The Relationship between Teacher Perception and Support and Academic Achievement of Slow Learners in Secondary Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya

Wafula N K,Kabuka E K,Bota K N

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.081211

Abstract

Many universities in developing economies are now recognising the role of the university in entrepreneurship education and development of key entrepreneurial skills by students. Consequently many universities in these nations are expanding the curriculum contents of entrepreneurship courses and training to help students develop these key skills. As a student entrepreneur it is important that students are taught the capabilities of instantly thinking outside the box which also involves empathising in order to visualize the various outcomes. Often from these challenges a student entrepreneur can take advantage of opportunities, if they are taught how to engage empathy to clearly see them. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to examine the influence of empathy among university students as a determinant of creation of successful and innovative students' start-ups. The moderating role of experiential learning was also assessed. To achieve this goal, a sample size of 357 students of Covenant University in Nigeria, was used. The data collected were analysed by means of regression analysis and Hayes process macro. The result showed that empathy has positive significant effect on students' start-ups among university students (p < 0.05) and experiential learning moderated the relationship between empathy and students start-ups among university students. Based on the findings the study concluded that university managers and other stakeholders in developing countries may expand entrepreneurship training and education curriculum contents based on the development of empathy as an entrepreneurial skill. The findings also indicated that moderate levels of experiential learning activities are required to achieve best results. Therefore, university managers and other stakeholders may expand the curriculum of entrepreneurship training and education regimes to cover the development of empathy as an entrepreneurial skill. It is important to state that empathy is an entrepreneurial skill that can be developed hence, teaching empathy as a theme targeted at the creation of creative start-ups is considered favourable in this regard.

Highlights

Learning difficulties encompass a wide range of learning problems which include poor concept formation, difficulties in acquisition of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic skills alongside slow learning [1]
The study sought to test the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between teacher perception and support and the academic achievement of slow learners in secondary schools in Kakamega County, Kenya
It is an indication that majority of the slow learners in secondary schools in Kakamega county perceive their respective teachers as supportive and have favourable perception

Summary

Introduction

Learning difficulties encompass a wide range of learning problems which include poor concept formation, difficulties in acquisition of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic skills alongside slow learning [1]. Slow learners have been described as students who learn and acquire skills at a slower rate compared to the average or normal students [1] - [3]. Williamson and Ryan [4] describe slow learners as students who have learning difficulties; implying that they may exhibit poor concept formation, difficulties in reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Slow learners struggle to grasp the curriculum, have mild intellectual disability and generally are below average cognitive abilities and scholastic performance [5] - [8].

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