EFFECTIVE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION: SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINTS

Central to the entire discipline of education in the digital age are the concepts of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) integration in teaching and learning. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the vital links between ICT-TPD and improved education standards. However, minimum attention has been given to the integrated ICT-TPD programmes that incorporate training opportunities to assist teachers learn how to integrate ICT for teaching based on teachers' immediate professional needs, experiences, and skills considering current improvements in pedagogy. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate secondary schools’ teachers’ perspectives with regards to effective ICT-TPD programmes. Data were collected through interviews of a purposeful selection of sixteen participants who were selected based on their exemplary ICT usage behaviour. Data from the interviews were analysed using the thematic analysis technique to gain in-depth understanding of teachers’ perspectives on the subject under investigation. The analysis revealed five salient components leading to effective ICT-TPD: Teachers as a Community of Professional Practice; Teacher Champions (Mentors/Coaches); Teachers’ Research; Teacher Appraisals (Accreditation); and Cascading good Practice. The findings from this study suggest that teacher’s accounts of appreciation and dissonances with the TPD programmes in the context of integration of technology in teaching mirrored similar issues in literature. However, the findings also revealed some nuanced shifts on teacher perceptions and attitudes to the quality of teacher professional development for ICT integration in classroom teaching. Article visualizations

EXPLORING SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL BELIEFS AND THE INTEGRATION OF ICT IN THE CONTEXT OF A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: A TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL PERSPECTIVE

Information, and communication technologies (ICTs) have become rudimentary in communication and information sharing world over. Even more so for teachers because technologies have the potential to transform their practice and help their students learn. This study extends the technology acceptance model to establish how teachers’ pedagogical beliefs (PB) directly or indirectly influence ICT acceptance among secondary school teachers in Kenya. The research instruments were a survey (n = 234) whose quantitative data were analysed drawing on Ajzen’s (1985) technology acceptance model (TAM) to identify the challenges and the perceptions of challenge for teachers in using technology in the classroom. The findings from this study suggest that teacher’s accounts of appreciation and dissonances with the integration of technology in teaching mirrored similar issues in literature. However, the findings also revealed some nuanced shifts on teacher perceptions and attitudes to technology integration. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, and the development of a new teachers’ technology acceptance model is presented. This study fills the gap in the literature regarding knowledge of technology adoption practice from the points of view of teachers. Article visualizations

Effects of Competition on Performance in Engineering Industry – A Case Study of Holman BrothersEast Africa Limited

This paper is anchored on the study carried out to establish the factors affecting performance – case of Holman Brothers (E.A) Ltd. It investigated several factors like marketing strategy; capital structure; competition; and quality products and services.  This paper however will concentrate on competition as one of the investigated factor. Competition is critical in the market as will involve the evaluation of magnitude of competition in the firm’s industry, both the number of competing firms and their relative strengths in the market place. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design which describes the characteristics of particular individuals and was not restricted to fact finding but results in formulation of important principles of knowledge and solutions to significant problem. The study population included all employees of Holman Brothers (E.A) Ltd working in Head office and its branches, while the target population consisted of 313 employees comprising of 263 males and 50 females, working in 11 different departments. The sample size of 37% constituted 116 respondents. The study adopted questionnaires and interviews as research instruments, which were clear, simple to understand, unbiased and objective. The researcher used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze data.The study found that competitive strategies such as pricing, promotions and innovations determine the companies’ performance in the market. The study recommended that the Government through Ministry of Trade createconducive environment which promotes fair competition among the companies. Key words: Pricing, Promotion, Innovation, Market Performance, Construction Industr

Effects of Reward Strategies on Employee Performance at Kabete Technical Training Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

