Teachers’ Innovation and Learners’ Academic Achievement in Public Primary Schools in Marakwet East Sub- County, Kenya

Simon Riatum Kilimo,Stephen Tomno Cheboi

doi:10.37284/eajes.4.1.470

Abstract

Innovative and creative instruction is key towards helping learners in schools understand concepts being taught and perform well in their studies. One of the expectations from teacher performance appraisal and development (TPAD) is that teachers should make sure that they make their lessons to be innovative and creative in order for learners to develop knowledge and acquire required competencies. This paper looks at how teachers are using creativity and innovation in their teaching and its influence on learners’ academic achievement in public primary schools. The study was conducted in public primary schools in Marakwet East Sub County involving all teachers (581) and headteachers (83) employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). A descriptive survey design was utilised for this investigation. A sample size representing 20.0% of respondents 17 head teachers and 117 teachers who were selected via a simple random sampling method. The instruments used to collect data consisted of questionnaires for teachers and interview schedules for headteachers. Data collected was analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The study found out that teachers’ use of creativity and innovation methods influenced learner academic achievement. However, the research found that the usage of ICT resources was low and this explains how very few teachers were accessing and utilising online resources for their learners. This means that despite teachers having the capacity to effectively make sure their classrooms experiences involve innovation and creativity is hampered by a lack of adequate infrastructure facilities like computers, laptops, internet, and electricity. In conclusion, teachers’ use of creativity and innovation approaches in teaching was found to influence the academic performance of learners in public primary schools in Marakwet East Sub County. The paper recommends that government needs to ensure that all schools are connected to the national grid of fibre optic cable and electricity

Highlights

Creativity and innovation aspects are becoming essential for the development of the 21st-century knowledge society (Narayanan, 2017)
This paper looks at how teachers are using creativity and innovation in their teaching and its influence on learners’ academic achievement in public primary schools
According to Teachers Service Commission (TSC) teacher performance appraisal and development (TPAD) guidelines (2016), creativity and innovation are one of the areas in which they are assessed on a yearly basis and form the basis for establishing how it affects the performance of learners in schools

Summary

Introduction

Creativity and innovation aspects are becoming essential for the development of the 21st-century knowledge society (Narayanan, 2017). Osati (2019) argued that teachers need to be creative and innovative through the identification of appropriate materials which reinforce content being learnt in classrooms. This is because at times, learning could be complex and when teachers incorporate the aspects of innovation and creativity to stimulate students thinking in the classroom. Through the implementation of creative teaching and learning and innovation in the curriculum, teachers can help learners to develop a skill set that includes ideas generally not fostered within a traditional setting and at the same time can improve their academic performance (Wanjala & Osendo, 2019)

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