INFLUENCE OF SMASSE ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS MATHEMATICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BARINGO COUNTY, KENYA

The study reported in this paper sought to assess whether active learning techniques in mathematics brought about by SMASSE INSET has contributed to, improved students’ attitudes in mathematics. This study was based on the Shepperd’s Expectancy-value Theory, Theory of reasoned action and the Theory of planned behaviour as proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1975 and 1980). The study adopted descriptive survey research design and involved mathematics teachers and students from Baringo North Sub-County. Purposive, proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 325 subjects comprising of 11 heads of department, 42 mathematics teachers and 272 students. Piloting was conducted and the data used to test the reliability and validity of research instruments. Data collected using questionnaires was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics that included frequencies and percentages and the t-test. The results show that there were significant differences in students’ attitude towards mathematics as exhibited by the higher scores of the students taught by teachers who attended the SMASSE INSET and lower scores for those taught by teachers who had not. The use of the active learning techniques had an influence on students’ attitude towards mathematics. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Ministry of Education should formulate policies that will see teachers not only attend SMASSE INSET regularly but also include more robust and active learning measures that can be implemented by the teachers.  Article visualizations

The Tax Reform Experience of Kenya

tax reform, Kenya, inequality, trade

The Schur transform of a generalized Schur function and operator realizations

Het proefschrift van Gerald Wanjala bouwt voort op werk van de wiskundige Issai Schur uit het begin van de vorige eeuw. Destijds vormde dit het beginpunt van een nieuw onderdeel in de wiskunde: de Schur-analyse. Wanjala' s onderzoek is puur theoretisch en puur wiskundig van aard.

(East) African postcolonial ecocriticism: Revisiting Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Prisoner

(East) African postcolonial ecocriticism: Revisiting Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Prisoner This article celebrates Okot p’Bitek’s contribution to East African literature in general and the song school of East Africa in particular, by revisiting one of his less-known works, Song of Prisoner on the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. I subject the text to a close reading in order to demonstrate how p’Bitek uses imagery that is drawn from East Africa’s natural environment in a way that evokes issues that are an assault on the prevailing social and political order in East Africa at the time, in a nuanced manner. With the benefit of hindsight, the paper establishes that p’Bitek’s attempt to preserve his natural environment (that of East Africa) through writing it into his poetry, was a precursor for texts that would later be examined within the framework of the contemporary critical theory of postcolonial ecocriticism, and that using the text, one can narrow the scope furtherin a manner that takes into account the specificities of (East) African environmental literature. In so doing, the paper establishes that p’Bitek indeed highlights social realities through his poetry, in order to launch his attack on the existing neo-colonial capitalistic order prevailing at the historical moment of his writing, thus confirming that he displays a social vision that strives for decolonisation without the exploitative aftermath encapsulating modernity. The paper thus demonstrates how this poem is still relevant as a study to the student of East African literature reading it in the 21st century. Keywords: Song School, East African poetry, Okot P’Bitek, postcolonial ecocriticism

Sullage - irrigated household latrine woodlots

Within two years from August 2001, more than 400 refugee households in each of the three Dadaab Refugee camps, in North Eastern Province of Kenya, will begin to cater for their own wood pole requirements for pit latrine superstructure construction and other shelter – related needs. This will cut down CARE’s latrine materials support to the refugee households by at least USD 5 per latrine per year. This is through the household latrine woodlots initiative which entails planting a woodlot of 20-30 fast growing trees around existing and backfilled family latrines. The trees are irrigated with wastewater (sullage) from the latrine slabs as well as kitchen waste splashing. The idea is attractive because the community is able to participate actively in environmental rehabilitation while gaining woody resources for household needs. Owing to the fact that the region (Dadaab) is semi-arid and has scarce range resources, the initiative will bring about significant positive impacts on the environment

Kenya’s Constituency Development Fund (CDF): Citizens’ Awareness in Kanduyi Constituency of Bungoma County

Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is a strategy that channels resources to community projects proposed by community members. It is a participatory fund and increases citizens’ involvement in the provision of services which empowers them to manage their livelihoods. To determine citizens’ awareness of CDF projects, 35 projects in Kanduyi constituency of Bungoma County in Kenya were studied. Interview schedules for the beneficiaries and PC members were used to collect primary data with 175 beneficiaries and 70 PC members being interviewed. Administrative locations in the constituency were stratified into urban and rural. In each location projects were grouped in categories namely: education, health, water and sanitation, roads and bridges, environment, agriculture and electricity. One project was randomly selected from each location, where five beneficiaries and two Project Committee members were picked randomly for interview. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software. Of the two hundred and forty five respondents interviewed, 175 were beneficiaries of the CDF projects. The level of awareness of the existence of CDF by the respondents was at 97.1%. Of the beneficiaries, 80% were aware of CDF activities in the constituency. Despite the awareness among beneficiaries, only 18% knew the cost of the projects they were involved in. Among committee members, 12.3% were not aware of the cost of the projects, 33.3% did not know the amount dispersed for the projects and 10.6% were not aware of the status of the projects. Despite citizens’ awareness of the existence of CDF activities in the constituency and location, they lacked knowledge on how they can be involved in the activities.  There should be a shift in awareness creation with regard to information about the projects. Awareness campaigns about CDF have borne fruits but there is need for more information to be given to citizens about the costs of the projects and subsequently the amount dispersed at all stages of implementation. This may improve participation and lead to increased citizens’ ownership of projects. Keywords: Awareness, Decentralization and Participatio

Characterization of the Structure and Function of Nucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase 7

Nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphdiesterase (NPP) 7 , also known as alkaline sphingomyelinase (Alk-SMase) is a membrane-anchored ectoenzyme initially discovered in the intestinal tract in 1969. It is the most recently identified NPP isoform.The NPP family of enzymes currently consists of seven members, NPP1-7, numbered according to the order in which they were first associated with the NPP family.NPP enzymes hydrolyze a wide range of substrates. NPP1 and 3 are nucleotide pyrophosphatases that cleave inorganic phosphate from nucleatides and their derivatives. In contrast, NPP2, NPP6 and NPP7 are phosphodiesterases that hydrolyze phosphodiester bonds in lysolipid substrates and their derivatives. NPP4 and NPP5 are yet to characterized in terms of substrate preference and biological function. Numerous lysolipid substrates have been shown to be hydrolyzed by NPP2 and NPP6 but only three main lysolipid substrates have been previously reported for NPP7. One of the goals of this work was to characterize the substrate preference of NPP7 through exhaustive kinetic means. Our results show that NPP7, like NPP2 and NPP6, hydrolyzes numerous choline-containg substrates including glycerolipids, lysophosphatidylcholine, platelet activating factor, lyso platelet activating factor and sphingolipids, sphingomyelin and sphingosylphosphorylcholine. A synthetic small molecule, para-nitrophenyl phosphocholine was also identified as a substrate for NPP7. Most hydrolytic activities of NPP isoforms lead to formation of bioactive lipids that affect numerous physiological and pathological processes. This, coupled with their extracellular activity, makes them attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. A major bottleneck to their utilization is that very little is known about their structure and function. Although NPP enzymes hydrolyze a wide range of substrates and sometimes share a common substrate, they exhibit different substrate preference profiles. The factore influencing these different preferences have not been investigated. Our second goal therefore was to employ computational modeling as a rational tool to guide experimental procedures in exploring NPP7 substrate specificity determinants. Our modeling results suggest a common binding pocket for the different substrate groups and the presence of essential non covalent interactions between the substrates and specific amino acid residues. Like alkaline phosphates, NPP isoforms require divalent metal cations for catalytic activity but it is not clearly known whether the divalent metals play both a function and structural role within the enzyme. Our third goal was therefore to explore the role played by divalent metal cation s in NPP7. Our results indicate that the secondary structure of NPP7 is not altered in the absence or presence of divalent metal cations. However, its catalytic function is eliminated with prolonged exposure to sufficient mounts of metal chelators. The current work significantly advances our understanding of the NPP7 in terms of preferred substrates, the amino acid determinants that underlie these preferences and the role of divalent catalytic site metal ions in the structure and function of the enzyme

Regenerative leadership practices in Kenyan schools

This thesis examines leadership practices in which Kenyan school leaders have engaged to achieve sustainable students’ achievement (SSA). Educational reforms focusing on effective school leadership are of major concern in developing economies seeking to improve their educational systems and enhance educational performance. Kenya, a developing economy, considers education to be a powerful driver of development. One of its immediate education reforms accentuated in Kenya-vision 2030 is the introduction of an expanded institutional leadership framework for the effective delivery and management of education. However, socio-political challenges around educational management have been shown to greatly influence school leadership working environments. Accordingly, school leaders persistently struggle with the problem of fluctuations in students’ achievement and substantial disparities across schools. Reflecting on SDG4, Uwezo-Kenya report contends that learning outcomes are low and extremely inequitably distributed across geographical, socio-economical and school-type levels. While various factors (students, family, schools) inform student achievement trajectories, this thesis principally focuses on analysing how educational leadership, a school-level factor, is emerging in secondary schools in Kenya. The central aim of this research is to illuminate the school leadership contexts in which SSA might occur. To do so, the study adopted a sequential multi-strategy research design, with quantitative analysis of secondary data preceding the qualitative data collection and analysis. The study involved quantitative secondary analysis of students’ achievement data of 300 schools drawn from 3 Counties and qualitative in-depth analysis of data from 9 schools, 9 principals, 92 teachers (holding senior, middle and junior leadership positions), 6 Board of Management and Parents Association chairpersons, 5 Local Education Authority officers. The overall finding is that context is a powerful mechanism influencing leadership practice in Kenyan schools. Existing contextual mechanisms have implications for school leaders’ actions and decisions, which in turn inform teaching and learning activities. Consequently, this thesis argues for regenerative leadership practices as an alternative approach that creates enabling school environments for SSA to occur in challenging contexts, like those faced in Kenya. Regenerative leadership practices that prioritise the building of school system resilience by recreating structures, cultures, capacities, relations and pedagogical practices might circumvent the socio-political challenges and nurture environments that enhance SSA. This thesis contributes to existing knowledge by illuminating the importance of the context in educational leadership. Taking a systems perspective, the thesis demonstrates how socio-political demands inform school leadership actions and decisions, which in turn have indirect implications for teaching and learning activities, as well as SSA. Ultimately, justifying claims that encouraging schools to strive for SSA in Kenya and in other similar challenging contexts is complex and requires a comprehensive understanding of both structures and agency. This serves as a reasonable basis for questioning current assumptions about school leadership, which often partially focus on the principal’s agency while ignoring the wider socio-political environment. Secondly, this provides grounds to criticise the blind adoption of educational leadership models created in response to these assumptions, such as approaches to leadership preparation programmes in developing contexts. In response to these findings, this thesis proposes an alternative multiple level conceptual model of educational leadership that better responds to complex leadership and learning needs in challenging contexts. This model emphasises the reflexivity that school leaders need to manage, change and counter complex and often unpredictable socio-political factors to achieve sustainability