The main objective this study was to investigate the effects of reward strategies on employee performance at Kabete Technical Training Institute (KTTI). The study was guided by four specific objectives: To determine the extent to which personal drive for achievement influences employee performance at KTTI; to determine how growth opportunities influence employee performance at KTTI; to establish the extent to which recognition influences employee performance at KTTI; to establish the extent to which staff promotion influences employee performance at KTTI. The study reviewed several theories of motivation as possible avenues towards a framework of understanding what motivates employees. It also conducted an empirical literature review in order to establish a link with similar past studies. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 159 respondents from a target population of 270 employees. The study adopted a descriptive research design and utilized both primary and secondary data. Structured and unstructured questionnaires were used to collect primary data while secondary data was collected through document review. Data analysis was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative techniques with the aid of SPSS while the main method of data presentation was frequency distribution, pie charts, graphs and cross tabulation. The study found a significant relationship between the reward strategies and employee work performance. The study concluded that personal need for achievement played a key role in influencing employee performance and given a choice employees showed preference for promotion, better remuneration, cash gifts and training opportunities as reward strategies. The study recommends that KTTI should: Leverage on the intrinsic motivation factors by providing a working environment that encourages employees sense of achievement; develop and maintain a training policy for all categories of employees; establish a criterion for recognizing employee performance to ensure the whole process of reward strategy is deemed fair by all employees; design an attractive scheme of service that will also enhance retention and have a structured method of identifying and recommending teachers for promotion by the Teachers Service Commission; finally, the research study recommends a similar research study on the negative effects of reward strategies to avoid a situation where they can backfire and bring exactly the opposite of the desired behavior. Keywords: Motivation, Reward, Reward Management, KTTI, Reward policies, Performance contract, TVET, Extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards

Influence of Cold Chain Supply Logistics on the Safety of Vaccines. A Case of Pharmaceutical Distributors in Nairobi County

Supply of safe vaccines is very important and appropriate procedures, monitoring and logistics systems need to be put in place to ensure safety. The pharmaceutical supply chain have various global regulatory requirements to be met during transport ,storage, packaging and  handling environmentally sensitive products like biologicals, vaccines and some medicines. This is to ensure that quality and efficacy of cold chain products is not compromised along the supply chain. Global players have regulations and guidelines that address product integrity and safety during the entire supply chain. It was therefore of importance to identify how Pharmaceutical distributors in Nairobi County have developed their cold chain supply systems and how it is able to maintain cold chain for temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals considering the challenges of; Transport systems, storage facilities, packaging, technical capacity, unreliable electricity supply, weak validation systems, probable poor monitoring of cold chain supply systems. The main objective of the study was to establish the influence of supply chain logistics in supply of safe pharmaceutical cold chain products in Pharmaceutical distributor firms in Nairobi County while the specific objectives were to determine how storage conditions in pharmaceutical distributors in Nairobi influences safety of vaccines; to determine the influence of transport systems on the safety of vaccine; to evaluate the influence of Packaging on the safety of vaccines and finally establish the extent to which technical capacity influence safety of Vaccines in pharmaceutical distributors in Nairobi. Descriptive survey design was considered because it is non-experimental and studies the relationship between non-manipulated variables in a natural setting. The study was carried out in five major pharmaceutical firms out of 16 registered cold chain pharmaceutical distributors in Nairobi County. A sample size of 67 participants was selected out of a population of 211 staff from different firms consisting of the automatically included 5 supply chain managers and 62 employees from procurement and stores department. The data was collected by use of self-administered questionnaires to the sampled respondents by a drop and pick method. The questionnaires were coded and data analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V-17).Correlation analysis was done to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables whereby it was found that technical capacity and storage conditions have the greatest relationship and influence to the safety of vaccines. The findings were presented through figures, tables, and graphs. Keywords: Cold chain, logistics, Pharmaceuticals, Safet

Efficacy of antimicrobial activity of garlic extracts on bacterial pathogens commonly found to contaminate meat

Background: Meat is a major source of food and raw materials for a number of industries, yet a lot of meat is wasted each year due to  deterioration as a result of spoilage by microorganisms such as Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Moraxella, Bacillus, Campylobacter,Escherichia, Listeria, Clostridium, Salmonella and Staphylococcus species.Objective: To determine efficacy of antimicrobial activity of garlic extracts on bacterial pathogens commonly found to contaminate meat.Design: A cross sectional study.Setting: The Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Nairobi.Subjects: Garlic from Nganoini farm in Laikipia County, KenyaResults: The results indicated that garlic absolute ethanol extract had the highest efficacy of antimicrobial activity inhibiting all test micro-organisms.Conclusion: Ethanolic extract can be used as a meat preservative or decontaminant

Wiring Kenyan Languages for the Global Virtual Age: An audit of the Human Language Technology Resources

Abstract Whereas we recognize the advancement of computing and internet technologies over the years and its impact in the areas of health, education, government, etc.

