The principal's role in influencing student performance in mathematics: a study of Usigu division secondary schools
Date
2013
Authors
Indira, Othieno Ogonjo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Every country is interested in ensuring that its citizens make a good contribution to its
development. This could be achieved through ensuring good academic performance in
mathematics in learning institutions. Disparities in academic performance continue to be
noticed as one of the many challenges facing education and have raised a lot of concern.
The KCSE results in mathematics have been poor in the recent years and as a result many
students who go through public secondary schools in Usigu division cannot compete
favorably for national opportunities. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of
the school principal in Usigu division in teaching of mathematics in order to improve
student academic performance. To achieve this purpose, the study was guided by the
following objectives: To investigate the principals organisational skills, to identify the
supervisory techniques that the principal uses and to investigate the extent to which
teachers' instructional methods influence students' performance in mathematics in public
secondary schools in Usigu division.
This study was based on Instructional leadership which provides guidance aimed at the
improvement of student learning. Instructional quality is the top priority of the leader.
The principal encourages improvement in his team by defining his objectives, setting
goals, providing resources, evaluating progress and creating learning opportunities. This
type of leadership tends to be collaborative; teachers must cooperate with the leader and
each other to accomplish the leader's goals. The study used descriptive research design
that involved administration of questionnaires and conducting in-depth interviews to a
sample of 43 respondents drawn from a target population of 51. This included 37
mathematics teachers and 8 principals. Since only 8 public secondary schools were
considered for the study, all principals were interviewed while the assistant teachers were
randomly sampled for the study. The data collected was edited, coded and analyzed using
descriptive statistics with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the variables in the
study. The analyzed data was presented in form of simple tables, bar graphs and pie
charts where applicable. Study findings were discussed, conclusions drawn and finally
recommendations made to deal with the challenges revealed by the study. The researcher
found useful findings to the concerned stakeholders.
Description
Keywords
Student performance, Mathematics, Education, Usigu Division, Secondary education, Principal, instructional supervision