Educating Learners Identified by Teachers as Gifted and Talented in Primary Schools in Wareng District, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
Mary Cheptanui Sambu, Jillo Sharamo Kalla, Sera Wanja Njue
Abstract
Learners who are gifted and talented have extra ordinary abilities and interests that require a differentiated
curriculum. Kenya’s education system does not have a specialized curriculum in schools for them. The main
purpose of the study was to establish which instructional strategies teachers use to educate learners who are
gifted and talented in Primary schools in Wareng district, UasinGishu County, Kenya. Wareng district was
purposively selected for the study because of its good performance in academics and sporting activities. The study
adopted a mixed method approachand a descriptive survey research design.Ten schools werepurposively
sampled using criteria of performance status. Ten headteachers were purposively picked and ninety nine teachers
were selected using simple random sampling technique to get a sample size of one hundred respondents.
Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using interview guides and questionnaires for headteachers and
teachers respectively. Descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme were
used to analyse quantitative data and presented in graphs, pie-charts, frequency tables and percentages while
qualitative data were analysed according to the themes of the study. Both data were then triangulated to draw
conclusions on the findings of the study. The study revealed that majority of teachers were conversant with
various strategies of teaching the gifted and talented learners, however, they preferred using only one strategy
that is, giving extra work, indicating a limitation on teacher’s competence to meet the diverse needs of gifted and
talented learners.
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