Influence of teacher motivation on academic achievement of Secondary school students in Seme sub-county, Kenya.

Abstract

The school performance trend in Seme Sub County over the past three years indicated that the average performance of the students was lower than the expected pass mark of mean grade of 5.5 in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education as compared to other neighboring sub-counties. Low performance of the students prompted the necessity to conduct research on the probable causes of low performance and design the most effective strategies that could enhance performance of the students. The objective of the research was to study how teacher motivation is influencing the academic performance of secondary school students in Seme Sub- County. The study aimed at establishing the influence of; remuneration, professional development; work conditions and job satisfaction of teachers, on the academic achievement of the students. This study was based on Herzberg Two –Factor theory of Hygiene and a conceptual framework showing teacher motivation factors as the independent variables, school administrative support, government support, and teacher characteristics as intervening variables, and student academic achievement was the dependent variable in this study. Descriptive and correlational research designs were used for this study. The population of the study was 35 principals and 525 teachers. Saturated sampling was used to sample 32 principals and simple random sampling was used to select 217 teachers for the study. Twenty-two teachers and 3 principals were selected for the pilot study. Data were collected using interview schedules and questionnaires. Experts in the department of Education Psychology evaluated content validity of the tools. Using test-retest method, a reliability coefficient of 0.81, 0.83, 0.79, and 0.87 was obtained on job satisfaction, working conditions, remuneration and TPD instruments respectively. Analysis of quantitative data was done using Pearson’s r, percentages and frequencies. The qualitative data was reported thematically. Results showed nonsignificant negative associations between job satisfaction and academic achievement of students (r= -0.364, p >0.05); remuneration and academic achievement (r = -0.453, p >0.05), and TPD and student academic achievement (r= -0.273, p >0.05). Working conditions showed a positive relationship with academic achievement (r = 0.624, p < 0.05). The study concluded that only working conditions was positively associated with academic achievement. These results are important to teacher employers in understanding factors affecting teacher motivation which in turn has an influence on the academic achievement of the students. Kenya Education Management Institution can use the study in the identification of the training needs of the teacher and professional development requirements to help in enhancing the performance of the students. The results of this study may encourage Boards of Management of schools to improve working conditions of teachers for better results.