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Purpose: The study aimed at finding out whether parents play a role in the teaching learning process of pupils in public schools in public primary schools in Laikipia West sub-county. Methodology: A mixed method research design was used where   cross sectional descriptive survey was used on quantitative data and phenomenology was used to complement components of qualitative data. Population of 13 public Primary schools was sampled from the total 65 public Primary Schools in the Sub-County. Out of 2,236, pupils’ in class 6, 7 and 8, 3 girls and 3 boys were selected per class through stratification and simple random method.  Parents/ guardians for the selected pupils were purposively selected regardless of their age, level of education and gender.  All class teachers from the sampled schools were targeted and purposively selected. The data was collected using questionnaires, interview guide, document analysis guide and focus discussion guide. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 was used to analyze quantitative data. Results: The results from the study showed that there is prevalence of parental roles on the pupil’s learning process in Laikipia West Sub- County mainly through attending school functions, assisting with homework, communicating with teachers and their children and provision of learning resources. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The recommendation was that those parents who were not actively involved on pupil’s academic related matters be sensitized on their roles of promoting child education.  The County as well as national governments should support parents by establishing structures and policies that boost the standard of education in the area. According to this study such policies includes; establishing efficient and effective guidance and counseling programs in school, taking legal action on parents who keep their children at home, providing full sponsorship to needy parents and establishing boarding schools among the pastoralists communities.

Purpose: In-service training programmes in educational planning and administration are indispensable for enhancing teachers’ performance. In Uganda, the schools’ administrators and educational policy makers consider investing in in-service training of teachers. The study was purposed to develop workable recommendations, to address the continued poor performance of students in private secondary schools in Kyenjojo District in Western Uganda. The study was guided by four research objective; to find out the types of in-service training programmes provided at St. Joseph’s Hill Secondary School in Kyenjojo district; to determine the contributions of in-service training programmes to teachers’ performance at St. Joseph’s Hill Secondary School in Kyenjojo District; to gauge on how effective the in-service training programmes are promoting effective supervision of students by teachers at St. Joseph’s Hill Secondary School in Kyenjojo District and to find out how teachers’ service delivery affect students’ performance at St. Joseph’s Hill Secondary school in Kyenjojo District. Expectancy theory guided the study.Methodology: The study employed qualitative research method and it was guided by a case study design. The study employed a non-probability sampling procedure. A total of 8 administrators, 26 teachers, 30 students, 1 District Education Officer and 1 District Inspector of Schools were selected. In data collection, the study used Interview guide and Focused Group Discussions for the selected sample. Face to face Interviews were conducted. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively.Results: The findings revealed that in-service training programmes for teachers exist though not consistent but once or twice in a year. The in-service training programmes have contributed to the improvement of teachers’ welfare in regards to acquisition of skills that helped the teachers in teaching. There are different types of in-service programmes offered to teachers. These programmes have contributed to teachers’ performance in the areas of providing exposure to teachers, lesson planning, handling learners, building relations with learners, marking and setting of exams, improvement in time and classroom management, plus inspiring learners to achieve their academic potential and many others.Recommendations: Based on the research findings, the researcher recommends that in-service training providers and school administration put extra efforts on teachers’ supervision.

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The objective of the study was to assess the influence of teacher characteristics on student's academic achievements in physics in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) model schools in Nairobi Metropolitan region, Kenya. The study used convergent parallel mixed method design. The target population comprised 11principals, 60 teachers and 1120 students with a sample size of 368(11 principals, 39 teachers and 318 students). The study was anchored on Brunner theory. Proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling was used to select students while purposive sampling was used to select teachers of physics and principals. Questionnaires, document analysis guide and interview guide were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used to analyze quantitative data. Thematic and content analysis were used for qualitative data analysis. The study found out that teacher characteristics influence student's academic achievements in physics in STEM model schools. Physics performance depended on the teaching approaches and methods used by the teacher, and mastery of physics content and experience. Moreover, teachers' belief in students enable them to work harder, they encourage and motivate students to perform better in case they post poor grades. The study recommends that teachers strive to be passionate in teaching physics, believe in students' abilities to perform better in physics to work harder when they post poor grades in physics and create a friendly classroom learning environment that is favorable for learning to take place. This will ensure that teachers adopt various integrated STEM learning approaches like problem based, project based and inquiry-based learning while teaching.