Quota Admission Policy and Its Impact on Equitable Access to Quality Secondary School Education in Kakamega County, Kenya

Through its secondary school quota admission policy, the Ministry of Education in Kenya endeavors to ensure equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities by placing students into various categories of secondary schools based on sub county quotas as well as public-private primary schools quotas. The quota admission policy is intended to ensure that students from lower socioeconomic status are given opportunities to attend national and extra county secondary schools. However, every year after the initial placement of students into various categories of secondary schools about 23.01% of students fail to join secondary schools of initial placement but seek transfer to join other schools through a replacement process. In this regard, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of quota admission policy on equitable access to quality secondary school education in Kakamaga County in Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were; (i) to determine the impact of students’ type of primary school attended on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities, (ii) to determine the impact of students’ sub county of residence on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities, (iii) to determine the impact of students’ socioeconomic status on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities. Stratified sampling, proportional sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to arrive at a sample of 280 students from 2 National schools, 480 from 6 Extra County schools, 500 from 7 County schools, and 960 from 30 Sub County secondary schools. The sample also included 45 principals. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data and descriptive statistics used to analyze the collected data. The study findings indicated a higher representation of students who attended private primary schools in the national (63.1%) and extra county (56.5%) secondary schools compared to students who attended public primary schools. The results further indicated that students from upper (57.3%) and middle (50.8%) socioeconomic status were highly represented in the national and extra county secondary schools compared to students from lower socioeconomic status. The study recommends that the government should address factors that impede students who attend public primary schools especially those from lower socioeconomic status to join national and extra county secondary schools. Keywords:quota selection admission policy, equitable access, quality secondary education, socioeconomic status, initial placement, replacement. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-32-07 Publication date: November 30th 2022

Digitized thought records: A practitioner-focused review of cognitive restructuring apps

Mental health (MH) apps can be used as adjunctive tools in traditional face-To-face therapy to help implement components of evidence-based treatments. However, practitioners interested in using MH apps face a variety of challenges, including knowing which apps would be appropriate to use. Although some resources are available to help practitioners identify apps, granular analyses of how faithfully specific clinical skills are represented in apps are lacking. This study aimed to conduct a review and analysis of MH apps containing a core component of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)-cognitive restructuring (CR). A keyword search for apps providing CR functionality on the Apple App and Android Google Play stores yielded 246 apps after removal of duplicates, which was further reduced to 15 apps following verification of a CR component and application of other inclusionary/exclusionary criteria. Apps were coded based on their inclusion of core elements of CR, and general app features including app content, interoperability/data sharing, professional involvement, ethics, and data safeguards. They were also rated on user experience as assessed by the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). Whereas a majority of the CR apps include most core CR elements, they vary considerably with respect to more granular sub-elements of CR (e.g. rating the intensity of emotions), other general app features, and user experience (average MARS = 3.53, range from 2.30 to 4.58). Specific apps that fared best with respect to CR fidelity and user experience dimensions are highlighted, and implications of findings for clinicians, researchers and app developers are discussed. Key learning aims (1) To identify no-cost mobile health apps that practitioners can adopt to facilitate cognitive restructuring. (2) To review how well the core elements of cognitive restructuring are represented in these apps. (3) To characterize these apps with respect to their user experience and additional features. (4) To provide examples of high-quality apps that represent cognitive restructuring with fidelity and facilitate its clinical implementation

Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations With Policy and Practice

Using Bakhtinian concepts of persuasive and authoritative discourse, this study reports on science and English language arts instructional practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. Situated in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and through the use of case study, the study explores classroom discourse data to illustrate how teachers use instructional practices to reproduce, contest, or navigate prevailing institutional monolingual policies when mediating students’ access to literacy and content. By analyzing classroom discourse, the authors argue that restrictive language policies that aspire for fixity disconnect multilingual learners from their daily realities. In contrast, they call for a (re)construction of multilingual pedagogy that capitalizes on the strengths of learners, teachers, and linguistic communities by embracing students’ languages and language varieties in language learning and literacy development. In particular, implications are drawn for the use of EMI for emerging bilingual and multilingual learners. The authors identify the need to prepare teachers for a multilingual reality through legitimizing multilingual pedagogies such as translanguaging

A Multisite Preregistered Paradigmatic Test of the Ego-Depletion Effect

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project (k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result (d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect (d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation

Multilingualism and cognition in the teaching and learning of mathematics in primary schools in Kenya : a pilot study; a research report

Project number related to IDRC support could not be determine

LEVELS OF TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AMONG PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS IN NAIROBI AND KIAMBU COUNTIES, KENYA

Given the importance of teacher beliefs in shaping classroom behavior, this study set out to examine the levels of Teacher-Self-Efficacy among pre-school teachers in Nairobi and Kiambu counties Kenya. It was grounded on the self-efficacy theory by Bandura which focuses on teacher self-beliefs. The study adopted a descriptive survey method for data collection. The target population was 8211 pre-school teachers in Nairobi and Kiambu counties. The sampling frame was the 2751 pre-schools in Nairobi and Kiambu counties which were clustered into sub counties and stratified random sampling was used to get ten sub counties. From each sub county, twenty pre-schools were randomly sampled with proportionate allocation from both public and private pre-schools. From each pre-school, one teacher was randomly sampled for inclusion in the study. Data was collected using a modified Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy in 2001. One hundred and ninety-four pre-school teachers filled a questionnaire which had been piloted on three pre-school teachers not used in the study. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings reveal high self-efficacy levels among pre-school teachers in Nairobi and Kiambu counties. It is envisaged that the findings from this study may inform policy at National Centre for Early Childhood Education (NACECE) and District Centres for Early Childhood Education (DICECE) in order to increase the levels of Teacher Self-Efficacy. The researcher recommends TSE scores should be used as a basis for hiring preschool teachers.  Article visualizations