ACTIVELY ENGAGING STUDENTS AS CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: RESULTS FROM A STUDY OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SIAYA COUNTY, KENYA

Poor academic performance is a persistent problem in the education sector in Kenya and many countries around the world. Despite quality education being a global education goal, millions of children and adolescents attending school do not achieve minimum proficiency levels when they complete their school levels. Siaya County, like most counties in Kenya, has persistent below-average academic performance as indicated by the county’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam mean scores of 4.123, 4.575 and 4.915 out of 12 points for the years 2020 to 2022. Siaya County has one of the highest student-teacher ratios in public secondary schools in Kenya. Available data of student-teacher ratios 40:1, 38:1 and 36:1 for the years 2016, 2019 and 2020 indicate, student-teacher ratio in the county’s public secondary schools is the highest in its Nyanza Region and is above the UNESCO recommended ratio of 25:1. Research has demonstrated that class size has significant influence on senior secondary school’s classroom discipline, engagement and communication. The persistent below-average academic performance calls into question the effectiveness of classroom management, given that the classroom is the primary context for implementing educational programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of actively engaging students as a classroom management practice on academic performance in public secondary schools in Siaya County. Conceptual framework based on the concept of Simonsen et al. (2008) that classroom management founded on evidence-based practices is a critical input for successful teaching and learning was adopted. Descriptive survey and correlational designs were used. The study population comprised 465 English teachers, 635 mathematics teachers, 580 chemistry teachers and 247 deputy principals in 243 public secondary schools in Siaya County. The sample size of 112 schools was decided using a published table of sample size by Glenn Israel (1962). By stratified random sampling based on school ...