Evaluation of the Bacillus cereus Strain 1-p Protease for the Unhairing of Goatskins during Leather Production

The unhairing stage of leather processing is associated with the production of significant amounts of solid and liquid wastes. The use of enzymes to replace the polluting sulphides currently used for unhairing is a viable alternative. Various proteases from different Bacillus cereus strains as well as many other bacterial strains have been used successfully for the unhairing of skins. However, no previous work has assessed the use of the crude alkaline protease extract from Bacillus cereus strain 1-p, a novel Bacillus cereus strain obtained from the shores of Lake Bogoria - a soda lake in Kenya – in the unhairing of goatskins. This study, therefore, evaluates the potential of the protease extract from the Bacillus cereus strain 1-p to unhair goatskins. Optimum variables for unhairing using the protease were investigated. Complete unhairing was achieved within 12 hours at 27°C and pH 12 using the crude enzyme. The period and temperature required for complete unhairing were significantly lower than that of other enzymatic unhairing techniques. Compared to the leather unhaired with sulphide, the leather unhaired with the enzyme did not only show superior organoleptic properties but also recorded comparable or superior physical properties, namely tensile strength (26.94 N/mm2), percentage elongation (76.29%), tear strength (43.59 N/mm), and distension at grain crack and burst (7.9 mm and 8.2 mm respectively). The wastewater from the enzymatic unhairing process recorded a significant reduction in biochemical oxygen demand (78%), chemical oxygen demand (83%), and the wastewater volume (50%) compared to the process that uses sulphide. It was concluded that the use of the crude protease extract from the Bacillus cereus strain 1-p in unhairing goatskins is feasible

Workplace Ergonomics and Employee Performance in Registered Private Security Firms in Kenya

Employee performance in private security firms is Kenya is facing numerous challenges frequently emanation from workplace environment. Therefore, this study sought to assess the effect of workplace ergonomics on workplace ergonomics on employee performance in private security firms in Kenya. The study was anchored on the Two-Factor Theory of Motivation. The study utilized positivism research approach. The study used descriptive and correlation research designs. The study population was 13,484 drawn form the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA) and Protective Security Industry Association (PSIA). The sample size was 180 respondents established by use of Slovin sample size determination formulae. Questionnaires were used as instruments for obtaining the data required. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were enhanced by carrying out a pilot study prior to data collection. The study adopted regression analysis to establish the effect of workplace ergonomics on employee performance in private security firms in Kenya. The study findings indicated that workplace ergonomics had a positive and significant relationship with employee performance in private security firms in Kenya. Therefore, the relationship between workplace ergonomics and employee performance is crucial as it can have far-reaching implications for both employees and organizations. The positive and significant relationship between workplace ergonomics and employee performance suggests that private security firms should consider investing in ergonomic improvements to create a healthier, more productive, and engaged workforce. It can have a cascading effect on various aspects of organizational success. Therefore, the implications of workplace ergonomics on employee performance in private security firms in Kenya are diverse and can positively impact both the physical and psychological well-being of employees. Private security firms need to recognize and invest in ergonomic principles to create a healthier, more productive, and more satisfying work environment. This, in turn, can contribute to the overall success and sustainability of private security firms in Kenya.&nbsp

Sarcoptic mange and cheetah conservation in Masai Mara (Kenya): epidemiological study in a wildlife/livestock system

The sanitary control of threatened wild animals is of pivotal interest for their conservation. This task, however, is highly complex in wildlife/livestock systems. In this paper we report findings from a 2-year cross-sectional study of the epidemiology and attempted control of a Sarcoptes mite infestation in the threatened cheetah population in Masai Mara (Kenya), and discuss its interaction with sympatric wild (lion, wildebeest and Thomson's gazelle) and domestic (dog, cattle and sheep) animals. Sarcoptes scabiei was isolated from cheetahs, Thomson's gazelles, wildebeests, lions, cattle, goats and dogs; Psoroptes ovis, on the other hand, was only isolated from sheep. The prevalence study revealed 12·77% infection rates in cheetahs, 4·7% in dogs, 0·8% in Thomson's gazelles, 0·8% in sheep, 0·09% in cattle, and 0·09% in goats, while it opportunistically affected lions and wildebeest. Our study revealed that prevalence of Sarcoptes mite in cheetah population was not associated with the studied geographical blocks, animal sex or the presence of affected domestic animals. Cheetah infection with S. scabiei was associated with the climatic conditions (dry more than wet season) and the balancing between the total number of Thomson's gazelles and the prevalence of infected individuals. Apparently the high prevalence of mangy gazelles has a negative effect on cheetah; this negative effect was reduced when the number of healthy gazelles was increased. Treatment with injectable ivermectin of the clinically affected wild and domestic animals during the first year of this study was associated with much lower incidence of sarcoptic mange during the second yea