The effect of teaching and learning strategies on learners '

In spite of the existence of guidance and counseling services in schools in Siaya County for the management of discipline, in 2012, 32 schools went on the rampage. This scenario was suspected to be occasioned by lack of an effective alternative strategy to contain student indiscipline. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of peer counseling in promoting discipline among students in public secondary schools in Ugunja Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of 3500 students from public secondary schools. The researchers used the Table of Krejcie and Morgan to determine the sample size of 246. Instruments for data collection were questionnaires and interview schedules. Piloting was done in 4 institutions to obtain the instruments reliability. Face validity of the instruments was ascertained by the experts from the Department of Psychology and Educational Foundations. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, and percentages. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study findings indicated that peer counseling has a significant role in promoting discipline among students in public secondary schools. The study recommends that peer counselors should be motivated in order for them to perform optimally.

Guided discovery (GD) method of teaching biology is recommended in secondary schools but many teachers use expositionwith-interaction (EI). GD requires process skills such as experiment design, observation and manipulation of variables to discover answers; whereas EI uses lecturing, asking questions and giving notes to learners to memorize content. These two methods have different outcomes on achievement and therefore there is a need to establish their efficacies. The purpose of the study was to compare the effect of the two methods on learners' achievement in secondary schools. Ex post-facto design was used. Target population consisted of 60 biology teachers and 2,172 form 4 students. The study sampled 42 form 4 (Grade 9) biology teachers purposively and 1502 form 4 students randomly. Three instruments were used to collect data: teacherquestionnaire to find out the extent to which GD and EI were used; Science Teaching Observation Schedule (STOS) to confirm evidence from the questionnaire and biology stake examination trial results to provide scores. Experts in the department were consulted to determine validity. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequency and averages and inferential statistics were done using t-test (p < 0.05). Results indicated that mean achievement of students taught using GD method was higher than that of the EI method. Thus, the use of GD in teaching biology is recommended. The study may be beneficial to educational practitioners, policy makers and researchers to improve performance of learners in biology.

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