbal communication on their aspirations to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related courses in institutions of higher learning. The study further investigated if there were gender differences in learners’ perceptions. The nonverbal aspects of communication focused on were teachers’ actions in class and their dressing and grooming. A sample of 465 form three secondary school learners was selected using stratified simple random sampling technique, out of whom 221 were female while 244 were male from Nakuru County, Kenya. Data was collected using a secondary school learner’s questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach alpha and yielded a coefficient of 0.88. The findings show that learners’ perceived their teachers’ nonverbal communication moderately influences their aspirations to pursue STEM. However, the perception on the influence of maintaining eye contact when asking and responding to questions and being always clean and neat were high. Therefore, science and mathematics teacher education programs should enhance pre and in service teacher awareness of the effect of their nonverbal behaviour on their learners. The Teachers Service Commission which is the national teacher regulator and employer in Kenya should ensure that the policy guidelines on teachers’ dressing and grooming are straightforwardly interpreted by all teachers and properly enforced.
This paper reports the results of a study that investigated secondary school learners’ perceptions of the influence of their science and mathematics teachers’ nonverbal communication on their aspirations to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related courses in institutions of higher learning. The study further investigated if there were gender differences in learners’ perceptions. The nonverbal aspects of communication focused on were teachers’ actions in class and their dressing and grooming. A sample of 465 form three secondary school learners was selected using stratified simple random sampling technique, out of whom 221 were female while 244 were male from Nakuru County, Kenya. Data was collected using a secondary school learner’s questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach alpha and yielded a coefficient of 0.88. The findings show that learners’ perceived their teachers’ nonverbal communication moderately influences their aspirations to pursue STEM. However, the perception on the influence of maintaining eye contact when asking and responding to questions and being always clean and neat were high. Therefore, science and mathematics teacher education programs should enhance pre and in service teacher awareness of the effect of their nonverbal behaviour on their learners. The Teachers Service Commission which is the national teacher regulator and employer in Kenya should ensure that the policy guidelines on teachers’ dressing and grooming are straightforwardly interpreted by all teachers and properly enforced.
This paper reports the results of a study that investigated secondary school learners’ perceptions of the influence of their science and mathematics teachers’ nonverbal communication on their aspirations to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related courses in institutions of higher learning. The study further investigated if there were gender differences in learners’ perceptions. The nonverbal aspects of communication focused on were teachers’ actions in class and their dressing and grooming. A sample of 465 form three secondary school learners was selected using stratified simple random sampling technique, out of whom 221 were female while 244 were male from Nakuru County, Kenya. Data was collected using a secondary school learner’s questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach alpha and yielded a coefficient of 0.88. The findings show that learners’ perceived their teachers’ nonverbal communication moderately influences their aspirations to pursue STEM. However, the perception on the influence of maintaining eye contact when asking and responding to questions and being always clean and neat were high. Therefore, science and mathematics teacher education programs should enhance pre and in service teacher awareness of the effect of their nonverbal behaviour on their learners. The Teachers Service Commission which is the national teacher regulator and employer in Kenya should ensure that the policy guidelines on teachers’ dressing and grooming are straightforwardly interpreted by all teachers and properly enforced.
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