Emelda July Auma Odiembo and Enose M.W. Simatwa
Mathematics is one of the subjects in secondary school curriculum in Kenya that plays an important role in determining students’ choice of most professions. Despite this fact and the fact that all mathematics teachers in Muhoroni Sub County were professionally qualified graduate teachers and experienced, students’ academic achievement in mathematics had remained below a mean score of 6.0 which is the average score in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations. Thus from 2005 to 2009 only one secondary school consistently had a mean score of 7.5 and above. The rest of the secondary schools had consistently mean scores below 4.6 except one school that had a mean score of 5.3 in 2008 and 5.05 in 2009.The study established a positive relationship that was not significant between mathematics teachers’ age and students academic achievement. The coefficient of determination revealed that the four mathematics teachers’ characteristics accounted for 33.3% of variations in students’ academic achievement. Teacher age and gender should be re-examined with a view to establishing ways and means of ensuring that they contributed significantly to students’ academic achievement in mathematics. The findings of this study are useful to school managers, mathematics teachers, Quality Assurance Officers and other stakeholders in diagnosing the shortcomings in teacher characteristics that hinder promotion of student academic achievement
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