Influence of Coaching Teaching Style on Biology Examinations in Public Secondary Schools in Molo Sub-County, Kenya

This study sought to determine the influence of coaching teaching style on students’ achievement in biology examinations in public secondary schools in Molo Sub-County, Kenya. The study was anchored on constructivist theory by Lev Vygotsky and adopted randomized pre-test, post-test with control quasi-experimental design. The target population was 2800 students and 139 biology teachers in 39 public Sub-County secondary schools. A sample of 191 students was purposively selected from the population of form two students from four secondary schools. The schools were randomly assigned into either experimental group or control group with students being in their intact classes. A biology theory assessment test (BTAT), biology practical assessment test (BPAT) and questionnaires were used to collect data from the students. The validity of the instruments was assessed through expert judgment while reliability was examined using the split-half method. The calculated r was .865 for the BTAT and .823 for the BPAT which was reliable. The BTAT and BPAT were given to all students under study before they underwent a six-weeks lesson on the topic Transport in Animals with purpose to establish the students’ baseline knowledge and skills on this topic. The experimental group was taught using Coaching Teaching Style while the control group was taught using the conventional lecture and demonstration methods. The BTAT and BPAT were again given to the students at the end of the six weeks lesson to establish the knowledge gained. Results revealed that students taught using the coaching method had a statistically significant higher mean score in both the BTAT and BPAT than their counterparts taught using the conventional methods. From findings, the study concludes that coaching improves students’ achievement in both theory and practical biology examinations. The study recommends that the teacher service commission should integrate coaching in the teacher professional development modules and hire more biology teachers in order to reduce class size.