Family Influence on Students’ Choice of Physics as an Examinable Subject in Secondary Schools in Meru South Sub-County
Kimeli Jepkorir Bornace, Ruth Mutunge Mwanzia
Abstract
The importance of physics cannot be over looked by humanity. The purpose of this study was to establish the
family influence on the choice of Physics subject by students as an examinable subject in secondary schools in
Meru South Sub-County. The study was significant to the curriculum reviewers like Kenyan institute of
curriculum Development (KICD) who could use the results of this study to come up with a more student friendly
curriculum. A number of challenges including school policies were a limitation and that the focus was on form
three students because several factors discussed in this study have influenced them to choose or not to choose
physics faced the study. This limited generalization of the findings to other classes. The study assumed that all
students were taught physics and were given equal chance to choose physics at form three at will and Physics was
taught as a compulsory subject in both form one and two. The study adopted descriptive survey research design
that made use of questionnaires, interviews and observation checklist. The sample size consisted of 209
respondents comprising of 183 students and 26 teachers, from a target population of 610 students and 87 physics
teachers. They were selected through Stratified and simple random sampling method from five area cluster zones;
this formed 30% of the target population. Data was collected using questionnaires for the form three students, an
interview schedule for teachers of Physics and an observation checklist. Data collected was presented in form of
tables, frequencies and percentages. Statistical Package analyzed data for Social Scientists (SPSS).
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