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A STUDY OF THE NEW AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM Submmitted in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990 A STUDY OF THE NEW AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 1990 The purposes of this study were to investigate how the new Kenyan agricultural education curriculum was being implemented, factors influencing the implementation process and how the implementation affected students'' achievement in agricultural education. A sample of 53 secondary schools was randomly drawn from a total of 969 schools in two provinces. The sample represented rural and urban schools as well as government maintained, government aided and private schools. An achievement test was developed based on the first two years of the secondary school agriculture curriculum. The test was administered to 3,264 Form III students who were supposed to have covered the Forms I and II parts of the curriculum. One survey instrument was administered to the agriculture teacher and a second instrument was administered to the headmaster/headmistress of each participating school. Results indicated that school location and category had no significant influence on methods used in teaching agriculture or content coverage. More topics were either partially or not covered as instruction progressed. Lack of resources and time limitation were reported as the main reasons for partial or no content coverage. Teacher qualifications, school location and school category were observed to have a significant effect on students' achievement. Content coverage and extent of using objectives in instructional planning had no significant influence on students' achievement. An analysis of 13 selected variables related to school educational environment indicated significant influence of the variables on students' achievement but not on content coverage or extent In conclusion, school location, school category, teacher qualification and availability of books were significant factors related to students' achievement. Second, there was no relationship between instructional planning and curriculum implementation. Third, teachers used more theoretical than practical-oriented teaching methods. Consequently, curriculum implementation did not match the syllabus in both content coverage and development of practical skills in agriculture. Fourth, resources available for teaching agriculture varied in secondary schools and most schools lacked these resources. These conclusions call for increased resources for agriculture teacher education, especially in practical skills. The agriculture curriculum should be reviewed to ensure that it is consistent with available resources and time. These actions need to be accompanied by a Statement of the Problem 7 Purposes and Objectives of the Study 8 Limitations of the Study 12 Definition of Terms 13 The Early Attempts 17 The New Light 20 The Commitment 23 Agriculture and National Development 24 Education and National Development 26 Objectives of Agricultural Education Population and Sampling 35 Instrumentation 41 Administration of the Instruments 49 Variables 51 Differ in the Extent to which they use Agricultural Education Objectives During •^Hypothesis Two: School Location and School Category do not Influence the Methods Used by Agriculture Teachers to Implement Agricultural Education Objectives as Hypothesis Three: Agriculture Teachers do not Differ in the Extent to which they Implement the Agricultural Education-Curriculum 65 Hypothesis Four: Teacher Characteristics, Available Opportunities and Resources do not have an Influence on Curriculum Hypothesis Five: Urban and Rural Secondary Schools do not Differ in their Effectiveness of Implementing the Agricultural Education Curriculum 76 Government Aided and Private Schools do not Differ in their Effectiveness of Implementing Agricultural Education Curriculum 81 Item Characteristics 97 Students' Responses to the Non-achievement Test Suggestions for Further Research 136 Interpretation of Results 138 A Agriculture Syllabus for Kenya Certificate B List of Schools that Participated in the C Research Instrument Set I: Achievement Test D List of the Achievement Test Items and their Questionnaire for Agriculture Teachers 172 Conduct Research from Office of the President 204 I Letter of Authority to Conduct Research Research from Office of the President 208 K Information to National Council of Science and Technology Concerning the Authority to Conduct Research 210 L Letter of Authority to Conduct Research from M Letter of Introduction to headmasters of N A Summary of Professional and Technical Qualifications of Agriculture Teachers Between February and April 1989, in the 53 Secondary Schools Included in the Study 216

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