Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Role Of Performance Appraisal In Enhancing Teaching And Learning: A Case Of Public Secondary Schools In Kiambu County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to determine the perceptions of teachers about the role of performance appraisal in enhancing teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study was guided by Performance Appraisal Model by Yee and Chen (2009). The objectives of the study were: to establish the nature and types of tools used in teachers’ performance appraisal; to find out how performance appraisal has enhanced teaching and learning; to establish the challenges and issues in teachers’ performance appraisals and to find out teacher characteristics affecting teachers’ performance appraisal, like gender and qualifications. The research adopted a descriptive research design targeting all the 3,457 teachers and 225 headteachers employed by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) in the 225 public secondary schools in Kiambu County. The area DQASO’s and the DEOs were also part of the target population. Cluster sampling was used to select 35 public secondary schools from Kiambu County. Stratified random sampling, was employed to select 10 teachers from each of the sampled schools while purposive sampling was used to select 35 headteachers. Eleven DQASOs and eleven DEOs serving in Kiambu County also took part, yielding a total of 407 participants. Two Questionnaires, one designed for the teachers and another one for headteachers; and interview schedules for the DEOs and DQASOs were used for data collection. Before the actual data collection procedure, a pilot study was conducted in four schools in Kiambu County to test the reliability of the data collection instruments. Data was both qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative data collected was coded and entered into an SPSS programme for analysis. Qualitative data was put under themes consistent with the research objectives. The results of data analysis were presented using frequency distribution tables, bar graphs and pie charts. The study established that the major methods used for appraisal were combination of students’ evaluation, self evaluation or department administrator evaluation. It was established that performance appraisal had positive impacts towards teaching and learning processes in schools and acted as an intervention strategy which benefited both the individual and the school in pursuit of quality education if well implemented. The study also established that most common hindrances to effective performance appraisal were; some teachers viewed the process of performance appraisal as a tool for victimization and intimidation, teachers were not ready to admit their weakness and instead they blame students, school heads had fear of categorizing teachers and students can get biased towards their teacher. The study further established that both male and female teachers’ did not differ significantly in their responses on performance appraisal and there was a significant relationship between teachers’ work experience, academic qualification and teachers’ responses on performance appraisal, at p